I see it all the time and I constantly ask the same thing myself, “Why in (insert your preferred deity here) name would anyone vote Republican? Why would they vote for Trump? What the hell is wrong with these people?”
Marketing, that’s all it is at it’s core. For some reason Dems/liberals/people with common bloody sense have been unable to figure out how to
1. Amass massive amounts of radio/TV/Newspaper outlets. (Where are all the rich liberals anyway? There has to be some, why aren’t they out Murdoching Murdoch?)
2. Learn even the most basic marketing skills. Bernie’s independently made infomercials were some of the most moving and well constructed things I’ve seen outside of Budweiser Superbowl commericals (and we all know we wait the entire year to see what Budweiser comes up with next), and many of Bernie’s ads were done by volunteers, not "political professionals.”
3. Realize that large amounts of people are not motivated by policy wonks, by in depth policy discussions, nor are they motivated by political minutiae of who did what to whom and why. Large amounts of people are motivated by a few things, fear, outrage, appeals to inner humanity, tribalism, I am better than they are ism, envy or the idea that getting this product or voting for this person will make me feel better in some way or other.
Democrats have consistently sucked at this, Obama was a policy wonk with massive charisma who knew how to motivate people. He did it by appealing to the ideals of hope and change. Trump is an asshole with massive charisma (in his own way) that motivates people with rage, change and we are better than them.
Bush didn’t motivate people, but he did exude a “Hey we’re all just folks so you can trust me” vibe and Clinton was so smooth he literally could get away with adultery and word playing his way out of it on in real time because he pretty much oozed charm.
All of these people, and even going back to Reagan, the first President I remember, all these people had a catch phrase, a message and charisma. Reagan was, well Reagan, he made you feel better with Morning in America and smiling happily away while wrecking the economy. Bush Sr, knew people hated paying taxes, “No New Taxes!” As soon as he said that, voters didn’t give a shit about anything else.
Bush Jr won mainly because Kerry, like Clinton, is incredibly smart, but has moderate to low charisma and had no real tag line or message. In this country, if you can’t mask your overwhelming intelligence behind some form of charisma or some unique thing that takes the attention away from how smart you are, people won’t vote for you, and many won’t even like you.
Democrats are the “big tent party” and one would think that is an advantage, but it often isn’t because we have so many competing markets. We have POC, women, environmentalists, socialists, millenials, baby boomers, people who want to save everything under the sun and all of which think their target niche is the only one that matters. We have a million single issue voters but no defining issue to tie us all together. Wheras Republicans are pretty cut and dried, gut abortion, hate gays and POC, fuck helping others and just make sure we keep our guns. There you go, the Republican platform in a nutshell, and their politicians faithfully keep to it year in and year out. To the point of rabid fanaticism above all else actually. Why is that? Because they know, straight up know, that those issues are what their target market desires and cares about and will happily have their lives destroyed for. See Kansas.
So, Dems are already coming from behind when it comes to marketing, but in today’s multifaceted media set up, we can use that to our advantage. How? Like this.
We can algorithm the crap out of our ads, and not just during election time, but starting now, right this second. Make a whole series of moving and slightly educational ads about the environment, contrasting things like “Would you rather have dirty water?” Show polluted water “Or clean water?” Show sparkling clear water. Then state, “We need to protect our water, and you can help. Click for more information.” Then the link can take them to either a person that is running for Dem office and is committed to environmentalism, or a site set up to teach people about how regulations are beneficial etc. Click bait is the name of the game, as Trump’s fake news generators have shown, so we need to step up our game.
Want to talk about things like gerrymandering? We can do that too. “It’s not right to stack the deck in poker, or bring in a ringer in a match. Then how can it be right to stack the deck in an election?” Or something along that line and once again, send them to a site that talks about gerrymandering, what it is and why it’s a problem.
Infrastructure spending, that should be cake. Run an ad that’s set up like this. Picture of a cramped airplane with the list of fees for bags, “Why travel like this,” then switch to much comfier high speed rail train. “When you can travel like this? All of Europe travels like this, why don’t we? We can, if we only invested in it.”
Etc Etc Etc for all of the goals and targets we should have as a Dem party. Hit the TVs, FB, Twitter,you tube etc etc with these ads and all of those ideas, like the messages of hate and division that the Right Wing has been broadcasting for years, will slowly sink into the societal synapse. Then, and only then, will you get people coming out to vote for us, and not them. Until such time as people fully understand, in sound bite and visually stunning ways, what the difference is between Reps and Dems, we will keep losing election after election, because we are constantly fighting a rearguard action every four years.
The other most important thing we need to do is get our politicians that do do the right thing out in front, loud and proud, talking about what they have done to help others, why it matters and why things are not working. People love drama and conflict, look how well shows like West Wing and House of Cards did. We just elected a reality TV star as President. Make the real people in Washington come out and smack reality right down on the voters. People say politics is a bloodsport, time for us to stop bleeding.
We either change the game or keep losing it.