The Cult of Iconography

You know, the one thing that I learned from this last election is that if you have a young, hip, likable, historic candidate, and you promote him through CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and all the rest, not to mention stand-up and late night comedy, the entire music industry, university, high school and even elementary school teachers, just about every major movie and television star… and run against the oldest candidate in the history of the Republic, despised by the base of his own party, a man unwilling to take the fight to the only fields in which he can win, and representing the incumbent party responsible for two unpopular wars, a two-term President with historic disapproval ratings, in the middle of the “worst economy since the Depression…”

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…Well, you put all of those forces in harness and you, sir, will attain 53% of the vote!

Just think about that for a second. Think about how many things have to go perfectly for Liberals to eke out a bare majority.

This leads me to think that their entire edifice doesn’t need a whole lot of demolition to swing the tide. One or two planks ought to do nicely and then the rest of it will collapse under its own weight.

One of those planks is marketing and packaging. The Obama example is a case of horrible content beautifully packaged. Conservatism, on the other hand, is a beautiful message horribly packaged, and if we ever hope to win again we’d better get in this game and right quick.

If you can spare eight minutes, you might this look into how the Democrats use the power of marketing and especially iconography to great effect.

BIG HOLLYWOOD is read by Conservatives who know how to do this. So much is made of high-level celebrities coming out in favor of the Conservative message, and God knows that helps. But I think it is much more important for those of you who can write, direct, design and edit to get in this game.

The events of the last few years have shown me that if the Democrats ran unopposed, they would lose. The ultimate question will be whether or not the GOP leadership needs another two years of pain, or four, or eight, to fully get what the Dems have understood for a generation: packaging counts.

I hope it wakes you up. More than that, I hope it motivates you to bring your skills to the table and join the Resistance.

(Viva El Britbarto!)