Many say the true measure of politics lies with complex political policy. As opposed to political slogans, policy creates a chain reaction of complex details and events. However…if this is true, then what accounts for the current popularity of slogans?
Mostly, slogans serve as a foundation to policy. And just as a house foundation gives only a general idea of what a finished house looks like, the same holds for a political slogan.
Ironically, politics nowadays seems to start and end with the battle of slogans. Back and forth the heated rhetoric flies with slogans serving as battering rams that block off true political debate and solutions. Snappy slogans serve not only as bumper stickers – but also as ways to gain attention and build political support.
Unfortunately, the current reliance on political slogans can actually stifle democracy. Since slogans are often presented as an absolute, with little room for negotiation, it becomes hard to reach down into the sub-variables that are the essence of politics. When one looks to the history of democracy, it’s apparent that in-depth debate has often given birth to political solutions. Once debate is closed off, the use of common standards of political inquiry become blocked. And when this happens, we find ourselves in the situation that modern politics has become – a political quagmire that relies heavily on political intimidation and smearing to gain results.
In addition, such negative tactics can result in each political side accusing the other of holding to falsehoods. In the past, the search for political truth often resulted in the merging of both sides of the political spectrum. Historically, hybrid solutions were what made democracy so effective. In modern times, the heavy use of political slogans creates an illusion that solutions to complex problems – can be solved with a slogan that can easily fit onto the bumper sticker of a car.
Instead of political slogans being used as an ending point for a dogmatic political fight; they can instead be the starting point for a political debate that looks to truly find solutions from across the spectrum. We can only hope.
Politics and Economics 
Usually with time democracy should have become more acceptable and entrenched but the way politics is evolving poses a risk to the fundamental essence of democracy. Today, as you have rightly pointed out it is about slogans that can attract attention of voters. We have moved from policy to algorithms and consent manufacturing.
Thx for stopping by Veer!
As you rightly point out – an algorithmic approach to democracy has now led to the desire to induce consent manufacturing with the political process. Unfortunately, such an approach is now pushing politicians and their operatives away from actually engaging in the underlying details that a slogan can represent.
Hopefully, with more people like you and I, we can work to re-establish a search for detail and civility with the political process.
Best of luck with your timely blog Veer!
Hi Perry,
Your argument is whether sloganeering supports or leads policy. Impossible really to answer one way or the other since common sense policy itself seems to be missing at all. These days slogans are just tools to win power, policies be damned.
Cheers….P
Thx for stopping by P!
Yeah…it’s hard to argue with what you say here. The fact that slogans – which are easy to digest, are used so much in politics now could very well be because a slogan can always give the illusion that the search for political perfection, can continue. After all, when people start to dissect policy in detail they start to find that political perfection may not be so easy to achieve. And in addition, once policy is explored in-depth, many of us find that political enemies may not seem as imposing as they did before.
The essence of democracy – to provide a forum of ideas to percolate from the commoner through all sectors of society, is based on an attempt at honest and in-depth dialogue.
Take Care!
Rhetoric versus policy has long been the slight of hand practiced by politicians.
Lofty goals and preambles are not enforceable legislation.
And in our current political environment legislation is done by legal fiat.
Where disingenuous rules are drawn up for the sole purpose of having it struck down thus. creating legal precedent.
Add to this gerrymandering and court packing, and it is easy to see why cynicism is so rampant.
The author makes a good point of the foundational and inspirational aspects of rhetoric. Inspirational rhetoric is meant to inspire and motivate its audience. However,
“We hold these truths to be self evident” is not enforceable.
“All people are created equal”
Is not applicable.
“No one is above the law” unless you have money and influence.
And “growing the economy from the bottom up and the middle out” can only be done with the consent of the rich.
The problem with rhetoric is there is nothing to compel it to action except the spirit the rhetoric animates.
There the author makes note of the increasingly violent rhetoric used in politics today that cuts off any possible discussion.
After the cauldron of war, our nation was forged through thoughtful, reasoned, although sometimes passionate, debate. Ideas born out of the enlightenment captured the imagination of those longing for liberty and justice for all.
This lofty rhetoric was challenged by all manner of practicalities and this the balance of powers as described in our constitution.
I believe the current political climate is so fraught, because the rhetoric espoused is impractical.
There is not enough physical resources on our planet to portion to each a fair measure. And if we did. no one would be pleased with the paltry sum.
This imbalance is the unspoken source of tension underlying such our current apocalyptic rhetoric.
All living things need help in order to survive.
Making politics a winner takes all bloodsport, ensures both history and the future are dictated by the victors.
And if there is a chance our side could win, then that is hope enough and the facts of diminishing resources will never be taken into account.
Martin Luther King Junior and his book The Strength to Love, recalls Jesus admonition to his disciples to be both as shrewd as vipers and as tame as doves.
Dr. King explains this seemingly antithetical request as a demand that we engage in hard analytical thinking and at the same time maintaining kind and open heart. Tough but fair.
Dr. King reflects on the corrosive affects of advertising that seems to be making us hard hearted and soft minded. Where people callously march forward to beat of unthinking rhetoric.
In God we trust is the foundation of our great exceptionalism. That we would act out of the goodness of our hearts, not the constraints of law.
TE
Thx TE for such an in-depth response!
There is much to ponder here. What it is TE that you make clear is that the power and practice of human nature – as seen through the centuries before the Enlightenment, is back again in full swing. And yes, it may appear that democracy itself has been diluted by the very forces that it was designed to guard against.
Checks and balances work best when most of the citizenry are empowered in their hearts, not by legalistic fear, but by the fact that true legalisms reflect a limited legal framework that mostly ensures that the Enlightened heart – and the lofty rhetoric of brotherhood it inspires, is protected by the law. Unfortunately, as you make clear, the heavy use of slogans and advertising in politics often has had the effect of keeping many people longing for a society that may not exist. Matter of fact, what you imply – that many of the lofty sayings, remain just sayings, appears to be true.
Back when the great Enlightenment philosophers like Kant lived – they were peering through the lens of an often brutal history of war, retribution, and revenge. And yes, during the times leading up to the Enlightenment, it was clear that the victors often wrote their own history. Although there’s never been a perfect society or philosophy, it goes without saying that the attempt during the past 300 years to limit the negative spirits of greed and power, did result in a more rational and humane way to live.
And yes, Martin Luther King’s example of a tough love, rings true today.
Thx for stopping by with the profound insights TE!
Nice post, Perry. You have your finger on the problem with US political discourse today. Slogans are popular precisely because they work, especially with the masses, who are unaccustomed to nuance. (I almost said that they work with uneducated demographics, but today it’s university students, and perhaps especially those at elite colleges, who are most incapable of nuance.) Slogans also work, as you say, by closing off political debate. A great (if controversial) example is “Black Lives Matter.” There are a number of views on how to fix continuing racial inequality in the US, but name your organization “Black Lives Matter” and anyone who differs from you on how to fix the problem is immediately branded a racist, no questions asked, no discussion. I’m not taking a stand on which approach to racial inequality is good or bad here — just noting how effectively slogans can shut down opposition — and note that Trump’s name-tagging of opponents (“Low energy Jeb,” “Little Marco,” etc.) work much like these slogans do — they effectively make people (or at least a lot of people) embarrassed to support an opponent.
Great to hear from ya Daedalus and I always look forward to your insights!
Yeah…its sad to see over the past 20 years how political discourse has utterly devolved. Before the deregulation of the media in 1987, there was in-depth and substantive debate on many issues. Back then – if you disagreed with someone, about as snarky as someone would get was Reagan’s famous quip to Carter in the 1980s debate – “there you go again.” Fast forward to today and yes – you have Trump’s bombastic rhetoric being broadcast loudly, while the left-wing – as you point out, is often coming up with slogans that are positioned as absolutes.
As a result of all this, substantive dialogue which used to arise out of a desire to reach a consensus, withers and dies. Therefore, the ability to either solve a political problem, or advance policy, is rarely enabled out of an us vs. them fear of colluding with the enemy. And as you allude to Daedalus, the slogans basically shut down all dialogue. And once this happens, the repetitive chants of the slogans are the main things that are remembered politically.
Oh well…if we can keep reaching out to dialogue on these issues, we’re bound to have some impact.
Thx for stopping by and best of luck with all your ventures!
Having spent most of my professional life in Marketing and Advertising, I can only say that a slogan is the very END, not the beginning of a long process, Positioning, overall strategy, com strategy, etc… Sadly today, “consultants” sell “slogans” to politicians without going through the required steps…
Cheers.
Welcome back Equinoxio! Its so nice to read your fascinating blog about your travels and life.
Yeah…I can see that from your vantage point in Marketing and Advertising just how slogans work. And yes, it does appear that a masterfully devised slogan – with a clever eye to demographics, can prove most valuable. Since I was involved with party politics for years, I remember too that once a slogan was embedded politically, it took on a life of its own.
I appreciate your honesty about how a slogan can become the end point to the process. Oh well, as we all know – slogans are a natural part of human existence. I guess the main thing that we can try to do is pull the sloganeering back a bit as a goal and move them more into being a part of the process instead of the end of it.
Best of luck with your blog and thx for the dialogue!
Thank you Perry. Happy Holidays…
Happy Holidays to you wherever you may be Equinoxio!
Merry Christmas !
Merry Christmas to you also Arbind! I’ve learned a lot about places such as India from your history blog.
Thank you !
You are most welcome !
Hey Hi Perry,
So much truth. The biggest problems with slogans, like you said, is in how they stifle real debate. And the analogy to bumper stickers is so true.
It reminds me of something Josef Goebel’s said during his reign as the Nazi’s information (disinformation really) director. He said the trick to the Big Lie is to say it often enough and loud enough people come to believe it.
I think this shows that there’s a lot of truth in the fact that most of the population is too lazy to dig for truth – especially when it comes to the news – our national media. Thank God for the Internet – if it wasn’t for that we’d have no idea what’s really happening. We can’t rely on our national media to either tell us the truth or even publicize things whomever doesn’t want us to know about.
The biggest evidence of an empty slogan that got more miles than any other during my lifetime, comes from Barack Obama. Obama became elected president on not much more than being a good public speaker, and canning the popular slogan “Change” to get elected.
I was a Democrat back then but even I saw through the bull. Obama never once told people what was to be changed and what it would be changed to. I ended up voting for McCain because that slogan made me realize evening at the time of the election, we really didn’t know what Obama meant by “Change”.
Now Trump is using the slogan, Make America great again.” At least Trump’s been president already, and we know a little about what is behind that slogan. But still, a lot of people are too lazy to dig deeper and find out exactly what he means by that, even his own followers.
To me, the problem lies with the voters. This is supposed to be a democracy. I think we have lost a fair and balanced media. We’re forced to go elsewhere when it comes to finding an honest and open placed to debate the current issues that are current to our times. Like I said, thank God for the Internet.
If we’re ever going to save our democracy, it’s the voting public that needs to do it. We can’t count on anyone else to do it for us. Like most people, on both sides of the aisle, many of us feel like we’re being robbed of the chance to pick our next president. For me at least, I want someone besides Trump or Biden. I know a lot of other people do too. We’re frustrated with the lack of choices and options in deciding who will be the next president.
Keep the posts coming Perry.
Dave C
Hey Dave!
Welcome back and thx for such an in-depth response! Yeah…its amazing to see just how much mileage that can be gotten out of a slogan. And yes, as you mention Dave – repetition of a slogan in and of itself, with only a few carefully crafted verbal snippets added in, are really all that we get from some of the master politicians. Its almost as if the political marketing people first come up with a slogan, and then attempt to fill in the blanks somewhat after the election.
As you say, the masterfully charismatic Obama got so much mileage out of slogans that were sparsely fleshed out. What made Obama able to withstand critiques of his slogans, as opposed to Trump, was the skillfully disarming way that he handled criticism of both his slogans and policy. Although he would get stern, Obama – as opposed to Trump, rarely lost his temper when called out on the spareness or inconsistencies of his slogans. Therefore, he basically went under the radar.
And there we have it. These factors are why political theorists like Montiesquie years ago were somewhat dubious about democracy. Warts and all though – democracy, as Churchill wisely said, is the best form of government. In truth I think that Churchill said something to the fact that democracy was not a good form of government, but it was far better than all the others. 🙂
And yes Dave, in looking through history, the press has been very important to democracy. In this era of a deregulated media, where the clickbait desire for hostile discourse holds sway, it often is the alternate media from all across the spectrum, where truth and the desire for truth resides. Currently, the internet – as you say, provides a means to fill the vacuum.
Regarding Biden and Trump, there are many people who would like an alternative. This is why Robert Kennedy Jr is getting over 20% in some polls. Whether he can sustain this or climb higher in the polls is another question.
Like you say, it truly rests with all of us to look beyond slogans and to also look beyond individual politicians and political parties, to truly study political issues in-depth. If all of us can do this more and develop a respect for a range of ideas, maybe we can reinvigorate democracy.
Thx for stopping by Dave!
Very precious information about democracy and political system.
I am starting to follow your blog.
Hope so you and your follower visit my website and hope so also follow me.
🌎 http://legalscholar50.wordpress.com
Thx so much for following my blog legal scholar! When your blog is done, I will follow yours also.
Whatever the slogan is but I think people should be aware of politics! 👌
I agree Priti!
Politics is too important to leave mostly to the politicians, political operatives, and talking heads. Also…I’ve been enjoying your creative blog!
Perry Casilio, slogans and gimmicks are no substitute for a legitimate campaign strategy.
Hey Ragnar…thx for stopping by! I agree.
There’s no substitute for thought-out political policy. A slogan can only take one so far…
Best of luck w your blog Ragnar!
Perry Casilio, the blog posts may be infrequent, however, I am happy for the feedback.
You’re welcome Ragnar! Keep it up!
Perry Casilio, I am the sole moderator of my blog. If you submit any comments to future posts, they can be lengthy or short. While my blog is not a discussion forum per se, I am happy to discuss what I review with people. This can be entirely at your discretion, however, if you have any people that you know personally who enjoy spicy foods, feel free to share my stuff with them.
Will do Ragnar!
Perry Casilio, I have been enjoying your blog.
Thx so much Ragnar!
You’re very welcome, sir.
You write with authenticity. Kudos
Thx Anuran & Sayoni!
Authenticity is very important to me. And from reading your “earlymorningmemories” blog, I can see that its very important to both of you also!
Yes sir authenticity is what we follow both for writing as well as sketching. Thanks for reading
Hi Perry 🖐
I just want to add that political slogans and debates have escalated far from honest opinions (but into selfish gains). In this age of Cyberspace tech (mass communication), there should be absolute/thorough communication but, there isn’t. Instead, in this age of cyberspace, man’s total communication has become a ball of confusion— affecting hearts and minds.
Cyber technologies (advancements) have darkened all communications and thought processes into a mix of great confusion. Voices, speech, slogans and debates are at a loss.
Ethics are disappearing. Communication between people, is under attack. Man’s venture into cyberspace is likened to the Tower of Babel— the confusion of man communicating with one another in tongue (the language barrier). What a political mess that the world is now engaged in versus before cyberspace and within cyberspace. 🥺
Fascinating comment!
Yes…the communication styles that evolved in the age of high-tech do appear to many of us to be confusing. Before this era, there at least seemed to be more of an acceptance of common standards of communication. Now, common communication standards seem to be eroding.
As you allude to, it’s almost as if many people are merely shouting by each other in confusing languages that are not completely understood. And instead of trying to create a way to tie the competing languages together, what appears is that when confusion seems to reign – the answer seems to be to almost shout at each other. We often see this trend when people write in ALL CAPS.
Like you said…ethics is disappearing. Therefore, so many things that used to rest on the shoulders of ethics are going away.
Thx for the comment!
People Need Hope
When it comes to the budget deficit, and the state of our nation all together, there are reasons for hope.
As of now, the budget deficit runs over 31 trillion dollars. This is so much money it’s impossible to wrap our heads around it. The truth is, as things stand now, there’s no way our country will ever pay it off. The interest alone is more than we can afford.
When people say we have the power to pay it off, it’s probably not true.
So where is there hope?
First, the last president to balance the budget was Clinton. Clinton didn’t do anything different from the other presidents. What did happen was that he rode the coattails of the personal computer generation; that is, Microsoft, Apple, Sun, and Oracle. Because that movement was so successful financially, the income was there to pay off the debts we ran up.
The only way to balance the budget is for the economy to grow at such a largescale pace it generates the income to get the budget back in check.
Note: I’m not basing income on money. I’m looking at income as being the total sum of all goods and services created.
So, is there anything out there that could match the 90’s when the personal computer explosion happened.
I can’t say for sure, but the most likely source of this kind of economic growth is Artificial Intelligence. AI has the potential to shape the economy for many years in the future.
There have been many fears that AI will make humans obsolete. They said the same thing with the advent of personal computers. I don’t believe this will happen. I think AI is just going to free people from much of the mundane and tedious things that they do now in order to make a living. In the bottom line, there is a human behind every personal computer, and a person will be behind every aspect of AI.
Another example was genetic engineering. From 2010 to 2020 the big fear was scientists would clone people and scientists could engineer a super race. That too never happened.
The hope is that AI will help enable people to have more of those goods and services AI creates, without losing their purpose as human beings. Instead, new jobs with better and more meaningful applications will be created.
The bad thing is most likely no matter what Washington does about the deficit, by either cutting spending or raising taxes, the deficit crisis will just get bigger and bigger.
Former post on hope – David Craig (not anonymous)
Hey Dave…thx so much for the in-depth blog comment on Artificial Intelligence! With your science background, you’re able to make many valid points. Your ideas can indeed give one hope about this complex subject.
Since your comment goes into much depth about AI, you move the political-economic discourse way beyond the realm of slogans. For this, I’m so grateful to you. With more dialogue like this across the political spectrum – there’s hope to truly deal with issues in more of a win-win way. As you well know, one of the main problems with politics today is that the modern concept of total victory, creates a dogmatic all-or nothing political mindset. This win-at-all costs mindset, is why so many are disgusted with politics.
In relation to AI potentially creating an economic boon that’ll aid the risky budget deficit the United States faces, you’re correct. And yes, although AI carries many risks if checks and balances are ignored, it can be a great boon if used in a way that reflects our time-tested concepts of ethics. As you know, this is the tricky part. However…as your points about personal computers and genetic engineering show, it is possible to have ethically derived and controlled AI.
Since the total budget deficit of America of around 31 trillion is close to America’s GDP for a yr, we indeed are entering the danger zone where the deficit can undermine crucial aspects of the economy. Many economic thinkers are aware of this and are worried. And yes, I believe that President Clinton – who worked closely with the GOP leadership under Gingrich, was the last American President who was able to balance the yearly budget of the United States.
By cutting certain areas of government spending and encouraging the Tech sector, the Clinton administration in the 1990s was able to achieve the almost impossible goal of a balanced budget on a yearly basis. Unfortunately, over the past 23 years, we’ve seen the deficit explode and we truly need to find answers that go beyond increasing taxes and cutting programs.
Your optimistic thoughts on harnessing ethically-sourced AI to help create an economic boon for America and the world, need to be a valid part of the discussion for how to deal with our risky budget deficit. It’s a brilliant idea that many agree with.
Thx so much for the comment and stopping by Dave!