About Rod D. Martin
Praise for Rod D. Martin
Book Rod to Speak
Politics & Economics
Technology & Markets
Faith & Cultureby Monty Warner
April 1, 2011
In 2006, Democrats rode a wave of discontent with the Iraq War and the Bush administration’s Katrina response to a resounding, power-shifting victory. Republicans were demoralized, disorganized and rudderless, and fundraising for many right-leaning causes plummeted.
After four years of Democrat stimulus packages, “green jobs,” nutty cash-for-clunkers proposals, et al, Republicans fell back into the House majority much in the way Jimmy Carter got elected president: through the back door. Meanwhile, Democrats had formed potent fundraising organizations such as the Center for American Progress and MoveOn.org. Despite a wretched political climate for Democrats in 2010, MoveOn managed to raise $30 million online, of which $7.5 million was invested in infrastructure to continue driving the digital liberal agenda. Republicans, clinging to talk radio and consultant-laden efforts in reverence of the lucrative Swift Boat Veterans campaign, had no instinct, ability or desire to match the left’s electronic organizing prowess — until now.
TheVanguard.org, headed by former PayPal senior counsel Rod Martin, is the right’s strategic response to MoveOn and the first effective digital GOP warehouse of and by Silicon Valley. The first thing Martin noted about MoveOn is that it is not a traditional political organization. MoveOn.org is a highly effective, low-cost-per-unit fundraising vehicle intertwined with social media. MoveOn’s platform has far more in common with Twitter, Facebook or PayPal than it does with the NRA. Like its commercial cousins, MoveOn produces transformative results; but with high, up-front, technology-related costs. What passes for a “tech-savvy” conservative non-interactive website can cost $50,000 or even $500,000, but MoveOn’s vastly more sophisticated technical infrastructure has cost well into the millions.
George Soros and his associates allocated a significant portion of the $24 million that they donated to MoveOn.org between 2002 and 2004 to technology. With the shrewd investments that Soros made possible, MoveOn’s membership grew from 500,000 in 2002 to 2.5 million in 2004. They now have 5 million clued-in members. MoveOn, Martin noted, did not waste the Soros funds on inefficient capital expenditures (big new headquarters, huge numbers of TV ads, or any of the short-term activities conservatives reflexively engage in). Mr. Martin regards The Vanguard’s investor’s revenue as venture capital and is working to build an informed, active membership and monetize activists.
Martin’s Vanguard project represents a perfect “merger” of technology, strategy, capital, and ideology. It will, in effect, create an online force that democratizes the GOP and in so doing decentralizes power to millions of anti-statist activists, stripping power from the core bureaucratic structure that has been built up by the Boomer left over many years. This will not only level the political playing field, it will revolutionize political campaigns to the chagrin of D.C. churn-and-burn consultants. This is a good thing.
Republican campaigns have long concentrated political power in a dated, ineffective vacuum that has not served the party’s supporters well. A new organizational voice has emerged, one that hails from outside the Beltway and has a digital core. The vanguard of political technology has a new name and it is Rod Martin. Funders should take notice.
Monty Warner is a Director of the Everglades and Frontier Legal Foundations.
Editor’s Note: This article by Monty Warner first appeared in The Daily Caller. We encourage you to visit the original.
Rod is one of our nation’s leading minds. He’s smart, original, and very committed—a combination that one rarely finds.
Rod Martin and [former Howard Dean campaign manager] Joe Trippi are America’s two foremost experts on online politics.
Rod Martin is a Reaganite-Thatcherite conservative…[and] a man who has spent much of his life ministering to and working for the benefit of others. I know Rod as an advocate for freedom, a leader who understands the real changes we need in Washington, and who has the drive and ability to make those changes happen.
Rod Martin is the kind of dynamic leader who has the knowledge, ability and experience to lead us successfully into the 21st Century. His vision for America is compelling.
Rod Martin literally wrote the book on excellence. Humble yet brilliant, a man of love and compassion, with penetrating clarity he illuminates the world around us, and we are both stirred and enlightened.
Rod Martin is a born leader and an outstanding political mind. Anyone who takes him on is going to have a serious fight on their hands.
Rod Martin is a man of uncommon vision and character. Ever since I first worked alongside Rod in the early days of PayPal, I’ve been struck by his powerful vision for the future. Rod understands the intersection of technology, politics and culture in a way that few others do.
Rod Martin wears with uncommon grace an uncanny ability to link his vigorous faith to the practical challenges of both the business world and the political arena. Yet the respect he shows for others carries a warmth and modesty that are both too rare among those who are strong advocates of feisty positions.
America badly needs more leaders who really get the future. We need more Rod Martins.
Rod Martin is a modern day philosopher-statesman. He is a capitalist intellectual, a conservative iconoclast, a gentle adversary and a kind prophet. He inspires us towards a fresh national vision built upon the original founding principles.
Rod Martin is not only effective and efficient, but he is also perceptive, wise and gracious. He gets things done. He is a great friend and a great ally.
Rod is one of the sharpest, most gracious men I know, and one of the most gifted political thinkers today. His ability to analyze issues and communicate thoughtful insights on them have earned him the respect of people across the political spectrum.
I am proud to have been Rod Martin’s friend for a quarter century, and I can tell you that he is one of the finest men and most outstanding leaders in our church and in our country today. He has a knack for turning everything he touches to success.
Rod Martin is a cornucopian entrepreneur and eutropic thinker whose influence radiates through an array of companies, institutions, movements and churches. A renaissance American, he is also a prolific friend of freedom and faith around the globe.
If Rod Martin represents the next generation of leaders, America has nothing to worry about.
A leader and a servant, in public life and in private, Rod Martin strides at the top of his profession, and has nowhere to go but up. He is in the truest sense of the word ‘outstanding’.
Rod Martin is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished thought leaders today. He is a wonderful mentor, a humble role model, and a deep inspiration for the next generation of scientific innovators and entrepreneurs.
Rod’s achievements pale beside his character and his brilliance. He sees what others can’t. He leads when others won’t.
Rod Martin is one of America’s finest young minds.