"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York."
Made glorious summer by this sun of York."
William Shakespeare
In this COVID winter of discontent, there is a bright spot:
https://youtu.be/WDvNUJUVmGk
The ad speaks for itself. It doesn't sell Budweiser. It sells how to deal with adversity. It isn't the beer. It is friendship.
Because this is a blog about culture, politics, branding, and messages I will make a couple of brief points, although readers might be better just to click on the ad and see it twice, skip the commentary, and feel good for a moment.
The ad reminds us of friendship and community at a time of frustration and difficulty. It is the "kinder, gentler" America that reflects an earlier mood in our political life, one that enough voters on the margin wanted again that we changed presidents. In each of the scenes the response of the characters was to make the best of adversity with a friend and a beer, especially a friend.
Readers may think, well of course, duh, it's a beer ad not a political ad. True, enough. Politics is for being mad as hell when there is trouble, and beer and friends are for dealing with things with a sense of humor. Different realms. Maybe that, too, is my sense of surprise and pleasure in the ad. Politics is important in a society with self government, but it isn't everything. People get married, they have jobs and lose them sometimes, they recall their youths, they connect romantically, they form teams, they deal with snow. There is a realm of the personal, and in that realm we can, indeed, all get along. We get by with a little help from our friends. We get high with a little help from our friends.
Yesterday's blog post spoke to the addiction to outrage. Maybe I was too pessimistic. People here have reason to be unhappy, but nobody is marching on the Capitol. Nobody is denouncing anybody.
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| Senator Jon Tester |
7 comments:
Back in the 1950s, articulate and intellectual Adlai Stevenson, for all of his smart and detailed campaign positions, was defeated by Dwight Eisenhower with a campaign based on the slogan, “I like Ike.“
Eisenhower commercial
Good observation, although the ad is a bit fatuous.
I think when voting one usually starts with party. Democratic Party values are well known historically and consistent with forwarding human rights and fairness. They also are clear about their positions on current issues.
After that one should look at the particular candidate's resume and experience and evaluate their character, but of course this is difficult, and why they go into the community so voters can get a personal feel for them. For most people it's not difficult to discern sincerity and authenticity, but when we can't get a face to face meeting, we fall back on polling and media coverage.
This brings us to the current Republican dilemma. After decades of lies and demonizing Democrats their base has shrunk to two basic groups: traditional Republicans who are generally well-off, believe Democrats will impoverish them and who have family and class pressure to vote accordingly, and the mentally ill, who labor under a well documented burden of delusions, encouraged by right wing media, that are dangerously divorced from reality.
Traditional Republicans are hanging on to their beliefs despite all evidence that their party is corrupt beyond redemption. They vote party line no matter what. At this point candidates don't matter. As long as they spout the party line, "election fraud!", "socialism!", the vote is guaranteed. Our own state is a perfect example.
Oregon Republicans were pretty tame until recently, but they have increasingly adopted far right postures in keep in line with the national party's degeneration. Unfortunately when you empower the mentally ill the result is unpredictable.
January 6, 2021...
I think the upcoming political issue is going to be populists versus the elites. This country’s managerial elites have proven themselves repeatedly to not give a rip about the fates of their blue-collar “inferiors.”
Trump was the first, but he was undermined by his own numerous pathologies. If the Republicans can manage to nominate a competent and sane populist in 2024, I predict they will blow the Democrats out of the water.
Michael's point about competent and sane Republiquans carries a lot of weight, which is why I think Cotton of Arkansas is so dangerous, and even Ted Cruz is to be watched. Hopefully, Hawley put a big hole in his boat with his support for the Treason wing, but with Republiquans, who knows. There simply aren't very many sane and competent Populists who actually appeal to the DieHard Trumpists, but even if one appears, hopefully Democrats can maintain the attention of their Voters well enough to get out the vote in sufficient numbers to maintain their hold on things for at least another 4 years beyond 2024. After that, in all likelihood, I'll be beyond caring.
I think Dan Crenshaw might be just the kind of populist I was talking about. He’s a former Navy SEAL with a ton of charisma.
Michael, you might be right. The cosmetic eyepatch gives him some kind of cred, despite his deplorable politics.
Well-established principle of influence, from Dr. Cialdini's classic on the psychology of persuasion:
Similarity
One of the most influential (factors that can be used to produce liking) is similarity. We like people who are similar to us. This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions, personality traits, background or lifestyle.
Because even small similarities can be effective in producing a positive response to another and because a veneer of similarity can be so easily manufactured, (take) special caution in the presence of requesters who claim to be “just like you.”
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