Lisa Falkenberg checks in on the Harris County Republican Party’s efforts to bring social media skillz to their masses. It’s easy to make fun of them for this – okay, it’s easy to make fun of them in general – but I figure that theirs is a party that needs to enter the 21st century on many things, so any step in that direction is a good thing. That being said, I think they’ve got bigger issues to deal with than just a lack of Facebook savvy, as highlighted in this bit at the end of Falkenberg’s piece:
Eighty-year-old Ruth Hasty of Spring Branch got the message loud and clear. She came for education and got it.
“I’ve heard of Facebook. I get these messages and I would like to know what it’s all about,” she said. “I probably will sign up. I think it’s a pretty good venue.”
Jack O’Connor, 61, of Houston, agreed, saying if Obama can e-mail people from Europe during the campaign, Republicans can organize over Facebook, although he acknowledges the age obstacle.
“As you can see, there’s not many people under 40 here,” he says. “I think this is re-enfranchising people who are over 40. And I think that’s good. Let’s wake up.”
The thing is, old people – and as someone on the wrong side of 40, that includes me – already vote. They turned out in force last year, in fact, for all of the good it did the local GOP. Now maybe the Harris County codger contingent lagged the rest of the state, or maybe the increase in older voters here was driven more by minority turnout than elsewhere, I don’t know. What I’m saying is that I don’t think the marginal gains to be had by energizing older voters are all that great, and even if they are, I’ll take the Democrats’ appeal to the under-40 crowd over it any day. When it’s the kids that are doing it in the Facebook with the Twittering for the local GOP, that’s when I’ll take notice.
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