Political Slogans Equal Showcase Positions

Compensating for the paucity of strong issue positions from which to choose was SP’s   pragmatic lack of an agenda — she would happily run as  a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent – and the scope of her  search for issue positions,    starting with a review of positions dating back to the founding fathers.

 

SP’s  review started with an analysis of   political slogans that communicated   showcase positions historically associated with  winning political campaigns. She also  gauged the popularity of each slogan and supporting positions associated with each in terms of electoral votes they generated and characteristics of constituencies attracted to the slogan – information that would help later in tailoring and communicating selected showcase and supportive positions to  worthwhile voter constituencies.

 

Among other conclusions, SP noted that  most  slogans fell into one of four categories, each representing a different period. 

 

In the first category, slogans  explicitly stated showcase positions or position benefits . Examples:  Polk’s  “Reannexation of Texas and Reoccupation of Oregon”; Lincoln’s : “Vote Yourself a Farm”; Bryan’s  “16 to 1” ( increase the money supply by  coining 16 ounces of silver for each ounce of gold);   McKinley:’s  “In Gold We Trust” (His  response to Bryan’s slogan);  Hoover’s “A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage”.

 

Second category  slogans  reminded voters of  candidates’ presidential qualities. Examples: Wilson’s “He kept us out of war,”  Truman’s “Give ‘em hell, Harry,” and Harrison’s “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.” (Other slogans in this category focused on negative qualities such as “In your guts you know he’s nuts,” a send up of  Barry Goldwater’s  “In your heart you know he’s right” slogan).

 

Third  category slogans,  of more recent vintage, stressed the need for change and included Eisenhower’s “It’s time for a change,” Carter’s “Leadership for change,” Reagan’s   “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Clinton’s “It’s time to change America,” and Obama’s “Change we can believe in.”

 

Fourth category slogans, also of recent vintage, featured “cosmic statement” positions defining the promise of change in a poetic, allusive manner, sufficiently abstract to encompass  other significant issues in the candidate’s arsenal. Examples: “The Great Society” (Johnson); Compassionate Conservatism” (Bush II);   “Building a bridge to the 21^st century,” (Clinton); “The New Frontier” and  “ Camelot” (Kennedy);  “Morning  in America” and “The Shining City on the Hill” (Reagan).

 

SP noted that, unlike  advertising campaign slogans, where one “unique selling proposition”  is sufficient, modern presidential  campaigns usually  require two showcase positions to cover   domestic and foreign policies (for example, Reagan’s  “Morning  in America,” and “Evil Empire” positions, Bush’s “Leave no child behind” and “Axis of evil” positions). SP hoped to find one showcase position  would cover both areas.

 

In assessing  showcase and supportive positions that were winners in past presidential campaigns, SP first eliminated those , such as voting yourself a farm, that obviously wouldn’t blend into a modern presidential campaign.  Then, she assessed the remaining positions according to the extent to which  each embodied these criteria that her research indicated  characterize winning positions: winning issue positions  differentiate  the candidate, attract worthwhile constituencies, are consistent with candidate and party values ,are  easy to defend, appeal on deep subconscious levels,  lend themselves  to  allusion and metrics ,and are timely and understandable,.