When Patriotic Values Won the Elections
“We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again!”
-President Donald Trump
During his 2016 campaign, then presidential candidate Donald J. Trump built his campaign on the slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Even though Trump trademarked the slogan in 2012, he was not the first presidential candidate to use it. Ronald Reagan used the slogan “Let’s Make America Great Again” in his 1980 presidential campaign [1]. But we have to ask ourselves what these presidential candidates mean when they say to make America great again. At which point in American history are they referring to? Donald Trump even said it himself: “…it was going to be ‘Make America Great.’ But that didn’t work because that was a slight to America because that means it was never great before. And it has been great before” [2]. Which period of American history was great? Trump gave us another clue as to which period he has been referring to.
During one of the rallies, Trump became nostalgic, reminiscing the “good old days”, when protesters were treated with violence and intolerance. Trump reminds his supporters what it was like for protesters back in the day: “In the good old days, this didn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough, and when they protested once, you know, they wouldn’t do it again very easily. I love the good old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out in a stretcher,” to which the crowd cheered. “In the good old days,” Trump continued, “they’d rip him out of that seat so fast. In the good old days, law enforcement acted a lot quicker than this!” Trump finished this section of his speech by reminding America, again by using another Reagan slogan, that he is the “law and order candidate”. This speech was juxtaposed with videos of African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement being harassed during protests and just while walking down the street, with the scenes of Black people undergoing similar experiences at Trump’s rallies. There was also a clip of one of Trump’s supporters, saying, “I’d like to knock the hell out of that big mouth. Next time we see him, we might have to kill him — ” precisely as the lynch mobs did back in the “good old days” [3].
Why Did “Make America Great Again” Work?
It is no secret that Americans are extremely patriotic, and their patriotism is a tool that can always be used to cater to them. The Rockridge Institute, a think tank that promotes democracy and progressivism in American culture, believes that there are five things that help a candidate win an election: values, connection to the people, authenticity, trust, and identifying with the public. All of these attributes supersede their stance on particular issues [4]. It is not to say that voters intentionally overlook where the candidate stands, rather they believe that issues are secondary; if the candidate identifies with their values, he or she will be able to make decisions on issues that they would support.
This is a common practice among the Republican party. They heavily base their campaigns on American traditions and values, because they know that their audience is very likely to identify with those values. Donald Trump realized this; he was aware of his widely patriotic audience. “Make America great again” not only insinuated that the United States is in danger of abandoning its values, but that Donald Trump would be the savior we need. It indicates that Trump will be able to bring it back to the “good old days”.
Democrats, George Lakoff argues, need to understand that “it is about values and how to communicate them. It is about what a progressive vision is, about what fundamental progressive moral values and principles are, and about how one can articulate them and argue persuasively in favor of them. The secret is effective communication — the use of words and language in the service of our deepest convictions” [5]. Laying out and thoroughly understanding what democratic American values are and how to communicate them to the public is an imperative to gaining more voters to identify with progressive candidates.
References
[1] Taibbi, Matt. “Donald Trump Claims Authorship of Legendary Reagan Slogan; Has Never Heard of Google”. Accessed August 7, 2018. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/donald-trump-claims-authorship-of-legendary-reagan-slogan-has-never-heard-of-google-193834/
[2] Engel, Pamela. “How Trump came up with his slogan ‘Make America Great Again’”. Business Insider. January 18, 2017. Accessed August 7, 2018. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-make-america-great-again-slogan-history-2017-1.
[3] Sunny Mon. “”In the good ol’ days…” trailer for netflix documentary “13TH””. Youtube Video, 2:00, October 13, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP4DdYvD480.
[4] Lakoff, George. Thinking Points: Communicating our American Values and Visions. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006.
[5] Lakoff. Thinking Points: Communicating our American Values and Visions.
