13 December 2012
The Lesson of 2012
If there is a lesson to be learned from the 2012 Presidential election it is that money alone can’t buy turnout of “the base.” The GOP, in ignoring the polled sentiments of its base, proved to be more susceptible to the messages of its financial supporters than the voters were.
My belief that sophisticated public relations techniques have become more reliable determinants of the behavior of voters (and consumers) than old-fashioned door-to-door contact and continual e-mailing turned out to be wrong. This was the insight that Jim Messina, David Axelrod, and others on the Obama campaign so successfully followed in mobilizing the Democratic base. Nevertheless, Republicans like Boehner, Graham, and others were even convinced that money could get Romney elected. Now they believe that it isn’t possible to fight the financial power of corporate, military-industrial complex, and wealthy high-income-capital-gains-earning interests because they can pay for the use of modern information technology to mold the minds of the slow-minded and passive electorate.
As Nicholas Christof pointed out in the 12/13/12 New York Times, the average American has gotten smarter over the last century. Apparently, conservative politicians’ strategy hasn’t taken that into account.
If there is a lesson to be learned from the 2012 Presidential election it is that money alone can’t buy turnout of “the base.” The GOP, in ignoring the polled sentiments of its base, proved to be more susceptible to the messages of its financial supporters than the voters were.
My belief that sophisticated public relations techniques have become more reliable determinants of the behavior of voters (and consumers) than old-fashioned door-to-door contact and continual e-mailing turned out to be wrong. This was the insight that Jim Messina, David Axelrod, and others on the Obama campaign so successfully followed in mobilizing the Democratic base. Nevertheless, Republicans like Boehner, Graham, and others were even convinced that money could get Romney elected. Now they believe that it isn’t possible to fight the financial power of corporate, military-industrial complex, and wealthy high-income-capital-gains-earning interests because they can pay for the use of modern information technology to mold the minds of the slow-minded and passive electorate.
As Nicholas Christof pointed out in the 12/13/12 New York Times, the average American has gotten smarter over the last century. Apparently, conservative politicians’ strategy hasn’t taken that into account.
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