We MUST Talk Like Humans
Politics Isn't Marketing
Years ago I did focus groups for an eccentric and wealthy Californian. He had a cockamamie idea for a ballot measure and wanted to test it out. Over the course of an evening, 24 individual voters hated the man’s concept on sight. He was so upset that he actually went into the focus group room (a la Jonah Ryan in Veep) to argue with them.
That was insane and not instructive. However, the gentleman had brought along a friend that day. He’d been a marketing executive for a large consumer brand, and like so many senior marketing people, believed he could sell anything, including bad ideas to normal humans.
I asked him if he knew the difference between marketing and politics. He smiled, as if humoring a child and said, “No, why don’t you tell me.”
“You see, marketing says: Buy Colgate. Nine out of 10 dentists agree it’s the best on the market. Try our new licorice flavor!”
“Politics,” I continued, "says: Buy Colgate. Nine out of 10 dentists agree it’s the best. Oh, and have I told you that Crest makes your teeth fall out?”
He nodded, unconvinced. I went back to watching a rich man scream at San Diegans through a two-way mirror.
I experienced the same sensation when I read the following article in The New York Times. “New Democratic Group Says Answer to the Party’s Woes Lies With the States.” I broadly agree with the headline. Then I saw these two quotes and understood too many people still don’t get the source of the Democrats’ problems. Geography is a downstream issue.
The biggest hurdle the donkeys face is a total and complete lack of ideological, philosophical, or political dynamism. Warmed over pablum from the past, Reaganomics by another name, and having “war plans” is fine for donors and junkies. Voters sniff.
You a Marketer, Bro?
Here’s a quote from one of the new group’s founders:
“We do think the brand is toxic and lacks a clear set of values and policy products and communication and distribution capabilities,” Mr. Pritzker said. “The opportunity, to be positive here, is to export the lessons we’ve learned in the states.”
Let’s break this down:
Toxic brand. Check.
Lacks a clear set of values. Check.
Policy products? What is a ‘policy product?’
Lack of communications? Check.
Lack of distribution capabilities. Check.
The hurdles facing the Democratic brand are described as logistical. “Affordability” is an issue, but that’s not how folks who can’t afford the basics of life describe their problems.
They’re also not going to listen to a list of ‘policy products’ as if a door-to-door salesman just showed up offering them a variety of aluminum siding that would make their homes the envy of the street.
Reorder the Issues
Because the Democratic Party (at all levels) lacks a clear set of values…
There are no agreed upon values because no one can agree on what those values are beyond poll-tested, focused-grouped, AI-generated bullshit.
Their brand is toxic.
Not enough voters know, or are willing to listen to their policy prescriptions because of the toxic brand.
There are no viable policy prescriptions because the party lacks a clear set of values.
Democratic politicians, the chief communicators, are beholden to the Hippocratic Oath: “First do no harm.” Sometimes they get lucky. More often, they get ignored.
There are no distribution channels because upstream resources, aka the donor community, aren’t convinced of a long-term need for local and state infrastructure. Even if we had it, what would we be saying?
This next quote, though, wooh…Only a McKinsey-trained hood could have come up with this one:
“But without a clear, unified worldview, these products really struggle to resonate,” he said. “Distribution then falters because surrogates struggle to communicate a cohesive brand and message.”
WTF. Really.
If we were trying to sell washers and dryers this guy would be my first call. Unfortunately, we’re not hocking appliances. We’re selling, at its core, is belief. None of what I’m seeing from Democrats today, national, state, or local, is rooted in the essential idea that we must convince Americans that what we believe in, what we want to do, and how we want to do it will make their lives better and make them feel better about their lives.
The problem, as
wrote yesterday, is not the fault of the voters. Americans - from all walks of life and parts of the country, know their options. Time and again they’ve found Democrats wanting.
Finding the “Joe Rogan of the Left” or spending $20 million to find out how young men talk are marketing slogans at best, and band-aids on bullet wounds at worst. The premises by which too many people who consider themselves leaders, and their intermediaries, the consultant class, think they can win again simply on the back of not being named “Donald Trump.”
This isn’t a strategy. It’s fantasy. The longer we indulge this unreality, the further down the dark path we’ll go.
News and Notes:
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Love this. Never stop with this whole refrain. By the way, I don't know why your common sense here made me think of it--but it also reminds me of the challenge parents are having getting their kids to love reading.
This argument:
A friend recently told me that her child’s middle-school teacher had introduced To Kill a Mockingbird to the class, explaining that they would read it over a number of months—and might not have time to finish it. “How can they not get to the end of To Kill a Mockingbird?” she wondered. I’m right there with her. You can’t teach kids to love reading if you don’t even prioritize making it to a book’s end. The reward comes from the emotional payoff of the story’s climax; kids miss out on this essential feeling if they don’t reach Atticus Finch’s powerful defense of Tom Robinson in the courtroom or never get to solve the mystery of Boo Radley.
Young people should experience the intrinsic pleasure of taking a narrative journey, making an emotional connection with a character (including ones different from themselves), and wondering what will happen next—then finding out. This is the spell that reading casts. And, like with any magician’s trick, picking a story apart and learning how it’s done before you have experienced its wonder risks destroying the magic.
- Katherine Marsh is an Edgar Award–winning author of novels for young readers, most recently The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine, and a former managing editor of The New Republic.
We need to connect before we even discuss policy.