After getting their asses handed to them on Nov. 4, the Republicans have done a little soul-searching and they’ve realized that if they ever want to win a national election again, they’re going to have to figure out this thing we call the Internets.

WaPo reporter Jose Antonio Vargas writes about the fledgling movement in “Republicans seek to fix short-sightedness.” Meet the Republican answer to the overwhelmingly progressive blogosphere: RebuildtheParty.com.

One of the founders of this so-called “rightsroots” told Vargas: “The Republican Party cannot reboot if it’s viewed only as a party of old, crusty white guys.” As if a marketing makeover will change the fact that the Republican Party is run by a bunch of old, crusty white guys.

But let’s give these rightrooters a chance. I’m a big believer in a two or three (four, five, six, etc.) party system and would love to see some rational, intelligent conservatives and moderates wrest control of the GOP from the neocons and rabid religious zealots.

RebuildtheParty’s 10-point plan is actually thoughtful, introspective and mostly on-target, if not a replication of the successful Internet machine that powered Barack Obama to victory. Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.

The problem with all this, of course, is the plan can go nowhere if the GOP can’t decide what it wants to be. Will they make themselves into the party of Bobby Jindal or the party of Sarah Palin? Will they be swayed by the reasoned eloquence of George Will or whipped into a hateful frenzy by Rush Limbaugh? Will a vocal minority of right-to-lifers continue to set the party’s agenda?

Another problem is that the Internet culture that the rightrooters are hoping to embrace and make sweet passionate love to is inherently tilted towards us progressives. The very definition of a conservative – “disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change” – implies that the rightrooters have quite a battle ahead of them.

There’s a reason that many — not all — of your techie entrepreneurs back progressive causes. There’s a reason the majority of Hollywood’s star power lined up behind Obama. Open-mindedness, a willingness to accept change, rebellion against rigid structure, a hunger for new ideas, an acceptance of diversity – these are the traits that bind progressive politics and the creative forces behind the Internet revolution.

These are also the traits that are in short supply among the neocons and demagogues whom the more moderate Republicans and fiscal conservatives must rally if they want to reproduce Obama’s Web uprising. Will it happen? Eventually, as the Internet and today’s social media networking becomes the norm for the majority of Americans.

Will it happen in four years? I don’t think so.

In the end, I think the ideological battle for the soul of the Republican party is a much bigger hurdle than the the technological one.