The Guardian’s Robert Reich has a rather garish headline about Bloomberg buying the presidency, backed up by somewhat equivocal text. Bloomberg will enter the Democratic race on March 3, “Super Tuesday” a big multi-state nomination including California, Texas, and other major states with much clout and genuine influence.
Democrat disorganization
Reich is entitled to his views, but the tone of the “buying the presidency” is typical of the commentary embedded in Democrats’ most appalling recent events; total disunity, infighting, and disorganization. The infighting is inexcusable, given the extremely serious situation facing America.
This election is about when the fan gets hit with the results of the disastrous decisions, the lack of comprehension, and the erosion of America’s position in the world. Either the United States continues down a heavily Tweeted Lollipop Lane for another four years, or not, but the bill for this little detour into delusion will be massive.
Self-image problems? Yep.
Another rather odd bit of naivete is the strange belief that “because we’re progressives we deserve to win” Ah… Do the people you’re trying to get to vote for you have any idea what “progressive” means?
Not from you, they don’t. The fact that high-end Americans don’t speak the language of low-end America couldn’t be more obvious. It’s also pretty insulting, as well as unrealistic.
For example – “Waal, y’all, everyone knows you need fiscal reform to reboot the macro economy an’ git they jobs a-cookin,’” just sounds patronizing, and it is, in so many ways. Spell it out so it’s at least relevant and comprehensible. That’s Communications 101, or is that too much trouble?
The Alt Right has been turning “progressive” into a synonym for their bogey man, “The Left”. You have a lot of work to do there, and none of it’s being done. You’re falling in to their cookie cutter with every word.
(The fact that America has never had anything vaguely resembling real socialism, or anything much left of Fifth Avenue, is lost on everybody, it seems.)
Let’s clarify this image thing – The right may be insane, prehistoric, medieval, ignorant, dumb, corrupt, regressive, Alt Everything, etc., but it’s organized, and you’re not. You mean you can’t even compete with total BS? Basic Democrat campaigning and even getting ideas across is all over the place, and very mixed up.
Nobody on the Democrat side recognized the very basic marketing of Trump’s 2016 campaign. All Cambridge Analytica did was analyse issues and have Trump agreeing with whatever crackpot babble was trending. There are many other ways of doing that, and that’s not getting any attention either, it seems.
The self-image is very much in keeping with the picture of a fragmented Democratic Party Trump desperately needs. This is the party which spends more time slanging each other off than doing any real campaigning. That’s market suicide, it looks terrible, and it could seriously undermine the Congressional race, too.
How about a Bloomberg/ Sanders ticket?
Let’s try a bit of heresy here – Bloomberg is the bona fide billionaire who has credibility with corporate America. Unlike Trump, who’s scared of his own tax returns, Bloomberg is an A-Lister who does have frontline experience on Main Street as Mayor of New York. Sanders is the guy who has the social justice credentials. He’s not scared of taking on the very hard issues, and he’s been doing it for years. He’s a real worker, not a pretend progressive. If you’re talking talent, these two are the standouts.
Both of these guys are ultra-realists in their fields. (That’s a very nice change, by the way.) They’re not nebulous, not verbose to the point of antagonizing people, and they understand the US political system far better than most from personal experience.
The Democrats need real talent and real people to appeal to their voter base. They need thinkers and doers, not noise from people most Americans have never heard of. This is Marketing 101, and it must happen to win in 2020.
Trump sells myths and lies. The Democrats need to sell facts and a believable future. It doesn’t get much more serious than that.
