Isn’t it a shame that today Trump, not the Democrats, understands how to use the latest media? A dangerous situation: Donald Trump has FDR’s understanding of the most modern communication systems available during his time.
Just as FDR used Radio and his fireside chats to bring Americans to his side, The Donald has figured out how to use TV, Twitter, other social media, and Rallies to continue and raise his support.
Today’s Democrats are (communication wise) yesterday’s Hoovers.
Listen to and watch Chuck Schumer, for example.
What if Obama and his staff used the newest media better than they had? Would we have had a different Congressional election result in 2012 and 2014? Would we have had Merrick Garland as a Supreme Court Justice? What if Hillary had? Would Trump had won in 2016? What if Pelosi, Schiff, and Schumer had?
FDR understood how to use his version of new media. His radio Fireside chats turned the tide to develop American confidence in both him and the economy. In fact, Roosevelt’s critics accused him of coopting radio for propaganda purposes. The 1930’s version of the DNC said the best way of communicating his objectives was “from a source of confidence, like the radio.”
But not all was good.
The phrase, the “lie factory”, was first coined in 1933 when the first political consulting firm was created by Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter.
The first example of their work occurred when former muckraker and self-proclaimed “socialist”, Upton Sinclair, ran for the California governorship, Whitaker and Baxter went to work for his Republican rival. They took lines from his works of fiction and attributed them to Sinclair as if they were real quotes. The lie factory won the election for his Republican opponent. Seems like this has been a Republican tactic for quite a while.
W&B created a prototype for a plan or campaigning that has worked for decades. It should be very familiar.
- Keep it simple.
- Rhyming is good.
- Never explain anything. The more you explain, the more difficult it is to win.
- Repeat. Repeat.
- Words must dent the mind not merely lean on it.
- Simplify. Simplify. A wall goes up when you make Americans work or think.
- Make it personal.
- Candidates are easier to sell than issues.
- You can’t wage a defensive campaign and win.
- Never underestimate the opposition.
- Never shy away from controversy. Win the controversy.
- Average Americans don’t want to be educated. They like a good battle or a good show. If you can’t do one, do the other. It is best to do both.
Versions of this have been used by many…. The first copycat, Joseph Goebbels, hoping to sow division within the American populous, used a shortwave radio station… (early social media) to broadcast “fake news story in “American English” mostly about the American Jewish Conspiracy.
Hello Vlad.
DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing 