IMHO it is just that simple. On issue after issue our salesmanship sucks. The Republicans eat our lunch. Not only do they have a simpler message. They stick to it and pound it home 24/7, which is kind of marketing 101. Since I do marketing and message development for a living I am often asked by prospects to define marketing. I just say:
Marketing is about delivering the right message, to the right audience, at the right time. Repeatedly.
Now getting that "right" message is rarely easy, but our party does have the financial means to uncover them and pound them home. Below the fold I want use two examples to highlight my point. The Public Option and education reform.
Lets start with the Public Option. Before I started working for myself I was the VP of Marketing for an email marketing company. We were a "virtual" firm. We didn't have any offices. We were spread all throughout the United States. So not only were we behind the 8-ball buying insurance in small numbers, when we went "virtual" we had to then buy "one-off" policies in this city or that city.
From 2005 to 2008 our health care costs went up 77%. Next to payroll it was our number one expense. More than we spent on our servers or hosting, the core of our business. The costs were staggering.
Well we were a very niche email marketing firm. Not somebody like Constant Contact. One of our main competitors was based in Australia. A country where they have a national health care plan. In 2008 they spent $4,874 per person, paid for with a 1.5 percent national tax.
Well my former employer had 43 employees when I left. That would have meant a cost savings of $209,582 based on Australia numbers, and I can assure you our costs were double that. $400,000 was more than my entire marketing budget. It could have meant 4-6 new hires to provide better customer support or programmers to improve our product. More, better servers. Countless educational conferences. The list could go on and on of how we could have spent that money.
Well how did we sell Health Care reform and the Public Option? Tens of millions don't have insurance and that is wrong. Agreed 110%. Some on our side did mention it would lower the deficit and keep insurance premiums down. But not that often IMHO.
But alas that wasn't the way it should have been sold. How is a small business supposed to compete against a firm in Canada or the UK when they don't have to provide health care for their employees? Or how about a company like GM, where they have to recoup the hundreds of millions they spend on health care in each car they sell, but VW doesn't?
A lot of Americans I know vote with their pocketbook. The Public Option was a pocketbook issue on several levels. First, it would just lower costs. Two, it would unhinder small business growth capped by outrageous health care costs. It would make us more competitive globally.
I mean that isn't that hard to explain is it?
I take the same view with public education. My little rural town has some of the best schools in the state of IL, if not the nation as a whole. And even though in '08 we voted 57% for McCain, we also voted by almost 70% to raise our taxes to built a new $60M high school. Let me say that again, we voted to RAISE our taxes. The new school opens in a few days.
When there was a campaign to get our new high school built the marketing wasn't "do it for the kids." Instead, my town is exploding in growth. They can't build new houses fast enough. Heck they just broke ground in the field in-front of my house to build another 167 homes.
It would seem that folks that buy houses tend to have or want children, so schools are important in the buying decision. More people mean more taxes collected. More folks shopping at your store. A good school system is an economic engine for our community. The guy that owns the local hardware store, the gas station up the street, the grocery store, the local bank, well they were behind the raise in taxes cause they want more customers. They get more customers when you built new homes and people buy them.
Heck, this isn't even taking into account what business owner doesn't want to hire educated employees. I mean smart, educated employees produce more revenue and cost less to hire and train.
Pick any topic. Put a Republican on Fox Noise. After saying our proposal for this or that is Socialist, what is the next thing they'll say. It will costs jobs. Hurts small businesses. Now whether that is true is of course debatable, but it rightfully scares the heck out of people.
They go to the pocketbook. We never seem to do that. We talk about it being unfair that millions don't have health care. Or that Cap & Trade will save the polar bears. I could do on and on.
They are all great causes, but outside of "dirty, liberal hippies" like myself, most folks could care less. If the debate on these issues were pocketbook based, well I'd think we could get a lot more stuff done. Or at least that is my thesis and I am sticking to it.