St. PAUL, Minn. (UWIRE) — As tens of thousands of Republicans descend on St. Paul and Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention, before them lies a week of speeches, lavish corporate parties, star-studded panels and otherwise nonstop revelry.
But as these loyal Republicans celebrate all that is great about their beloved Party, they will also get a first-hand glimpse of the new divide growing within the Grand Ole Party.
On the one hand, there is the familiar old guard — the "country club" Republicans, clad in blue blazers, khaki pants and tasseled loafers, small golden elephants pinned to their lapels. These are the Party faithfuls who once dominated the ranks of the Republican Party.
Now, however, with the Bush Administration headed for the exits, a new, youth-driven GOP is poised to take control of the ailing Republican brand — a brand Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) bemoaned was “in the trash can” — and hopes to remake it to tackle the issues facing young Americans.

Upgrading the party of dial-up

Soren Dayton, co-founder of the popular blog The Next Right, is a driving force within this resurgent Republican movement.
Dayton, along with fellow bloggers Jon Henke and Patrick Ruffini, created The Next Right because of his dissatisfaction with the conservative media and what he calls its lack of real reporting.
"The conservative media for a variety of reasons is focused on opinions more than facts," Dayton explained. "And what I mean by that is the people that head the conservative magazines and stuff like that are opinion writers."
The goal of The Next Right, he continued, is to provide that in-depth research and factual information for conservatives, with the hope that they will "convert facts into activism and what people should do in the world."
Dayton also believes the GOP as a whole needs to be brought up to speed in the new technologies used in political organizing — an upgrade he said is clearest seen on many college campuses across the country.
At the same time, though, Dayton doesn't want the GOP's tech-savvy youth core to lose the old guard's ability to harness its energy to win political elections small and large.
Dayton sees The Next Right as a balancing force between these two priorities.
He said that what the Republican Party needs is an information exchange between the election-savvy upper rungs of the GOP leadership and cutting-edge grassroots organizers — and he hopes The Next Right can be the forum or site of that exchange.
"The technology needs to go up into the Party apparatus, and at the same time we need to learn down how to put priorities on winning elections," he said.