Republican’s need to repackage their message to broaden their appeal
Talking about his new book “Armey’s Axioms” former house leader Richard Armey discussed a problem his wife perceived with the Republican Party’s image. She observed that while the Democrats were “partying with movie stars” the Republicans are “partying with CPAs.” Another similar belief is that America views the Republicans as the “Daddy Party” and the Democrats as the “Mommy Party.” People don’t affectionately tattoo “Dad” on their biceps, and yell “Hi Dad” every time a television camera turns on them. Let’s face it; the Republicans have an image problem. Playing the saxophone on Arsenio wearing Wayfarer sunglasses is far more sexy then discussing the benefits of supply side over demand side economics to anyone but the most hard core political junkie. The Republicans may have the right product, but the Democrats do a far better job selling their ideas. One only needs to look at the Clinton era, where he co-opted the Republican platform. The Republicans had the right product, but it took a Democrat to sell it, and now Bill Clinton gets all the credit. Selling Bill Clinton as “America’s first Black President,” is just one example of the creative nature of their marketing propaganda. In fact this marketing was so extraordinary, Hollywood made two movies “Wag the Dog” and “Primary Colors” both loosely based on the Clinton marketing and propaganda machine. Republicans must learn from the Democrats how to sell their ideas to the average, and especially younger, American voter.
Case in point is school reform. Republicans will spend hours discussing the benefits of injecting market forces into the education industry and letting the invisible hand guide it to success. The average voter is asleep or flipping the channel to Mtv before the Republican even finishes a sentence. Democrats on the other hand cut through he chase and sound bite this complex issue into “vouchers rob public schools of money, and put teachers out of work.” Case close Democrats win every time, even if the message is delivered by Ted “Silver Spoon” Kennedy and Al “factually challenged” Gore on their way to drop their daughters off at their Private School. In that one sentence the Democrats frame the issue as vouchers being anti-public School and anti-Teacher ignoring all together the only issue that really matters, whether or not vouchers would be in the best interest of the child’s education. Instead of appealing to logic and reason, a futile approach for a sound bite society, Democrats immediately appeal to the emotions. The heart will win over the head every time, especially when dealing with the younger voters. An old saying goes “if you are young and not a liberal you have no heart, if you are old and not a conservative you have no brain.” People often fall in love at first sight, whereas understanding marginal tax rates takes years to understand and simply can not be explained in a sound bite. Republicans need to sell the school voucher idea not only as a logical and reasoned policy solution, but also as a civil right issue appealing to emotions was well. Facts are the students that would benefit the most from a voucher system would be the children attending the predominately minority inner city schools. Republicans should sell vouchers as “equal opportunity education” where every child would have the same opportunity as Ted Kennedy’s and Bill Clinton’s children. Vouchers are like a ticket to freedom, allowing minority students to escape the oppressive and racist Public School System that has been denying them the opportunity for a quality education and better lives. Republicans need to return to their roots and declare a Lincolnion Emancipation Proclamation freeing the minority students from the slavery of the Public School Plantation. Unfortunately, the party that promises to defend the current Public School System received over 90% of the black vote in the last election.
Social Security is another issue where the Republicans have the right product, but the Democrats do a better job selling their position. Full Social Security benefits start at 65, soon to be 67 years of age. The average African American male has a life expectancy less than 65 years of age, meaning on average they can expect to get nothing back from Social Security. White Americans however live on average much longer. Imagine a private insurance company selling policies to minorities that on average pays out zero whereas the policies sold to whites pays out handsomely. The NAACP would go ballistic, and yet that is exactly what Social Security does. It redistributes wealth from relatively poor minorities to relatively rich white people. To address this issue however Republicans discuss Social Security as an actuarially unsound under funded pension plan. Most people don’t even know what an actuarial assumption is, let alone be willing to vote on it. Republicans need to re-label the reform of Social Security as a civil rights issue, empowering minorities and freeing them from the unjust inequities of the highly discriminatory and racist Social Security System. I could hear Al Sharpton right now calling the current system “reparation in reverse.” Social Security is the modern equivalent of the share cropper system, where Blacks work their butts off all their lives, only to die penniless while the rich white farm owner lives high on the hog. Tragically, once again the party that promises to protect the current Social Security System received over 90% of the black vote in the last election.
One last and humorous example of how Democrats can sell even bad and contradictory ideas is their support for funding the National Endowment for the Arts and their opposition to the Ten Commandments being displayed in a public courthouse. A few years ago Liberals were defending the “right” of Artists to receive public funding to create, support and promote displays disrespectful of religion on public property such as the “Piss Christ” and the “Dung Virgin Mary.” Recently, these same Liberals were outrages when a respectful privately funded artistic monument of the Ten Commandments was displayed in a public courthouse. Apparently had the Ten Commandments been contained in a jar of urine or made out of dung it would have been acceptable, or even defended by the Liberals.
If Republicans are ever going to become the dominant political party in America they need to understand how to connect with all voters, even illogical, irrational, unrealistic, impractical, irresponsible and idealistic voters, not just those with PhDs in rocket science. They need to present their arguments in two styles, one for the left brained people and one for the right brained people. This approach is simply common sense. Every marketing text book preaches tailoring the message to the market. This does not mean Republicans need to abandon their principles, but simply that they need to present their ideas in a manner that gets the message across to all members in their audience. Republicans need to put down their engineering textbooks, take off the suits and ties, turn off Fox News and put on their boogie shoes, turn on Oprah and Soap Operas and start reading “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” In a complex and diverse world Republicans need to better understand how to communicate with both sides of the brain. Republicans may have locked in the NASCAR Dads, now they need to go after the Soap Opera Moms.
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Columbus Townhall > Forum > Politics > National > Political Philosophies (Moderators: Peter, CTH Public Relations)
Topic: Republican’s need to repackage their message
