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Can Political Parties Survive The Social Media Age? #SXSW

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Editor’s Note: Charlie Warzel is a Staff Writer for InTheCapital, a Streetwise Media Property covering SXSW. Follow him on twitter at @cwarzel

So far one of our favorite panels here at SXSW has been today’s, “How Social Media Imperils Political Parties” panel with some serious DC stalwarts, including two amazing entrepreneurs with DC-based startups. Joining the New York Time Magazine’s Matt Bai were Mark McKinnon of Hill + Knowlton Strategies, Joe Trippi of Trippi & Associates, Nathan Daschle of Ruck.us, and Marci Harris of POPVox.

The conversation veered in many directions tackling issues like how parties can adapt, how harmful social media actually is, and how the political environment is changing. The short answer: Political parties are losing steam fast and may find themselves arguing their way to their own irrelevance. The proof: of the panelists, only one (Trippi) is registered to this party. And all of them (excluding Bai) have worked heavily in politics and government.

After the panel, we caught up with a few of the panelists and asked them the same question, ‘We’re going to see a generational transformation where more tech savvy people will be entering politics and important roles in government. Do you think this can save political parties?’ Here’s what they told us.

Nathan Daschle of DC-based political startup, Ruck.us:

“You can save these political parties, but I guess it depends on what saving means and they wont ask of from the voters. Depending on what you ask from voters you have to give something in return. I think if they allow for flexibility and for individuals to have a voice inside the party they could continue to exist. Right now there is just no tolerance for that kind of thing.”

Matt Bai of the New York Times Magazine:

“In some form, but not essentially the way there were. The generational impulse is so anti-institutional…its much more of a free agent mentality. i think the trend of independence is real and doesn’t reflect a political view as much as a cultural view. I think they don’t want to be locked into an institution. Obama is a great example of this…i’ve described it as ‘he’s trying to remodel the house but his in laws still live in the back bedroom. Its been so weird for him to interact with the congressional leadership which is all a decade older than him. Obama was right on the cusp of that generation that almost grew up digitally and I think that he really existed as a personal vehicle more than a party vehicle. i think that’s the generational transformation that will have the most high impact. I don’t think the idea of a party can survive quite the way it has for other generations.”

Joe Trippi, Founder & President, Joe Trippi & Associates:

“They’re probably going to go dead. It’s like I said you had ABC, CBS, & NBC, and no cable. You used to have Coke, Pepsi and 7-Up. Period. There’s only one reason for hundreds of years that your political choice has been limited, it is because the power structure in the country wants to keep it that way. They’re loosing their ability to do that and who knows, it might be a dystopia, but its happening.”

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/03/12/can-political-parties-survive-the-social-media...