Judge a campaign by its slogan.
Lynton Crosby is great at winning elections. Have you tired of the phrase “strong and stable” yet for #ge2017? If so you have got the message and his strategy is working.
The practice of message discipline channels candidates and party activists to stick to the centrally agreed script. Loose talk loses elections. A clear message wins them.
It’s hard not to see the same pattern emerge in other democracies — who didn’t know that Trump’s slogan was “Make America Great Again”, or that Macron’s party was called “En Marche!” (on the move).
While few can forget Obama’s “Yes we can”, who now can remember Marine Le Pen’s or Hilary Clinton’s?
So we’re clear, simple, memorable, slogans win elections.
But once you see them emerge, the question becomes how implementable are they?
There are two types of political slogans — dreamy and drudgy. Dreams are wispy visions that will let you do anything to achieve them while the drudgy tie you to a framework. Drudgy slogans have the great advantage that once you are in power you can actually get on with it. The argument has already been won.
You know the difference between them when you’re actually in power as a result of them and having to implement them. Dreams are impossible to execute (how do we make America great “again”, when surely it’s greater now than it ever has been?).
When I was an elected borough councillor in Wandsworth 15 years ago we had a simple message “low council tax, high quality services”. It worked like a charm. Wandsworth Conservatives have been repeating this tried and tested formula ever since.
The slogan though is clearly drudgy — no-one wakes up in the morning dreaming of low council tax and high quality rubbish collection. But when it comes to implementing the vision, the formula makes it pretty easy — “does this save tax, does this improve the quality of service” — if not we’re not doing it. Over time (and Wandsworth Conservatives have had decades to perfect it) lots of the 1% improvements this sort of vision pushes for give an effect like compound interest. It’s kaizen writ large in a public body.
So, when you next vote — look at the slogan. More than any individual politician or a manifesto, that’s what you are really voting for. Is the slogan dreamy or drudgy?
Forget the dreams, look for the drudgy slogans, as they are the ones worth voting for.
