A car manufacturer may have an SUV they're looking to sell. To men, they may tout how this big vehicle handles like a sports car, yet can pull a big ol' boat. Show footage of the SUV flying up a windy country road towing a fishing boat.
To women, you might focus on the exemplary safety record, the big comfortable seats, and the integrated DVD player for the kids in the back. Add footage of the plush interior of the vehicle with the perfectly behaved kiddies, all in their car seats, being anesthetized by the DVD player.
Sale!
The Democrats understand this concept. Carve off a group, build a sales pitch, and sell it. Here is the key to it all: With each of their target markets, they identify the one or two key points that the group cares about, and they hammer it home.
You never, ever come off message.
They started with ethnicities.
Blacks. Marketing Pitch: You've been abused and discriminated against forever. Vote for us, and we'll fix the wrongs brought upon you and your ancestors.
Hispanics. Marketing Pitch: Love of family - even the extended Hispanic family. Repubs want to keep you out. When you're in, we give you Sanctuary Cities, we write laws prohibiting our police departments from turning you in to the federal authorities. We'll protect su familia.
Then, you hit the Cross-over groups -
Women. Marketing Pitch: You are the equal or better of any man in the workplace. Your body is your own - no man can tell you what you can do with it.
Youth. Marketing Pitch: We're the cool, loving and inclusive group. We want to invest in your future, so we'll give you easy access to grants and loans.
Private union members. Marketing Pitch: We will protect your right to organize so you can get your fair share - a living wage - from the evil, rich business owners.
Public union members. Marketing Pitch: Vote for us, and keep your job, get regular raises, a killer retirement plan and we'll make it virtually impossible for you to be fired. Guaranteed, lucrative income for life.
LGBT. Marketing Pitch: You should be able to marry anyone you wish.
Anti-war. Marketing pitch: The only reason Republicans want to send you/your children to war is to pay off their evil, rich corporate handlers.
The only group not specifically targeted are independent, successful white males. They don't need anything from government. So they're demonized. They're the evil rich with all of the money needed to pay the bills. The Dems just need the political power to take it from them so you can have more stuff given to you.
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No matter what your competitor throws at you, you counter with some variant of your target message. For instance, in the recent election, the Republicans main selling point was, "The economy is in the crapper, Obama has done nothing but make it worse, and Mitt can fix it."
The Democrats countered that Mitt would take welfare from poor blacks, take freedom from poor Hispanics just trying to feed their families, take loans and grants from students, take abortions from women, etcetera, etcetera.
Mitt will take from you, Obama will give to you.
What the Dems have done is to successfully sell the idea that The State is the parent, the family, the provider, in the minds of all of these groups. As a child, if you've had a Helicopter Mom for your entire life - covering your every need and ensuring you never have a negative outcome - do you think your instinct will be to break away from this warm, comfortable place? Of course not.
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Bill O'Reilly made a comment about what happened to the Republicans that I think is nothing more than wishfull thinking -
The good news for the Republicans is that the pressure is now on President Obama and the Democrats. If the economy doesn't improve dramatically over the next four years, the Democratic Party will evaporate -- as simple as that.
Sorry. Not gonna happen. On the national stage, the game is over. The Republicans just don't get it. They don't have an answer to the Democrat sales pitch of, "Vote for us and we'll give you things." Libertarian-leaning people like me are considered freaks who just don't get it. Personal freedoms AND responsibility? Naw, too much work.
The majority of people have shown they have no need or desire to have to struggle to pay their bills, struggle to become rich, struggle to pay for college, struggle to be independent. Why struggle and have the risk of failure and pain, when you can get by - comfortably enough - by voting Democrat?
For now, the Republican message works in much of "fly-over country" but there aren't enough electoral college votes in those states to turn the tide. The big cities in these state still vote comfortably Democrat.
Seriously, on a national level, it's over.
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You all need to watch California for what will eventually happen to our nation.
On election day, in addition to voting to increase our taxes once again via the our Proposition process, my fellow citizens did something much more frightening. Our state Assembly and state Senate has long been dominated by Democrats. They've run the joint into the ground, taking us from being one of the crown jewels of this nation in terms of the economy, education and insight, into the bottom of the barrel. So, despite a decimated state economy, obscene taxes at every level, government intrusiveness in every aspect of our lives, my fellow citizens rewarded the Democrats by giving them a Super Majority in both state legislative houses.
For decades, we've had laws that required a 2/3 vote by both houses before they could raise taxes. This has held them at bay, until now. With the new Super Majority, this is no longer an issue. They can do as they wish.
They have wrecked the state, but were rewarded with more power. They just had to promise more stuff to the peeps.
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"But Chief, it will all collapse. Every socialist/communist economy ever constructed has collapsed under its own weight. The same will happen here. That's when the people will See The Light and we'll turn things around."
Perhaps. But no one reading this today will likely see that day.
My next post will lay out my vision for what's going to happen to our country over the next few decades. It's not rocket science, and it's not pretty. And I'm afraid it's unstoppable.
I have a request, though. Prove me wrong. Point me in another direction. Show me a scenario where this socialist slide is stopped. Tell me how a society where the majority believes themselves to be a victim due recompense, is convinced to give up their "claim".
Logic is not a viable alternative. If logic prevailed, California would be a solidly red state after the decades of decline we've endured at the hands of the Democrats. If logic prevailed, America would have thrown the Charlatan In Chief out on his ear.
The "masses" are hearing the call of the socialist. Everyone gets equal outcomes. Everyone is cared for. Everyone is protected. It's an alluring call for many. Apparently, for most.
They just don't immediately recognize the cost that will be due in the future. Someone's got to pay for all the goodies they're getting.
And one way or another, it will be them.
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5 comments:
One additional point that favors the Democrats: The blacks, hispanics Asians and and all other ethnic groups don't like whites. It is often stated that racism is a one way street and that is not true. The black, brown and other non-whites voted their bias/racism. It was a feel good thing for them and Mitt was as good a old white male as any to "take their revenge" with. Yes the economy is in the dumper, yes everyone recognizes Obama is over his head and clueless but it feels good to stick it to the white man. Everyoone has forgotten that it was the Republican party that freed the slaves and the Democrats who fought it. It was Republicans that pushed through the equal rights act and demenstrated side by side with blacks in the South. Everyone forgets that 100% of the politicians in the old South were Democrats fighting to keep blacks down. The new Democrat party is the same as the old, still racist, still exploiting race for political gain and still in favor of tax, tax, tax and spend, spend, spend. The one thing all Democrats seem to have in common, the one thing that jolds them together is "free stuff". Yes the Democrat party is a diverse party of blacks, hispanics, Asians, illegal aliens, rich white women, gay and lesbians, women on welfare; but the one thread that holds them together is they all want something (free stuff) and they all want someone else to pay for it. They don't care if they destroy the economy or start WW III just give me "free stuff"...
We were talking about this at work. Pretty much I disagree with O'Reilly and agree with you.
I figure that the economy will be bad enough in the next 4 years that they will continue to kick the can down the road. Since austerity won't be implemented, that means that the welfare state will increase exponentially. Especially if they don't manage to head off these tax increases. It will likely mean that more than 50% of the electorate will be on government assistance. There won't be a Republican President for years to come unless they join the "give free stuff to those who don't work" crowd. But then is that really a Republican?
They are already laying the groundwork and precedents for things. They are calling on the US Military to take over putting the power back on on Long Island. They are charging some guy for hoarding gas for buying 120 gallons of gas for his neighborhood. Once the precedent is set, it's locked in.
I agree that the national politics are over. The only way for the Republicans to get anywhere is to become liberal. Which means we need a true third party. But all that will do is take away the Republican votes (for all the good that'll do us).
They times are a-changing.
Anon, yeah it always strikes me as "funny" when minorities are able to say out loud that they voted for someone because of their color, but if whites do it, you're a racist. As I've noted before, the MLK "content of their character, not the color of their skin" deal sure gets tossed out the window quite easily when you're a minority.
Adam, the follow up post I've got in draft touches on your point of the Dems not implementing an austerity program until they have literally run out of money.
Our country is like a business that has recognized that it is no longer a viable enterprise, so the owners are sucking out all of the value before declaring bankruptcy.
We - the creditors - get left holding an empty bag.
Asian guy here and big-time reader of your blog.
Many of my Asian friends, as well as myself are conservative for many reasons. I believe the primary one being that Asians (as opposed to other minorities) don't fall into the narrative of self-victimization. For the most part, we came here, are successful and don't complain. BUT, we are increasingly being punished for our success due to some notion that we are genetically gifted. We aren't...it's our culture. A good number of Americans of Asian descent are beginning to realize that they are being discriminated against in the name of "fairness". Just look at college admissions affirmative action policies which are skewed against Asians because of our success. Look at what happened in Virginia recently in the education system. The "failing" grade for Asian ethnicities was set at 82%, while those for blacks and latinos were set MUCH, much lower.
If the conservative base is going to expand with minorities, I believe it has to start with the Asians.
A few blacks get it, a few latinos (notably those who came from Cuba) get it, but the best inroads for expanding the conservative base are going to be with the Asians.
Sad really, because I'm not sure why more minorities don't see through the race baiting/pandering from the left.
Anon, ah, you noticed the absense of Asians being specifically mentioned in the post! I've got a follow up post (not the next one, but the one after that) on the subject.
[Broad brush opinions follow]
In my career, I've had a lot of business interaction with three Asian groups: Indians, Chinese, Filipinos.
Each group is very different in their approach to business and their level of risk-taking. But, all three are virulent capitalists, and crazy hard workers. I'll expand on this in the post.
Regarding discrimination, I think it's horrific what these supposedly liberal schools do to Asians. For The Oppressive White Class, it's great to see the liberals trying to justify why they can discriminate against an ethnic group that is smaller than either blacks or Hispanics.
You hit it on the head: It's all about culture. Asians are driven to succeed. It's a part of every day life.
I love using the Vietnamese boat people who came to this country as an example. A great deal of them ended up just south of where I live - down in Silicon Valley. As a group, they came here literally with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and they damned near own the whole area now! It's very impressive how well they've done starting at Ground Zero. It was all done with hard work, sacrafice, and networking. It is proof positive that you can make your millions if you're driven. Well, it used to be that way.
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