Where are the Republican netroots?

Ant's Eye View ^ | Jason Lefkowitz

[Political Numbers Guy]

September 29, 2003

Where Are The Republican Netroots?

As long as I'm on the subject, I just thought I'd pass along some figures from meetup.com. Figures are aggregates of all registered attendees worldwide for the October Meetup for a given candidate or party. (Figures current as of 11PM EDT, Sep. 29.)

• Dean in 2004: 117,534 members
• Clark in 2004: 31,250
• Kucinich in 2004: 13,300
• Kerry in 2004: 12,563
• Edwards in 2004: 1,332
• Graham in 2004: 731
• Moseley-Braun in 2004: 623
• Gephardt in 2004: 468
• Lieberman in 2004: 318
• Sharpton in 2004: 103
  
• Bush in 2004: 1,189
  
• Democratic Party: 7,100
• Republican Party: 1,565

Take a look at those numbers -- they're pretty striking. Assuming that the overlap between Meetups is marginal (and you'd expect it to be, since people are unlikely to be working for many candidates at the same time), the Democrats have approximately 175,000 people across the country who are coming out to at least one meeting a month to do some work for one candidate or another. (Remarkably, a full 2/3 of those people are going to a Dean Meetup, with the other 9 candidates scratching over the remaining third.)

To meet that 175,000, the Bushies have a little more than 1,000. Now, much of that is due to incumbency -- it's easier to turn people out to Throw The Bums Out than it is to Keep The Bums In -- and the popularity hit Bush has taken as Iraq has failed to wind down as predicted can't have helped matters either. But, I mean, even with all that, you're still talking about the other guys beating you by a factor of 175! That's unheard of. And even when you just look at party-level Meetups, divorced from a particular candidate (which you'd expect to be much closer to each other and less sensitive to the political trend of the moment), you're still looking at a gap of seven to one. Amazing.

To give you some sense of how thin Bush's netroots are, have a look at some other Meetups:

• Join Arnold for Governor: 5,924. California can produce five times as many people for Arnold as America can produce for Bush.
• International Magickal Meetup Day: 1,800. Is there anything more annoying than people who insist on spelling "magic" with a "k"? How about if you're Karl Rove and you notice that there are 700 more of those people than there are supporters of your guy?
• International Chihuahua Lovers Meetup: 1,677. You know anybody who likes Chihuahuas? Me neither. But apparently there are 500 more people who like Chihuahuas than who like Bush.
• International Dumpster Diving Meetup Day: 609. Finally, something people like doing less than talking about George W. Bush!

In all seriousness, though, this points up an incredible disparity. Where are the Republican online activists? I know there are plenty of conservative bloggers out there, but I'm not seeing the same evidence that the GOP has been able to make the connection between online and offline organizing that the Dems have. Am I just missing something, or is it really as bad as it looks?

Posted by Jason Lefkowitz at September 29, 2003 | TrackBack

[The Old Hoosier]

Tom McClintock had more than 14,000 individuals donate small amounts to him, most of them on line. And that's Tom McClintock.

[jmcclain19]

Meetup's #s are grossly inflated.

I'll look back and find some columns on it, But I know a few columnists went to some of Dean's early meetups, and the numbers weren't even a fifth of what they were advertised.

Not to mention that Dean, Kerry, Clark et al have been using those numbers as the defining number of who "supports" them for months, while Bush's campaign is just getting off the ground.

If we want to do a comparison, Bush has 50,459,624 supporters.

[eureka!]

Here's some numbers that matter: over one million NEW donors to GOP

[eureka!]

Oops. Try here:eureka! always check links twice you dolt!

[eddie willers]

Where are the Republican online activists?

Well.....HERE as a matter of fact.

[isom35]

what the hell's a netroot?

[JohnnyZ]

I know I'm signed up with "Sharpton in 2004" but not Bush on MeetUp . . . it's a liberal site, at least in image; what does that moron expect?

[Defender2]

#1. A lot of us are busy on the frontlines fighting the War on Terror(Me included)!!!!

[WOSG]

but this is meetup.com just one site, which I never heard of ... but I've been on and off Free Republic since 1998.

And of course plenty of other web sites/activism places, instapundit, blogs etc.

[dixie sass]

Morning Eddie! You're right they are here and at other conservative sites. What we need to do though is turn out in numbers in our respective communities and make our voices heard that way.

So many people are content to sit and listen to the talking heads and read the articles and type but not ready to get out in the community and make a difference! I know it's hard to get out of that comfy chair and make the effort, but if they don't...

And we don't...

Why then we will have the same problem we've had before - losing the election because we are to lazy to do something about it.

Notice this section is named National/ACTIVISM! Activism isn't staying home and letting the other guy do the job or rather thinking the other guy is doing the job, then after the elections scratching our heads and wondering why we lost! It's educating the public to what is going on in the world and particularly this Country - how it impacts them on a daily basis!

[dixie sass]

THAT is what loses us elections. You start by educating yourself, your family and like the ripples it spreads - you have evenings, you have vacation time, weekends, etc.

If you or others were truly committed, you would make time instead of find excuses and blaming the otherside for winning.

[finnman69]

If you actually go check out Dena's deanlink.com site, the members, even in mega liberal places like NYC is nowhere near the numbers they are claiming.

[finnman69]

http://www.polipundit.com/2003_09_28_polipundit_archive.html#106509868536811974
Fundraising

As you've probably heard, the fundraising numbers for the July-September quarter are out. As expected, Howard Dean and George W. Bush are the big winners. Bush's fundraising dwarfs everyone else's. The president raised at least an unprecedented $50 million in the quarter, while Dean beat Bill Clinton's Democratic fundraising record of $10.3 million by raising about $15 million. No other Democrat in the field managed to raise more than about $5 million.

More impressive, though, is the number of small donors who've been giving to the GOP:
Republicans have attracted more than 1 million new donors since President Bush was inaugurated — more than during all eight years of the Reagan presidency, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie said yesterday.

...

Mr. Gillespie said the new-donor achievement suggests that Mr. Bush and his policies resonate with millions of ordinary people whose average first-time donation is less than $30.

...

The previous record of 853,595 new contributors was set over the eight-year span of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

[Coop]

A lot of us are busy on the frontlines fighting the War on Terror(Me included)!!!!

And God bless you for your efforts! Stay safe.

[Constantine XIII]

Pretty much any FReep meet can be considered Bush meetings. Since those numbers aren't included, we can only guess at what else was left out.

Remember the wisdom of Mark Twain. :p

[Criminal Number 18F]

Gee, Jason Lefkowitz has made the breakthrough discovery that way more liberals go to a liberal political site... and others don't want to get involved in something that has been promoted as a part of the Dean (far left end of the Dems) site.

< Bugs Voice>What a idjit! What a ultramaroon!< /Bugs>

In one shot he disproves this interesting thesis. And that's all I got to say about that.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Gopher Broke]

Most Republicans have better things to do than subscribe to a site that sends regular email and proposes weekly meetings...we WORK for a living.

Also, many of us are already members of a long-time MEETUP...the local, state and National Republican Party.

I agree with a previous poster...the meetup numbers are inflated with the same liberal wackos signing up for ALL OF THEM just to inflate the number and attract media attention.

As for Conservatives, my advice is DONATE to the Republican Party, volunteer to work polls, phonebanks and lit drops. Register to vote, register your friends and call them and get them to the polls on election day.

In VA where I live, we have an election THIS YEAR...but for states without 2003 elections, get a Bush bumper sticker on your car NOW....and put Bush Yard signs in your yard as we get closer to the 2004 election.

[StockAyatollah]

Us conservatives generally have jobs and other things better to do with our time than going around to meet-ups.

Exactly. And many of the worthless, ignorant leftie-protestors not only do not have jobs, but they are living off our money by getting SS-disability checks for bogus "disabilities" like addiction, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, etc..