With Republicans taking control of the House and making ground in the Senate, the question I have to ask is: Do Americans have short term memories? It seems only yesterday when there was so much discontent with Republicans that Democrats were able to rise up and take control of Congress. Discontent with Obama is well deserved, but do Americans forget when the recession started? Do Americans forget who started the first bailout? It seems that George Bush went from the girlfriend we wanted to dump, to the girlfriend we feel bad we cheated on.
Of course, the average American simply does not understand the complexity of politics and policies in place. Frankly, we as MPP students barely understand it. Which leads me to my next point. Why are Democrats horrible at marketing themselves, their policies, and against Republican counterparts? It is obvious that Republicans and Tea Partiers are able to connect with the average American, referencing current politics with easy to understand symbolism like "waves" and "tsunami." Why don't Democrats pick up this lingo? Maybe they just need to hire a better political marketing team. I hear a lot of laid off MBA grads are looking for jobs.
My thoughts on the first point: with regard to the independent voters could go either way, I don't think that anyone is craving the days of George W Bush; they just had really high expectations for Obama and the Democrats, and are a very discerning audience. Everyone warned about people being disenchanted with Obama if change didn't happen as quickly as a campaign season always seems to promise; this election was just the embodiment of that. Being up in arms about it is pretty shortsighted in and of itself.
ReplyDeleteSecond point: it doesn't strike me as a pure marketing issue - some of the Democratic policies are necessarily painful considering the time during which the Dems have governed. There is some natural loss of popularity that goes along with that. Marketing tax increases, bank bailouts (because regardless of who started it, the Dems own it), and pulling out of a war we didn't win will never garner a large fan base, and it makes it tough to slim down your rhetoric to death panels, car keys, or ____ media. Basically, when there is so much ammo against you, keeping it simple is pretty complicated. Voila, failure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07rauch.html?_r=1
ReplyDeleteAlso, that.