Message!

9:53 pm EST May 12th, 2007 | Democrats | 5 Comments

Democratic pols, consultants, activists, voters – please hammer this bit of information into your brains.

Republicans understand what the philosopher David Hume recognized three centuries ago: that reason is a slave to emotion, not the other way around. With the exception of the Clinton era, Democratic strategists for the last three decades have instead clung tenaciously to the dispassionate view of the mind and to the campaign strategy that logically follows from it, namely one that focuses on facts, figures, policy statements, costs, and benefits, and appeals to intellect and expertise.

In 2002, 2004, and 2006 Democrats have made a habit of throwing out a lot of dates, numbers, etc. and expecting the public to actually put facts together. You got lucky in 2006, and it’s just not a workable strategy. Saying "SEEE????!!!!" is not a substitute for doing the work of getting your message as solid and digestible as possible while aiming for the voter’s gut and not his or her brain.

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5 Responses to “Message!”

  1. fd10801 says:
    May 13, 2007 at 4:13 am

    The problem is like trying to change a zebra into a horse by removing the stripes.

    It is inherent to Democrats / Liberals that they sell rationale, or rationalism.

    What do Carter and Clinton have in common? Yes, they were southern governors, but what else? They didn’t come across as CEO’s…

    Carter said he would never lie [like that meanie before me did]; Clinton said he would care about us [unlike those meanies before him].
    But who’s around who can pull that off now? Former Senator John “my haircuts cost more than you make in a week” Edwards? Sen. Hillary “electing me would practically violate the Constitution because my husband would be back in the White House” Clinton? Or Senator Barack “I’m pretending to be (Jimmy Stewart’s) Mr. Smith, but I come from the crookedest state in the union” Obama?

    As much as they claim to represent the people they really don’t have any men of the people…

    And don’t say the Republicans don’t. They’re not expected to. The democrats have made sure of that.

  2. rmock says:
    May 13, 2007 at 7:54 am

    So what is the beef against,say, Bill Richardson? Experienced, long resume that almost seems tailored for the presidency, lots of positives for this guy. Check him out and let us know if you think he can be the man.

  3. ann says:
    May 13, 2007 at 9:36 am

    Appealing to the shallow side of the American People: While I like and respect Pelosi and Reid, they are not the best spokespeople for Dems. We need one who appeals to the emotional side of people…someone who is NOT softspoken, someone who has a PERSONALITY. If we had someone front and center who could grab the attention and imagination of the sheeple, he/she would do wonders for our positions. Sad comment, but there it is.

  4. Constantine says:
    May 13, 2007 at 9:07 pm

    It is inherent to Democrats / Liberals that they sell rationale, or rationalism.

    True, but until recently, some republican voters could always convince themselves that, deep down, despite the rhetoric, the republicans were going to be rational, as well. That’s gone down the drain when the republicanism became all about the desire to “create our own reality,” open denial about the situation in the middle east, and the fact that they took an explicit anti-science stance on evolution and the climate in order to appeal to their base.

    It’s not so much that the Democrats are the “rational” party. It’s that the Democrats can now run as the party who’s against the anti-science irrationals, the fanatics, the lunatics.

  5. Lib4 says:
    May 14, 2007 at 12:30 am

    It kills me b/c Dems are supposed to be the smart ones, the intellectualls yet the party at large cannot seem to figure out how to use theses smarts to craft an alternative message that resonates with the American people on a basic level