A lot of Republican donors are idiots. Right now they are licking their wounds. They got played by a bunch of Republican gigolos, largely known as “tech consultants.”It wasn’t just Team Romney and ORCA. It happened across the Republican Party. Millionaires and billionaires shelled out huge sums of money to outside groups that promised the moon and delivered a crater instead. They became sugar daddies and got played. Heck, they didn’t even get a happy ending.Around the country, the rich donors of the GOP fell repeatedly into the exact same trap — they funded people who talked like them, looked like them, and thought like them. The diehard conservative activist on the ground was less likely to get attention than the jet setters and poseurs in that world who “had a plan”.These rich idiots were shown elaborate technological proposals and heard lots of buzz words like “web 2.0” and “app” and “synergy” and “native app with web protocol”. They funded it. The funded marketers, direct mail consultants, and charlatans who learned the sales language of technology, without learning the coding, engineering, and actual technology.In more than one case, groups went to the rich idiots with proposals they largely stole from smaller groups who had invested in the actual coders, database creators, etc., claiming they could do better with more money. They got their funding. They showed no results. In more than one case, some of these groups took credit for doors knocked and volunteers on the ground that they had no responsibility for or control over.Brilliant ad campaigns were funded. Elaborate websites were created. And to what end? A loss.Here’s the simple fact — pretty much every major consultant in the GOP got into technology and the web, learned the buzz words, and went off to the rich idiots for funding. The outside 501(c)(4) groups didn’t want to end up out of money, so they redoubled their efforts and did the same. The donors shelled out. They had no understanding of what they were doing, had no capacity for the metrics to judge success, and would up spending much with nothing to show for it.There is a better way. The rich idiots do not have to be idiots. They do not have to be played for sugar daddies by Republican consultants turned gigolos. The problem is, much of the current consulting class that has turned to tech is a problem. And many of the people out there right now most vocal about how to “fix” things are as much a part of the problem as the other guys.If the wise men who made lots of money by being very smart in business keep going the way they are going, they’ll continue being the rich idiots of the Republican Party who continue to get played by the same guys who talk the talk they are comfortable with, walk the walk they are comfortable with, but actually do not understand and cannot really implement technology as a means to a ground game end.That’s just the truth and yeah, it probably hurts today.————————-Now, for those of you who were had and want to fix things, I suggest you read this post by Aaron Gardner first.After you are done, read this by Drew Ryun.Then read this.So many major organizations burned through and squandered so much money from wealthy donors. Heritage Action for America, the Senate Conservatives Fund, the Club For Growth, American Majority, American Majority Action, and the Madison Project are the handful of organizations I know did not squander and waste money and that I know have had others try to claim these groups success as their own. If you want to invest in winners on the right, this is your list to start with.See also Ending Spending as a great example of what works.