Marketing and sales are two endeavors which are eternally intertwined. Each requires the ability to effectively communicate and both rely on amicable relations with clientele to achieve a desired purpose, that being the sale of a product whether it be a tangible item, a service or an idea contained in either a tacit or actual contract. The path to the results they seek is made less difficult if the product or service being marketed is of a high enough quality to sell itself. This often constitutes an ideal transaction of being a win-win result for both buyer and seller. In the marketplace of political candidates and the ideas they have to sell, the bar for a win-win seems to be getting set perpetually higher.
Make no mistake about it, marketing a politician and/or a political agenda to a majority of voters qualifies as the ultimate challenge in sales. It rates right up there with religious proselytizing missionary work. Politics regardless of how closely it may be studied is at best an inexact science. The American political process is the oldest institution of its kind going and from its outset the more successful navigators of it have catered to the least knowledgeable voters by way of short and clearly understood messages which could be easily repeated even in times where the messengers had little if anything to message about. It is hard to say what will motivate anyone to vote for a candidate or policy beyond personal appearance and demographics, history and/or past performance. In the public political marketplace of ideas, a performance artist with an electrifying charismatic persona can deliver an empty bill o’ goods using smoke, mirrors and often made up nonsense to outperform a lackluster boring character despite the latter having superior qualifications and accomplishments and a wonderful future package of plans if a message falls short of its intended target audience.
Once upon a time in America, licensed broadcasters of both high profile notoriety and those not so much did not have the right to spew onto the airwaves anything the spirit or their ideologic higher-ups moved them to say with impunity under the banner of free speech. Back in the days of The Fairness Doctrine (1949 until 1987), those desiring to air controversial or extreme viewpoints were mandated by policy of the Federal Communications Commission to give the other side of the argument in question a fair representation within the broadcast forum. Shortly after its abolition in 1987, Conservative Talk Radio became a mainstay of most AM airwaves.
Given that news sources considered “mainstream media” by broadcasters and pundits on the right who did not appreciate that their non-conservative counterparts did not cheerlead or elevate the non-progressive side of any given story or topic, especially if the facts did not paint the right’s viewpoint in a positive light, those sources were often openly discredited as having a decided Liberal bias. With the rise of Conservative television, online broadcasting and social media, a frequently used tactic was to simply dial up the volume of whatever message. In the public square of Presidential debates this tactic served the Republican candidate well in 2000, 2004 and 2016. A significant contributing factor to electing/reelecting the Republican those years was the abject failure of the Democratic Party to formulate and convey a viable and coherent message that appealed to enough voters to matter. Even in the years the Democratic candidate prevailed in the General Election it was more due to the circumstances in the nation (a crashed stock market and pending depression in 2008 and a mismanaged pandemic that led to 600K dead Americans by Election Day in 2020) rather than anything any candidate or candidate’s media machine spewed onto the airwaves. If a message is able to transcend its initial emotional impact and appeal to a sense of reason, it may be far less likely to be dismissed as rhetoric. This is especially true if the one receiving it can relate to it on an intense and personal level.
In the marketplace of political ideas, an audience accepts a message easier if they have been well groomed by being repeatedly told and convinced over and over that they need something or someone to protect them from something or someone bad. This is where Conservative mass media successfully played the long game strategy quite well. The rightwing spin machine has honed its ability over the last three and a half decades and has demonstrated no problem inventing things within the confines of their insulated echo chamber for their 15-20 million member listener/viewer base to be frightened of, upset by and outright pissed off about. It seems however the current crop of Conservative grievances revolve around a limited selection of extremely petty to marginally snivel-worthy items such as “woke”ism (“woke” being an adjective nobody intending its use as a pejorative term can ever seem to define), critical race theory (an academic field that rarely if ever finds its way out of upper level college classrooms), transgenderism (a personal issue that concerns but a tiny minority of the overall population), government handouts to Welfare queens and catering to the migrant hoards storming the southern border to come and take their jobs. All those, and I haven’t even mentioned the Deep State, the weaponized Department of Justice, Black Lives Matter, drag queens reading story books to children, the marauding baby-killing outfit known as Planned Parenthood or that genuine bogeyman of an organization ANTIFA (which in reality does not exist)!
The greatest casualty of the absence of the previously discussed Fairness Doctrine is the truth. It is too often contorted and distorted beyond all recognition if not outright totally ignored usually by those with a vested interest in a specific version of it. In spite of this and despite its litany of internal issues, the Democratic Party has before it a legitimate embarrassment of riches in facts and demonstrable reality when it comes to the arsenal of issues at their disposal for use against their chief nemesis. It is mindboggling to say the least that the age issue is being used so effectively against the incumbent President in spite of the fact that the leading candidate for the nomination to oppose him in 2024 is a mere three years his junior and facing some 91 criminal indictments. Unemployment is at a 50+ year low, economic expansion continues to grow with continuing positive job growth and the stock market is remaining steady with modest gains since 2021. Because inflation generated by pandemic with consequently high food, gas and other commodity prices, all this is not enough to keep even some disgruntled Democratic naysayers from jumping onto the “we need someone else in ’24” bandwagon. Not even other very real and positive accomplishments insulate the incumbent President from criticism. Things like lowering drug prices for seniors, addressing infrastructure needs and a growing list of other items, it appears that a bird in the hand is not sufficient to please enough voters to matter, at least at this time. It may in the end come down to things far out of the control of the Executive branch. There are strong indications that Democrats are riding a sustained wave of success by labeling their opponents as the “Forced Birth” candidate and the Pro-Life lobby has yet to find any effective countermeasure. The overturning of Roe is most certainly fair game and may relegate the GOP to also-ran status for the foreseeable future, but we can only hope. If all actual and potential weapons in the DNC messaging arsenal are not fully utilized to maximum extent to label, distort, ridicule and honestly expose the GOP for the self-serving mob sporting a dearth of fresh ideas that they really and truly are in 2023, then someone should be sued for messaging malpractice!
Also bear in mind that there is a huge swath of the current Republican Party who remain undaunted by the fact that over 700 years of prison time has been awarded to those who participated in the criminal insurrection at the Nation’s Capitol on January 6th, 2021. It is excruciating to watch America have to stand or fall based on who can sell and who is willing to buy the biggest pile of crap in the history of the Republic because there is no constitutional check on criminal candidacy. On the other hand, if the consequences of failed messaging were not so brutally final, the whole miserable practice would be laughable!
Thank you for reading.
Tippy-the-Canoe & Drown Donald, Too! 😉