Thursday, November 12, 2015

Apple Pie Politics


When my son began to speak actual words, one of the phrases that he repeated a lot was “no apple pie.” Several times a day, he’d go into the kitchen to assess the apple pie situation and then find his mom or myself to let us know that there was a serious lack of apple pie. We expected a different response when Rie would bake an apple pie for him, but he stuck to his guns in asserting that, whatever we thought that pastry was, it was “no apple pie.”

Seeing the media from two different national elections - Canada’s recently completed one and the seemingly endlessly upcoming American one - I couldn’t help thinking that my son would be a hell of a politician. Judging by the ads, the debates and the admittedly small amount of the election content I’ve been able to stomach, the primary skill required for politics is assertion. You must be able to repeat an assertive statement no matter what the particular facts of the situation.

I’m oversimplifying a bit, but the Canadian election can essentially be boiled down to the Progressive Conservatives asserting that Justin Trudeau wasn’t ready to take the helm and Justin Trudeau asserting that he was ready. Or, in my son’s worldview, the PC’s insisted there was no apple pie when Trudeau said there clearly was apple pie. In this case, Trudeau’s assertions won out and Canada has a new Liberal government after around a decade of the PCs in power.

The United States doesn’t yet have the clear apple pie vs. no apple pie messaging yet, but there are some definite messages that potential presidential candidates are leaning towards. Donald Trump, who is in the lead for the Republicans, seems to be tacking towards “America sucks, but I can make it great again” while Hillary Clinton, leading the Democrats, is going with “America is pretty good now, but I can make it better.” Now, you can say a lot about these two as people and candidates - Trump is a narcissist whose polling success is clearly from going after the lowest common denominator and Clinton is clearly leaning heavily on her husband and Mr. Obama for political cred - but at least their messaging is about the country they are hoping to represent.

The Canadian election was less about the nation and more about whether or not Trudeau was ready to give Canada its first political dynasty. From a strategic communications standpoint, this framed the election as Trudeau’s to lose. He had one overall “issue” to address and it wasn’t even one where an objective answer was possible. Enough people agreed that there was apple pie, and a new government formed.

With Trump and Clinton there is a similar lack of objective evidence for either assertion, but it opens the door to a more meaningful and interesting debate. Is America sucking right now or is it good with the potential to get better? Obviously your own personal situation is going to influence how you answer that question and ultimately how you vote.

Modern communications is all about boiling the complex down to a few key messages that you repeat, repeat and repeat some more. There is still room for thoughtful analysis in the long form magazine-style interviews and some journalistic channels, but most of the content we see are soundbytes. And maybe this is a demand driven problem. Maybe we want politics to be simple. Maybe all we want our politicians to be assertive and on message.

The risk is that we are quickly approaching a point where the key messages and polish allow someone to walk in with an undisclosed policy platform that - if properly explored - is not what the majority actually want. I don’t have a solution. I don’t think media will ever revert back to long form journalism when listicles are so much more clickable.

I don’t think politicians will ever again drop those polished facades when in front of a camera and talk about what they actually think and feel. But I have been wrong a great many times in my life. That said, my money is on there being many more “no apple pie” elections in the years to come.

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