Voting is a form of brand selection
What brand do you prefer? Americans are master shoppers. We like our favorite brands and it’s no different when we come to selecting our presidents. The big brands (Democrat & Republican) capture most of our attention, largely due to the media coverage they command. Smaller brands (Green Party, Independents, etc.) have their sway, too. What makes up a brand and, when it comes to presidential candidates? What are we buyingif we cast our votes their way?
Trump sells a destructive brand
It’s no secret to my blog readers that I am not buying what Trump is selling. Though I pay close attention to the Republican party and wish for the day when the GOP can once again be healthy, I don’t see it coming soon. Trump has broken the GOP mold causing Republican leadership to morph into a commodity that should be shelved in some far-off back room. Silence and lack of spine neither serves nor sells. Trump’s brand sells fear, hate, and lies. As I see it, these are the tools he uses to serve his greed – not US.
If you’re a Republican and don’t like this perspective, I hope you work hard to refresh the GOP brand that can take pride, once again, in serving America. Your fellow Republicans need you to relocate the GOP center – the ideals that helped build these United States.
Democrat candidates reach for their personal brand
If you watched the recent Democratic debate last week, you witnessed each of the ten candidates polish their respective brands. They reached for their center as they strived to awaken and encourage a damaged nation to find its soul.
One question posed towards the end of the debate asked each of them to tell of a time when they had failed and how they had recovered. They were asked about the lessons they learned from the experience. It was a gut-wrenching exercise, you could tell, as they dropped their political spin and spoke of their resilience and source of motivation.
Biden began his answer and set the tone for a deep and vulnerable honesty. He spoke of losing those close to him and relying on a sense of purpose to stand up again and serve. The other candidates followed suit, each with their own recount of times past when something touched them deeply and motivated them to take the hit, learn the lesson, and continue. Some called it persistence.
Our votes must matter
This blog is not an endorsement for any candidate of any political party. But it is a nudge for all of us to consider the same line of questioning. How have you failed? How did you manage to overcome an obstacle? What lesson(s) did you learn? When we do this kind of introspection, we discover what makes us who we are. Do we run? Do we hide? Do we try again? Do we succeed? Why?
As we consider the next election, though it’s still months away, shouldn’t the candidate we favor reflect the stuff of which we’re made? Shouldn’t he or she reflect the brand of human we can respect and support and vote for?
Your voice, your vote
Speaking of voting, there was a subtle message on the dais floor that evening. It reminded us that we have a voice. We were reminded that we must use that voice. It told us to raise that voice and vote. The words in front of the candidates were:
Your Voice
Your Vote
Our votes should matter. Every one and all of them. Collectively, as a voting nation, we raise our voices and vote and select the brand of candidate we prefer. It should be a brand of which we can be proud and confident and inspired and safe. And like good American shoppers, we must shop carefully and make a good choice to gain a good bargain.
All votes must matter
The hard part is to remember that we’re not voting (buying) just for ourselves. Our votes affect our families, our neighborhoods, our nation, and, yes, the globe. Our vote is an aspirational wish to level playing fields, to be fair to each other, to make our tomorrows better than what we experienced yesterday. Our votes must mean something – they must matter!
Equal Voice Voting (EVV) stands on the promise that all votes matter. Currently, they don’t. Many of us may cast our ballots but our voting voice will be lost. Many votes (about 46%) never make it to the Electoral College to gain representation. Are you certain yours will?
Sadly, many voters fall victim to false advertising. Not only do we pick the wrong candidate (we sometimes do), but we become distracted by misinformation. Many currently believe that the Electoral College is passé, antiquated, out-of-step, and broken. They don’t recognize its genius and are distracted by the National Popular Vote (NPV) promise, which truly is too-good-to-be-true. Much like the Trumpian promises, NPV is a shell game that will swap out your vote to give others representation you wish you still had.
EVV is the brand you can trust because it is honest, it is transparent, and it is simple. It shuns radicalism while it honors our history, our U.S. Constitution, and our state sovereignty. But most important, it allows us to get the voting result that reflects who we are and the presidential Brand we, the governed, prefer.
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By Jerry Spriggs and the Equal Voice Voting Team