Reply #6: campaigning is not about reality [View All]

[sui generis]

oh I certainly believe that people are going to care about being poor, but first they have to get poor. Right now while they can still barely afford to drive their Ford Earth Destroyers and keep their black-mold uninsurable homes heated for our new deep freeze winters, they think they're still okay with the status quo. Until they start rationing heating oil and drinking water.

Campaigning is all about how well you can hit nerves - for good or for bad. Bad news always trumps good news - our survival instincts (and excitement) are most easily triggered by things that impact our survival; not by doing good deeds for strangers. I know that's cynical, and I'm certainly not saying it's right - but it is reality and we (myself excepted) suck at going for the throat.

If you want to campaign successfully on positive messages, then you had better have something much worse to compare yourself to, else people will choose the status quo every time. There is a lot of rope out there now - let's help them hang themselves.

His point is that we have to change what we present; we have to change what we prioritize when we go after that group of voters, or else we won't get their interest. And he's asking for innovation, not just the same old tired solutions. Maybe by exploring options we'll determine that some of those tired old solutions are the best ones after all, but we need to stop taking crap for granted and start thinking.