Brand X

In the less sophisticated days of early television advertising, commercials used a basic technique to sell their products. Many of the products advertised were household products. The common method was to make the comparison between the favored product and the vaunted BRAND X. “Brand X” was always product that is simply inferior.  I know there will be a thousand different explanations to tell us why the recent election turned out the way it did. As I was watching the results come in and thinking about what happened, the idea of “Brand X” really felt like an apt metaphor for the defeat Mr. Romney and so many other Republican Senate candidates suffered on election night.

Getting right to the point, President Obama wasn't in the strongest position during his campaign. Though I believe he had done much better as a President than some of his staunchest detractors would admit. Still, he was presiding over an improving, but very sluggish economy. Normally an economy with a very slow growth rate would spell defeat for a sitting President. So the question is why Mr. Romney could not capitalize on these circumstances and eke out a narrow win. My sense is that Mr. Romney was a weak candidate who could not overcome the Republican brand. Before I move on to the Republican brand, I call Mr. Romney weak because he could never find a core set of positions to campaign on. The Republican Party literally forced Romney into extreme right-wing positions during the laughable Primary races. He felt compelled to go far-right just to compete with the likes of Perry, Santorum, Bachmann, Trump, Cain et al.(Clown College) Once there, he was kind of stuck. His late dramatic reversals and shifts betrayed a lack of genuineness in his political and moral fiber. And to top it off, he was in the same package as the rest of Brand X.

If there is a lesson to be learned from this election, it is that the Republican brand needs a makeover. The simple truth is that this brand just doesn’t sell any more, when compared to the other product (Party) on the market. It is also clear that the Republicans don’t understand the market, because the market for political favor has changed and it will continue to evolve in ways that don’t mesh with the message of today’s Republicans. In the last few days I’ve actually heard the voices of some reasonable Republicans who see the need to change direction. These were people who are still Republican, but more moderate in their views. They are finally speaking up after years of being afraid to stick their heads up for fear of being booted from their own party, as many moderates were. This is encouraging. At the same time I continue to hear the same old denial from the far right who will blame everyone but themselves, using some truly amazing twists of logic. The Party seems to be in as much disarray as they were after the first Obama victory.

On the all-important economic issues, The Republicans turned out to be Brand X. Exit polls confirmed that economic confidence is growing. The constant chant that “he made it worse” wasn’t true and didn’t sell. If you want to see “worse”, go back and read the headlines from September 2008. Then follow the trend lines since then. 56% of those responding on exit polls said President Bush was to blame- not Obama. Employment is improving, not regressing to 700,000 job losses a month. Most voters (particularly low and middle class) voters knew Mr. Obama, not Mr. Romney, had their interests at heart. There also seemed to a growing awareness of the overwhelming evidence that cutting taxes on rich people does not create jobs. The Trickle Down fantasy never worked and today’s reality only proves it. Mr. Romney was stuck with the brand that only has a few ingredients: for a full list of ingredients look at the radically conservative Republican National Platform. It just doesn’t sell (or add up).

Mr. Romney lost huge among women because his Party has been systematically demeaning women for years now. The crazy “legitimate rape” and “God intended it” remarks are not wild anomalies. They are positions the Republican brand has been pursuing for years through attempts to dictate a woman’s reproductive life, limit a woman’s access to health care, and ignoring wage disparity. It has been promoted in State houses and in Congress for quite a while now. The real trouble for the Brand began when those yahoos went out said it in public-and let the cat out of the bag. There goes plausible deniability for the Republican brand. All Mr. Romney could do was ignore the questions on these subjects. He literally pretended not to hear the questions. Women noticed-and the gender gap was a major factor in his defeat.

Perhaps the biggest market share mistake Republicans made is in relation to minorities. The oldest tradition in American politics is that white people run this country. White people need to get used to the idea that racial minorities combined, now (or will within a few years) outnumber white people. The Republican brand has not appealed to this demographic truth. It is no longer acceptable to find ways to work around their problem- Republican policies are the problem. On immigration, the Primary contenders mostly talked about how high to build the fence and how much lethal voltage should be used to electrify it. There were so many racially charged (racist) comments from Republicans in this campaign it was a national shame. Mr. Romney went so far right that he talked about how he would repeal the Dream Act- and how to institute “self-deportation” (perhaps the dumbest comment of the whole campaign). The Party has alienated minorities for years and done nothing to resolve the basic issues of racial injustice- they hardly even recognize it. As a Party this brand was only noteworthy for attempts to suppress voting in minority communities. Minorities noticed. 96% of African-Americans, 73 % of Asians and 76% of Latinos voted for Obama. The time of the ruling white class officially ended with this election. Diversity is no longer a PC thing to say, or a winking joke. It’s real, and this Brand X doesn’t get it.  No political Brand will succeed in the future unless their policies include justice and inclusion for people of color. It is the future of the country and it is right to embrace it.

Finally, this Republican Brand miscalculated the effectiveness of the fear tactic. Conservatives by nature want to preserve old ways. They want us to live under more’s and values that are “traditional”. To achieve that they often resort to the language of fear. They tell you that change and growth themselves are things to be feared. This brand has tried to convince us to fear or ignore science, and gotten far too many of us question actual facts by persuading us that things we see are not real. I will never forget the comments Mr. Romney made at his convention mocking the President for “trying to stop the oceans from rising”. Two months later, rising oceans and other effects of climate change swallowed up much of the east coast, leaving behind unimaginable pain and loss. It’s not a laugh-line now- but that’s what this brand has been pushing. In this election we saw a concerted effort to paint Mr. Obama as a figure to be feared and despised. He wants to take your freedom, or your guns, or your health care options, or your religion. He hates businesses, he hates white people, and he hates America! We were told to fear minorities, fear gays, fear "the other". In the last week of the campaign Paul Ryan stooped so low as to say that if the President won, it would be the end of Judeo-Christian values in this country. The growth of the Tea party is ample evidence of the politics of fear. As one commentator said the other night; “this will have to end sometime, we’re running out of angry, old, white men.” All the fear whipped up by right-wing hate-talk radio shows and the SUPERPACS to prop up this brand didn’t sell this time. I find that comforting.

I believe the end of this particular Brand X is near. The ice has been broken, voters said no to the old intolerances. After years of being swayed by fear, voters approved same-sex marriage in all three states where it was on the ballot. Overwhelmingly, the public feedback on the election is a call for cooperation, reconciliation, moderation, and governance. Brand X thought they could regain the White House this year by simply saying “no” to everything. They sometimes said “no” to their own ideas if they thought the President agreed with them. (Prime example: Obama Care) If they take that path again, they risk being irrelevant. If they choose not to govern- not to work for the people this time their Brand will gone forever. The country has monumental, pressing problems to tackle and it will take patriots and statesmanship working in cooperation to resolve them.

My best hope is that the Republican Party will alter its Brand. I hope they will abandon the extreme elements that have ruined the Brand and return to the business of governing by reason instead of stubborn, intractable ideology. I don’t wish for the death of the Party. Dynamic conflict helps the system work- paralyzing conflict just hurts the country. I wish for an opposition party with opposing views that are reasonable, and populated by members who put Americans first, and Party second. I had hoped that this election would be the beginning of a cultural change that recognizes the need for new directions. I think that has happened. Even though this was a very close contest for the Presidency; the result, and the result of many Senate races tells us that the majority of the country simply won't buy Brand X.  

Thanks for looking in.