Here's some more thinking on how Trump (with Bannon's help) could (~will) use social networking to turn the populist insurgency that got them into the White House into a dynamic (or extremely dangerous, depending on your perspective) political force.
- A transition to a networked political party is likely to happen first in populist movements like Trump's. The rest of the political spectrum will follow quickly thereafter.
- Within a handful of years after its emergence, all political parties will be networked parties.
- These networked parties will all feature direct democracy via smartphone voting. This will make it possible for party members to decide how their political representatives vote. Is this potentially dangerous? Sure. However, direct democracy is one of the few ways to rapidly rebuild the legitimacy of a system that has lost it.
- Trump has a significant first mover advantage. He is one of the few politicians/parties able to tie party votes on the network to real world decisions at the highest level.
- The "Trump party app" will only work if it is limited to Trump supporters. Only Trump supporters can use the app to vote on important political decisions that Trump makes in the White House.