Have the Democrats Learned Branding?

While granting credit to the GOP in anything grates a bit, one area in which they've always handed the Dems their asses has been bumper-sticker sloganeering. It's not exactly an important skill in governance, but when it comes to campaigning, it's a hell of an advantage. It's better for advertising (bumper stickers and pins, of course, but also 30-second TV spots), it's better for getting media coverage (anything more than five words, and reporters' eyes start to glaze over), and it plays into one of their key lines of attack against the Democrats. The overly wordy, wonkish egghead liberal is one of the old standbys of Republican campaigns, and we don't exactly do a wonderful job of ducking it. And, America being what it is, in a contest between the nerd and the regular dude, the nerd's not going to win too many rounds.

So how do we deal? Well, we could go the Republican route, and base our entire platform on a small set of reactionary concepts which run no more than three syllables apiece ("guns good," "taxes bad," "gays icky," etc.) Or, we could just sell our actual ideas more simply. Not that this is easy. There's only so much to be done as far as explaining the intricacies of healthcare reform. But finding a way to sum up shouldn't be hard. I think this is one realm in which Obama's years as a professor come in handy. Summing up complex ideas and helping others understand them is pretty basic to the teaching profession, and the best teachers do this amazingly well.
It seems like the Dems may be getting the memo on this one. There's evidently talk in the House of rebranding the public option as "Medicare Part E" ("E for Everyone," puke, but cheesy can occasionally work out). This is exactly the sort of simplification that can work. It's not dumbing anything down, it's not assuming the electorate is too busy or too stupid to listen to a three-minute explanation, it's just a shorthand. Everyone has some idea of what Medicare is, they know it's government-run (well, most of them do, anyway), they know it's cheap, and they know it's reliable. Most of us know at least one person who's on Medicare, and can ask them what they think of it. And most importantly, it's exactly like the ideal public option, a government-provided, easily-accessed form of health insurance. Toss in the fact that Medicare is overwhelmingly popular, so much so in fact that defending it has been cited by Republicans as a rationale for opposing the reform effort, and you've got a hell of a way to sell a public option.

As for broader campaign slogans, the President brought one out over the weekend that I'm hoping shows up on a million bumpers and lapels all through 2010. Giving a speech at a Dem fundraiser, he praised the concept of a strong, loyal opposition, but pointed out that we don't really have that, we just have a heckling section. Or, as he put it: "...when, you know, I'm busy and Nancy [Pelosi]'s busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else's mess, we don't want somebody sitting back saying, 'You're not holding the mop the right way.' Why don't you grab a mop?" "Grab a mop" is a hell of a slogan. Three words (ah!) and it's quietly devastating. It doesn't say to anyone, "Hey, you're idiots for voting GOP," it doesn't start a long debate, and it only hints at the fact that the mess is their fault. It just thumps them for being useless.
The GOP's been branding itself as the "party of ideas" for a few decades now, but it's spent a good half-century or more as the party of hard work and good old American can-do pull-yourself-up spirit. Even more importantly, they've gotten a great deal of mileage out of portraying Democrats and their social welfare programs as just being designed to help people who are lazy, drugged-up, or otherwise undeserving. If the Dems can turn this around a bit, make themselves over as the party that's working hard to fix the country while the GOP just sits in Washington flinging mud, they can do score some serious points. Here's hoping we see a lot more mops at rallies and campaign stops over the coming year.