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Stop Treating Voters Like Consumers

In the world of marketing, there’s an old joke about a dog food manufacturer who decided to put the finest ingredients into his product only to find that its sales plummeted … because the dogs didn’t like it.

And that’s entirely on the manufacturer, who deserves to lose money.

That brings us to the American voter. The political media constantly report on this election strategy and that one in order to win over the American voter. The losing candidate, it’s said, lost because he or she didn’t frame the right message; didn’t use the right image. The candidate put together, maybe, the finest ingredients of policy possible, but in the end “the voters just didn’t like it.”

This turns the American voter into something of a dog, but more likely just a consumer. If Pepsi outsells Coke, or the other way around, that’s totally on Pepsi or Coke. Consumers are free simply to like it or not.

But, in civic life, this is a bad idea. In politics, it turns voters into passive consumers reacting only to the slickest image. It destroys the idea of active citizenship. It’s like telling a student that, if he or she doesn’t like Shakespeare, that’s OK. Just read Robert Ludlum instead if you want.

No wonder the political media never talk about policy. It assumes the American voter is a dog sniffing the latest Purina or Alpo. 

I’m Tom McBride; that’s my Perspective.

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