They Think You're Stupid by Herman Cain

Author:Herman Cain [Cain, Herman]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Stroud & Hall Publishers
Published: 2011-10-02T19:01:19+00:00

Perception Is Reality, but Reality Matters

If the Republicans solve their brand identity problem, they will have an expanded voter base for decades. This will not be accomplished by simply loudly criticizing the Democrats during election time; it will require a deliberate plan between elections to inform and inspire voters.

Since the Contract with America stalled after Newt Gingrich left Congress, the Republicans have fallen back into the often used Democratic techniques of negative rhetoric and blame of the other party to win elections and to explain their policy agendas to voters. Republicans were put on the defensive by the Democrats most of the time. This contributed to gridlock in Congress and an expansion of the great divides and helped produce the close presidential elections of 2000 and 2004.

I understand that running a campaign is different in many ways from running a business. But political parties, like businesses, will never grow their voter base by promoting their product only to repeat customers and by constantly criticizing their competition. Businesses rely on their loyal repeat customers to keep the business going but are engaged every day in a battle to expand their customer base and show their competitors' customers why their product is better.

There is at least one big similarity between running a campaign and running a business. It's the thought, care, and attention that go into developing the message for the media campaign. For federal elections, this is critical and expensive. But not nearly enough attention and resources are expended between elections. Political campaigns are often focused primarily on securing the base and generating support for a candidate by telling the base all the reasons not to vote for the competing candidate. Businesses are focused primarily on spreading the positive news about their product or service. This in turn helps build a positive brand identity.

Millions of advertising dollars are spent by political campaigns each election cycle to portray competing candidates as the worst people on Earth, barely deserving of oxygen, let alone your vote. Truth is often the first casualty of an intense, negative campaign war, which leaves all but the dedicated base of political activists and observers confused and uninspired to vote.

The next casualties of an intense, negative campaign are the issues and, worse yet, the solutions a candidate proposes. Many candidates spend too little time discussing the issues and solutions to problems. Voters do not want to hear only how bad things are. They already know that. They want to hear credible hope that things can be better. Voters have always been inspired by hope, and they always will be.

Republicans also damage their brand identity when they repeatedly attack the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates. They are in effect attacking the party where many of the politically homeless once belonged. Many of the politically homeless have their political roots in the Democratic Party, and may still have family members who consider themselves Democrats. The politically homeless view attacks on the Democratic Party as an attack on some of the ideas they once supported.

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