Winning Elections is one possible method of transferring power to the people. It is one of the stated purposes of this site and organization (if such it be) and a periodic major concern to a great many of us here. A lot of time, effort and money is expended in often fruitless electoral campaigns, with a chunk of that money often going to advertising and marketing consultants. Nonetheless, many campaigns and candidates seem blisteringly unaware of one of the most basic marketing techniques, generally to their detriment. Please follow me past the misshapen cream puff and I will try to keep this brief
Product Differentiation!
There, I've said it. Much as I hate marketing and all the phoniness that it generally entails, product differentiation need not necessarily involve deception, pevarication or misrepresentation
Nobody attempting to market a pick-up truck says "Hey, this is just like everybody else's, but with snazzier wheel covers." It may be true, but they don't say it. How about "This is our version of Coke(tm), in a different bottle" or "Look, soap is soap, ours has magnolia blossom scent." Be that as it may, before, during and after every election cycle a lot of Democratic candidates, their supporters and their handlers spew a lot of excuses and justifications for doing exactly that. (To make matters worse, a favorite such excuse is a self-fulling prophecy - a fallacy to be discussed in a later post.)
Sometimes, this position is staked out openly, and other times it is not made explicit, but is glaringly obvious. All too often such candidates fall prey to the electoral rule of thumb expounded by Harry Truman that:
"Given a choice between a fake Republican and a real one, the public will choose the real Republican every time."
This is not, I know, a universal truth, but it has a lot of empirical evidence supporting the fact that it is very often true, especially in mid-terms. There are, in addition, a lot of relatively basic sociological reasons why it is true. Before I Illustrate, let's stereotype the electorate a bit; in general, and by and large, they are:
1) Hard core GOP/DEM, always vote for their party's candidate
2) Moderate GOP/DEM, votes for their party's folks unless they
are really horrible, might vote opposition if theirs is abhorrent and
opposition is really inspiring
3) Weak GOP/DEM, wii vote for their party's candidate if said candidate
is inspiring enough, or else stay home
4) Non-aligned voter, votes for whichever candidate is most
inspiring, might take a pass
5) Maybes will only vote if somebody really inspires them to do so
The key to winning elections is to inspire your party's Type 3 voters and a bunch of type 4 voters.
Forget about getting enough GOP voters of any type to make a difference. If you get all the Dem type 3s and a lot of type 4s, you don't need GOP voters. There are demographics within those categories, sure, but they are within and do not usually override them. Hence, pulling in the female vote means female category 3 Dems, lots of category 4 females and a good handful of category 5 females, not any GOP category 1 or 3s and not enough GOP category 2s to matter whatsoever.
Even if you think you have to come off as conservative, be your own conservative, unique, vibrant, and real, not weak tea. However, since the GOP has practically trademarked conservatism, consider that any type 4 voters who are impressed by that shit will lean GOP anyway. Progress and a better future are inspiring ideas, and they are not conservative ideas and don't result from conservative platforms. The status quo simply is not and never has been inspiring, so if you want to inspire those you need to in order to win, get out there and dare to be different.
OK, so MI-1 was "represented" by an anti-choice male who became infamous during the run-up to the ACA for openly and admittedly carrying water for the Council of Bishops. A woman named Connie Saltonstall announced that she would primary him and he bailed, "retiring" for a host of purported reasons not including her challenge. The local "anydude'll do" faction, however, refused to consider supporting her, because "only a man could win there", a male, gun owner, married and spouting fambly values. They got him and he lost to a GOP of the same ilk. Nobody can be sure how Connie would've fared, but she had a shot at inspiring a lot of female type 3 Dem and type 4 voters, and maybe even some female type 5 voters. There was nothing at all noteworthy, novel, or inspiring about Mr. Anydude, however, so he got some Dem 1s and Dem 2s and went down in flames. Blanche Lincoln? "Hey, lookit me, I'm an anti-labor consevative too, and I'm an independent one at that." Oh yes, also a loser.