Scarier and scarier

A June 23 Wired article: Net-Savvy Campaign Boosts Bush

“They’ve basically taken the idea of a viral, team-led campaign structure, where they find these team leaders, who go recruit friends, neighbors and relatives,” he said. “That gets a much higher response rate. Friend-to-friend is a much more effective solicitation than campaign-to-individual. They’ve also combined it with a Camel Cash approach. It’s a good way to spread the message.”

That’s a quote from a training director at a company affiliated with GOP Team Leader, a web site that allows regular people to win points and prizes for grass-roots campaigning.

To me, it seems manipulative, insulting and degrading. But hey, I suppose I’m the one on the outside, bitterly jealous that I’m not earning points for being another Bushie yes-man [or yes-woman].

To me, though, this is the scary part:

“[The official blog] lets them say, ‘We’re just like Dean.’ But it’s not like Dean at all — there’s no way this campaign will ever let you see inside it.”

In fact, “not like Dean at all” seems to be the most common criticism of the GOP’s online efforts.

“The Bush site is geared entirely toward disseminating information and passing orders to their troops,” said Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, who edits the unmistakably anti-Republican Daily Kos weblog. “Nothing on the Bush site invites people to become partners in the Bush endeavor, nothing asking people for their ideas, or to participate in a discussion, or to self-organize.”

Meaning, it’s nothing like Dean’s campaign. It’s just another shiny, smoke-and-mirrors way for the Bush team to pretend at something other than total domination. *shudders*

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