Persuasion and the Presidency

6. September 2008 by admin.

I just finished reading an article by Daniel Levis about how the presidential candidates are selling themselves to the American public.  In describing B. Obama’s acceptance speech, it is no wonder he has a very good shot at victory.

Unfortunately, people do not vote on the issues or who will be the best at protecting our freedom.  People vote on who they can relate to the most and who promises them the most.

Before you read any more please note that I am not for either major candidate.  Perhaps in a later post I will give my reasons.

To get the full impact of what Mr. Levis wrote you need to read it for yourself.  You will find it at http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/daniel-levis/create-your-marketing-personality.html#more-665.

The following is my response to the article:

Daniel, I thoroughly enjoyed your article, even though its truth is frightening.  I hope neither candidate wins.

Despite how well each candidate positions himself/herself in what they say and how they say it, it is a sad commentary on the American way of thinking.

Yes, I can use B. Obama’s words and say “it is not our fault” that we have let the media manipulate us the past 50+ years.  However, it doesn’t matter how well the media has taken control of our thinking or lack thereof (sort of like George Orwell’s 1984), we are still responsible for where we are in life. 

We shouldn’t blame the government or our boss or our circumstances.  We need to look in the mirror to see who is responsible for us and then take immediate positive action to do something about it, if we don’t like the person looking back at us.

The key point about your article is that we need to build a relationship with our clients if we want them to buy from us.  We need them to buy us before they will buy from us. 

Each of the major candidates is doing just that in their speeches.  So you are right, people will not vote based on what a candidate can actually do to make our country a better and safer place to live.  We will vote based on how well we can relate to the persons running.

I would say that this is a very important election and that we should choose carefully whom we vote for.  However, in all honestly, I don’t believe it will make a great deal of difference who is elected.  The President does not have the power to lower gas prices, food prices, the cost of a home, or whether or not we have the job of our dreams.

The President can help support legislation that will give us rebates to help us pay for our high fuel prices.  He/she can support legislation to give more of us food stamps and mortgage assistance.  He/she can support legislation to make sure we all have a high paying job or money to offset our low paying unfulfilling job.  He/she can support national healthcare for all and grants to pay for our education.

But where will all this money come from?  If everyone is on welfare and businesses can’t find willing people to work for them, where will the taxes come from to pay for our welfare system?  I guess we will have to let the government take over our businesses.

Opps, I think that is starting to sound a lot like other forms of government that we have opposed in the past.

It’s kind of like the old saying regarding Nazi Germany:  They came for the Jews and since I wasn’t Jewish, I did nothing.  Then they came for the Catholics and I wasn’t catholic so I did nothing.  Then they came for blacks and since I wasn’t black, I did nothing.  Then they came for me and there was no one left to help me.

Gary Gile

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