Calling Out Democrats & Liberals For Terminal Cluelessness. Like Sears, Their Brand Is Dying From Bad Management
By David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
It’s All About Brand Identity
A political party is a brand. Like every brand, to survive it has to offer a set of qualities that appeal both to its current customers and also to an audience of potential new customers.
Why do people buy Toyota Corollas? Because they are the very best car of that type in the world? No.
If feature-by-feature you compare a Corolla to its competition, the Toyota will lose in lots of categories, but that’s not what really counts.
People buy a product based on an idea, a gestalt of what they think that brand stands for. They buy based on Brand Identity. The Corolla’s Brand Identity is: reliability, competence, dependability, long life, and a low cost of maintenance and repair.
Those are really important things if you’re planning on buying a small, cheap car — you want it to stay cheap and run forever.
Toyota’ slogan could be: Stays cheap. Runs forever.
Sony used to have that kind of reputation. Thirty years ago Sony’s motto could have been:
“You can’t go wrong with a Sony.”
Then their design, technology and quality went to hell and today, except for cameras, the Sony brand has lost much of its appeal.
The Republicans understand all this. See my post: How The Republicans Captured The Middle Class
The Wages Of Cluelessness
The Republicans not only have a coherent philosophy of government, they were smart enough to understand that in order to win they had to translate that philosophy into a positive Brand Identity for themselves and a negative Brand Identity for the Democrats. They successfully did both.
The Democrats were not smart enough to understand this. Even when the Democrats saw what Trump was doing and how he was doing it, they weren’t smart enough to respond effectively.
Some Basic Democrat Campaign Mistakes
At the time when most parents know that a college degree in Political Science or History or English Literature is not only very expensive but is also essentially worthless in the job market, the Democrats were promising that every kid in America was going to go to college at taxpayer expense. Nuts.
People are having a hard time getting life-saving medical care at taxpayer expense and your big idea is that the taxpayers are going to pay for Johnny to get a free four-year college degree in Philosophy? Nuts.
The Republicans had already painted the Democrats as tax-and-spenders and now the Democrats big pitch was that they’re going to spend tens or hundreds of billions of dollars of tax money to get Johnny a free degree in political science?
How stupid is that?
The Democrats offered detailed policy plans on their website instead of bullet point issues that spoke to the needs and desires of the struggling lower-middle class voters in ten words or less.
Why wasn’t the core of Clinton’s campaign full of slogans like:
- We’re going to cut drug prices.
- We’re going after the corrupt Wall Street billionaires who wrecked the economy.
- We’re going to put a special tax on any company that tries to send American jobs overseas.
- We’re going to rebuild the middle class with living-wage jobs.
- We’re going to cut welfare and food stamps by making employers pay a living wage.
- We going to rebuild American’s infrastructure and create good jobs in the process.
But no, that didn’t happen. All they could talk about was how bad Trump was. You don’t sell Corollas by telling people how bad the Fiat 500 is. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
The Republicans successfully built a positive Brand Identity for themselves and a negative Brand Identity for the Democrats.
The Democrats cluelessly built a zero positive brand identity for themselves and a weak negative brand identity for the Republicans. And now they wonder why they’re losing elections?
The Democrats Current Brand Identity
The Republicans have created the following Brand Identity for the Democrats:
- Bleeding Hearts
- Supporting Weirdos & Losers
- Big Government
- More Taxes
- Want To Give My Money To Lazy Losers Who Don’t Want To Work
And the Democrats/Liberals play into it. What issues do they appear to be most concerned about?
Abortion, racism and bathrooms for transgender people.
Not the destruction of the middle class. Not good-paying jobs for ordinary people. Not out-of-control corporations. Not out-of-control medical costs.
No wonder people who had either lost their jobs or felt as if they were on the bubble to lose their jobs voted for Mr. Ego.
Oh sure, the Democrats occasionally talked about the destruction of the middle class and corporate misbehavior, but that was just random babbles. Those items were on their periphery.
Democrats Foolish Focus On Social Liberalism Instead Of Economic Policy
What’s the most obvious concern of Democrats and liberals?
Transgender bathrooms.
Transgender people represent six-tenths of ONE percent of the U.S. population and this is one of the very top issues the Democrats and liberals have decided to focus on?
This is worse than clueless. This is brand insanity.
This is equivalent to Ford deciding to promote the Focus based on the stain resistance of the floor mats. Sure, it’s nice to be able to keep the floor mats clean, but that’s not what sells cars.
It’s fine to help transgender people. Good. I’m for it. But, it’s insanity to make that a major part of your Brand Identity or, in fact, any part of your Brand Identity.
It’s not that it’s only a small positive. It’s worse than that. It’s actually a negative because it reinforces the negative Brand Identity the Republicans have created for the Democrats — bleeding hearts who care about “weirdos and losers” instead of about things that matter to Real Americans, like how you’re going to be able to pay your bills next month.
No, that’s not how I think, but I’m not the typical voter in Indiana, Kentucky, Colorado, Texas, Florida, etc.
As far as the people who elected Mr. Ego are concerned, transgender people are “weirdos.” I don’t think that. Of course those people are wrong, but that doesn’t change the reality of how they think and how they vote.
Suppose you want to sell a car to a guy who’s got a pack of Lucky Strikes in his shirt pocket. You have to be an absolute moron to open the conversation with: “You know, smoking is a really stupid thing to do.”
If you want that carpet installer in Louisville to vote for the Democrat running for Congress and you have half a brain, you don’t start your campaign with: “We really need to protect the rights of transgender people to use the bathroom they identify with.”
Lots of people who might vote for Democratic candidates think this country is engaged in a cultural war and to one extent or another their side of that war is not gay people, transgender people, non-religious people, immigrants with brown skin, and abortion-is-OK people.
If you make those cultural issues your battleground instead of the loss of living-wage jobs and the rapaciousness of Big Pharma, you’ve lost any chance of getting the votes of at least 30–35% of the population. And when you give those votes away, when you give those seats to the Republicans, what do you think those same Republicans are going to do to immigrants, gays, and transgender people?
Wake up! You’re seeing it happening to them right now.
What Clinton Could Have Done But Was Too Blind To See
Hillary Clinton could have come out against Big Pharma, against Wall Street, in favor of cutting welfare by shifting the cost of supporting workers to where it belongs, to employers.
But she didn’t.
You need to campaign on the things that you think are wrong but which can be fixed with legislation if you get elected. You shouldn’t campaign on things that you can’t fix even if you win.
But what do liberals focus their campaigns on? Bigotry, racism, sexism, and abortion, none of which they will be able to fix even if they win.
Making your party’s Brand Identity all about or even a little bit about cultural issues is suicide, both for your party and for the people you want to protect. Every time the Democrats spend their energy on bigotry and sexism Steve Bannon rubs his hands together, laughs and says: “Thank you, morons!”
Making cultural issues part of your marketing is like insulting the smoker who might otherwise buy your car. Talk about mileage. Talk about reliability. Talk about the new tires. You don’t have to and you shouldn’t volunteer how you feel about smoking.
Yes, smoking is a hot-button issue to you. It’s important. You’re absolutely right about it. I agree with you, but nevertheless, don’t make smoking part of the discussion when you’re trying to sell your car for two BIG reasons:
1) You’re not going to change your potential customer’s mind and get him to stop smoking, and
2) He’ not going to buy your car.
That’s a lose-lose.
What Should The Democrats Brand Identity Be?
To answer that question, let’s take a look at what the Republicans have done and what they want to do.
The Results Of The Republicans’/Conservatives’ Policies
Shipping Living-Wage Jobs To Foreign Countries
Both Republicans and Democrats together allowed big business to ship American manufacturing jobs overseas. Neither party made any attempt to stop this practice.
Today, the Democrats might be willing to make sending those jobs away prohibitively expensive. The Republicans will never seriously try to limit that practice because of their core philosophical belief that business should be allowed to do anything it wants short of criminal fraud.
Core Republican Beliefs:
- Business should be free to do whatever it wants short of absolute fraud.
- Opposition to unions.
- Opposition to government regulations on business especially toxics, health and safety regulations.
U.S. manufacturing operations are subject to toxics, health and safety regulations. Moving those jobs to a foreign country avoids that problem for big business.
U.S. manufacturing jobs are readily subject to unionization. Moving those jobs to a foreign country solves that problem for big business.
Because of the existence of a union or threat of unionization U.S. manufacturing jobs are good-paying jobs. Moving those jobs to a foreign country solves that problem for big business.
As the party of big business, the Republicans are and always have been supportive of moving manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. Republicans will always oppose any legislation that in any material way will deter businesses from sending American jobs to foreign countries.
The loss of those jobs has decimated not only the existing middle class, but it also has destroyed a vital pathway that allowed people in the lower class to move up into the middle class. A double whammy.
One of the principle results of the Republican/Conservative philosophy allowing jobs to be shipped overseas (and something not opposed by the Democrats as well) is the grave damage to the middle class and the destruction of a major pathway for people in the lower class to enter the middle class.
This migration of jobs could be, if not stopped, at least slowed down but legislation that will do that is an anathema to the Republicans.
This is a big opportunity for the Democrats — put the Republicans’ refusal to stop companies from sending jobs out of the country on center stage. Make them own the loss of those jobs.
Opposition To A Living-Wage Minimum Wage
Republicans/Conservatives oppose the principal of a minimum wage. They falsely believe that wages are set by supply and demand. In fact, supply and demand is only one factor of many that make up Bargaining Power and it’s Bargaining Power that actually sets wages: Real-World Limitations On Bargaining Power, Not The Law Of Supply & Demand, Are The Primary Reasons For The Low Price For Unskilled Labor. Supply And Demand Are Only Two Of The Many Factors That Affect Bargaining Power, And Bargaining Power, Not Supply & Demand, Is The Main Factor That Determines Price.
Completely independent of supply and demand, unskilled labor has very little bargaining power and it’s that lack of bargaining power that is responsible for low wages for unskilled labor.
The only counter to unskilled labor’s inherent low bargaining power is either to unionize it, an idea the Republicans hate, or setting the minimum wage to a living wage, something the Republicans also hate.
When you send living-wage manufacturing jobs to foreign countries and you refuse to set a living wage for the non-manufacturing jobs that are still here you’ve pretty much killed the ability of unskilled or semi-skilled workers to remain in, leastwise move up to, the middle class.
And don’t even think about retraining.
- First, the Republicans are against funding it.
- Second, it would cost Trillions, that’s Trillions with a Capital T.
- Third, most of the people who lost their unskilled/semi-skilled jobs aren’t able to be retrained as cyber-security experts, Java programmers, medical technicians, or the like. They don’t have the foundation education, the talent, or the intellectual capacity.
The Republicans’ philosophy has not only hollowed out the middle class, they are philosophically opposed to doing anything effective to resurrect it. They’ve run the train out to the end of the washed-out bridge. There’s no place for them to go forward with it, and they are morally opposed to backing it up.
Philosophically, they can’t fix the destruction of the middle class because their basic policy is do nothing and wait for everything to fix itself.
The Democrats could label them as The Do-Nothing Party or The Party of No but they haven’t.
The Republican/Conservative Policies have greatly Damaged the middle class by
- Allowing the transfer of living-wage manufacturing jobs to foreign countries
- Opposing a living wage for the remaining non-manufacturing jobs still in the U.S.
Allowing Huge Increases To The Costs Of Medical Care
Patented prescription drugs are, by definition, monopoly products. Though monopolies have been proven to be very bad business structures, the Republicans strongly support government-created monopolies in the form of patented prescription drugs.
For more about prescription-drug pricing see: Why Drug Pricing Has Almost Nothing To Do With Research Costs. A Few Minutes With A Calculator Reveals The Real Reason For High Drug Prices
It doesn’t have to be this way. For example, the term of a prescription drug’s monopoly could be limited to how long it takes for the manufacturer to earn a certain level of return at which point the monopoly would end.
The Republicans’ philosophy opposes this.
Prescription drug prices could be capped at a certain multiple of the amortized cost of production including some multiple of R&D costs.
Republicans’ philosophy opposes this.
Prescription drug manufacturers’ profits that are higher than some ratio of Profit to Costs could be subject to extremely high taxes to deter manufacturers from charging monopoly prices that are thousands of times greater than the cost of making and selling the drugs.
Republicans’ philosophy opposes this.
The Republicans claim to believe in market competition, except when it involves prescription drugs. In that case they think that market competition is a terrible idea and they don’t want drug companies to have to bargain with the government over the price of the drugs the government buys from them. In fact they’ve made it illegal for the government to negotiate a lower price for the prescription drugs paid for by the government.
This makes health care funded by the government much more expensive. Then they insist that people will have to do without health care because it costs the government too much money.
There are many mechanisms that could be used to reduce medical-care costs but because the Republicans’ philosophy opposes almost all business regulations or limitations, they will do nothing to reduce the cost of medical care.
The Democrats could call out Big Pharma and force the Republicans to publicly defend the drug companies and oppose legislation designed to lower drug prices. The Democrats could put the Republicans into the position of being in Big Pharma’s pocket and, indirectly, responsible for unconscionable drug prices. But they haven’t done it.
Abuse of Consumers By Public Corporations
Republicans philosophically oppose almost all business regulations. As the result we have airlines selling the same seat to two different people and keeping all the money from both. We have airlines shrinking the size of seats to less than the size of a large percentage of travelers. We have banks, insurance companies, and other large corporations endlessly looking for ways to extract more money and deliver fewer services to their customers. Hello, Wells Fargo.
Because Republicans recognize dangers and abuses to citizens only from the government and not dangers to us from any other powerful entities like corporations or industries, they oppose most laws protecting consumers from corporate abuse.
Every time the Republicans oppose legislation to protect consumers Democrats could reinforce the idea that Republicans are the Party of the Rich, the Party of Big Business, and being in the pocket of Big Business. But they haven’t done it.
Abuse Of Shareholders
The pay of executives in publicly-held corporations is beyond obscene, but shareholders are effectively powerless to do anything about it.
If compensation to any corporate employee was limited to $1 million/year without the affirmative approval of at least 60% of the issued and outstanding shares (not 60% of the shares actually casting a vote) we would no longer see tens of billions of dollars of the shareholders’ money spent on outrageous executive compensation.
The Republicans’ ownership by Wall Street and big business will prevent them from imposing such a requirement.
When the Republicans oppose legislation that gives shareholders meaningful control over executive compensation, the Democrats can label them as being in the pocket of the fabulously wealthy executives, as being the enemies of the small shareholders. But they haven’t done it.
Repair The American infrastructure
Except for military spending, Republicans generally oppose government spending. While they were strongly supportive of the $3 Trillion dollar Iraq and Afghanistan wars the Republicans have been unwilling to appropriate money to rebuild America’s power grid, highway system, bridges, etc.
Essentially, while they support unlimited money to blow up foreign countries they will spend next to nothing to rebuild our own country.
“Billions to blow up Iraq but not a dime to rebuild Cleveland” could be the Democrats slogan. But they haven’t done it.
What Could The Democrats Legislative Goals Be?
Once you look at the results of the Republican/Conservative policies, the Democrats’ bullet points are pretty straightforward:
- Rebuild the middle class with living-wage jobs
- Provide a path for people in the lower class to enter the middle class through living-wage jobs
- Lower the cost and widen the availability of health care by requiring employers to provide health insurance ( A Health Care Plan That Follows Republican Principles And Still Works)
- Make employers pay a living wage thus cutting welfare and the size of government and use the tax money saved to fix the infrastructure
- Fight the abuse of consumers & shareholders by large corporations
What Could Be The Democrats’ Brand Description In One Or Two Sentences?
Like every producer, the Democrats need to describe their product, their basic philosophy of government, in one or two sentences, an overarching idea of what they stand for. My suggestions are:
- “Every adult who’s willing to work deserves a full-time job. Every American who works a full-time job deserves to be paid enough to live on.”
- “Full-time work is the cover charge that entitles people to participate in the American Dream.”
- “No one’s entitled to a free ride, but if you’re willing to work, you deserve a living wage and access to medical care.”
- “People who work full time deserve to earn enough to support their families so the taxpayers don’t have to.”
The Democrats could identify themselves as the party of individuals and small business and the Republicans as the Do Nothing Party in the pocket of Big Business and Wall Street.
Other Basic Policies
The Democrats stated philosophy could be:
- Public corporations are like government and fire — extremely useful tools but also very dangerous ones. We bind the government down with the chains of the constitution. We must always be vigilant to bind down the voracious corporations with the chains of the law.
What The Democrats Could Announce Are The Enemies Of A Prosperous Society
- Unchecked corporate greed.
- Wages that are insufficient to support a family above the poverty line.
- No reasonable work-provided access to medical care.
- No reasonable access to training for a job that the individual is qualified to hold.
- Not all business is the same. Big business is a danger. Small business is the future of the country.
In bullet point form:
- All adults who work full time deserve a living wage. No more food-stamp wages for adult, full-time workers.
- All adult full-time workers deserve major medical insurance through their jobs not from the government.
- Every American deserves clean air, clean water and clean food.
- Every American who buys a product deserves to be treated fairly by the seller.
- Limit the markup that can be charged for generic drugs
- Limit the markup that can be charged for hospital-provided drugs and services
- Every shareholder deserves a meaningful say in how their company is run.
- College isn’t good for everyone, but every young American deserves access to the education or training they need to be able to earn a decent living
How The Democrats Could Portray The Republican’s Brand Identity
The Republicans have successfully assigned a highly negative brand identity on the Democrats. To be successful the Democrats need to do the same to the Republicans
- Party of the rich.
- Party of big business.
- Party that believes that unskilled and semi-skilled workers don’t deserve to earn enough to live on.
- Party that believes that unskilled and semi-skilled workers don’t deserve to have medical care.
- Party that believes that business should be able to do anything it can get away with.
- The Do Nothing And Hope Things Fix Themselves Party
- The Party Of No.
Summary
I’m doubtful that the Democrats will get their act together. Maybe they’re just too invested in philosophical issues and liberal, life-theories to adopt a pragmatic, practical, common-sense approach to government.
Maybe we need a new party. Call it the Pragmatist Party or the Common Sense Party. One that only cares about what works without any philosophical structure at all. Not “government is good/bad” or “rules are good/bad” or “taxes are/are not stealing”, just what works.
What am I thinking? People won’t do that. That makes too much sense.
– David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
