Articles
Since I can remember, it’s been an uphill battle for Democrats to win the hearts and minds of most male voters.
I don’t think the problem is that complicated because, as many guys have told me, they’re not that complicated. Democrats just need to learn how to talk to guys. As a former Democrat and now unabashed Independent, I’ve become fed up with the way Democrats mis-communicate with Americans in general and with guys in particular.
In choosing who to send onto the political battlefield, Dems must consider how important hero figures are to men. And because so many of us learn how to root for heroes every Sunday in the fall, Democrats need to watch more football.
I've been a New England Patriots fan since I was 13. Football has helped me understand guys, especially what they don't like to hear and how they don't like to hear it. You learn about this when you try to talk to your boyfriend on a Sunday afternoon in the fall or mistakenly call your brother (the Giants fan) before halftime.
In terms of political messaging, Democrats need to practice speaking to guys in their own language: the language of pride, competition and playing-field bravado. Terms I’ve heard Democrats utter in public include “hubris,” “arrogance,” “unmitigated gall” and “Orwellian.” Such language is not straightforward, and it conveys pretentiousness and a culturally superior attitude. Do Democrats want us to think they’re snobs?
Al Gore and John Kerry, the two most recent Democratic presidential candidates, also had a self-defeating tendency to over-communicate — which, to guys, is what women do.
One of the biggest political bloopers committed by a Democratic contender happened in Wisconsin in 2004, when Kerry committed what I call a “perception turnover.”
Kerry showed true cultural clumsiness when he referred to Lambeau Field — home of all-American guy quarterback Brett Favre, the Green Bay Packers and the team's fans, the “cheeseheads,” as well as the place where storied coach Vince Lombardi left his mark on the game and his name on the Super Bowl trophy — as “Lambert” Field. That “fumble” probably made the race a lot closer in Wisconsin, and even nationally, than it needed to be.
Guys, from what they have told me, like things simple, and they don’t like change (unless they decide they want it). One of the big challenges is to get guys to like change that they didn’t think of themselves. How do you do that? Maybe by changing yourself. For one thing, the party must free itself from a dynamic divulged by Maureen Dowd in her book, “Are Men Necessary?” where she notes that Republicans are known as the “Daddy Party” and Democrats as the “Mommy Party.” Why does this dynamic need to change? Because it’s causing Democrats to lose elections.
Above all, Democrats must avoid choosing politically correct candidates and start playing strategically smart politics if they want to win. And to do so, they’ll need to draft the closest thing they’ve got to Brett Favre — or Tom Brady — as their presidential contender in 2008.
