Insights Gained from Trump's Presidency
In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump's campaign defied expectations and resonated with a large segment of the electorate. One key to his success was his ability to make political proposals tangible and relatable to voters. As democratic parties, such as those in Germany, prepare for upcoming elections, it's essential to understand and learn from Trump's strategies.
Trump's approach involved clear, absolutist messaging and crisis narratives, appealing directly to economic populism, offering simple, concrete promises, and creating an outsider persona. By telling voters what is wrong with the current state, identifying clear political adversaries, and offering an abstract path to restore past greatness, Trump created a sense of urgency and insecurity that motivated voters to seek change.
To counter this effectively, democratic parties can adopt clear and direct messaging, embrace economic populism, provide concrete policy paths, focus on authenticity and consistent narratives, and centre principles that address voter concerns. For example, in foreign policy, Democrats might emphasize peace and diplomacy more clearly and directly.
The Trump campaign's ads were also strategically crafted to appeal to various audiences. An ad titled "Less wars. Less worries" conveyed tranquility and emotional power, showing a child walking towards a woman in a soldier's uniform with a draped US flag. Another ad, the "Closing Argument," was tailored to different target audiences: one for the base and one for undecided voters.
Kamala Harris' campaign, towards the end of the 2020 race, used right-wing aesthetics to reach into the opposition milieu, reinterpreting Trump's narrative on migration to criticize corporations. The Harris team, despite being part of the establishment, positioned themselves as agents of change, embodying the need for a shift from the status quo.
However, crises such as Covid, the Ukraine war, and conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon shaped public perception and associated Harris and the government with a time of crisis. The U.S. election campaign's focus on abstract polarization between the democratic, honest candidate and the threatening dictator Trump is similar to the potential dilemma facing the traffic light parties in the upcoming German federal election.
The strategy of making politics tangible and explaining how it eases people's lives is an important lesson for democratic parties, even in Germany. As Arun Chaudhary, a former video producer of the Obama campaign and the White House, analysed, learning from Trump’s strategic communication style involves combining strong, relatable messaging with clear, substantive policy proposals that connect directly to voters’ experiences and concerns. This can help democratic parties better counter populist narratives and make their political offerings more tangible and compelling.
- Democratic parties, in preparation for upcoming elections, could follow Arun Chaudhary's analysis by adopting methods that make their political proposals tangible and relatable to voters, similar to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
- The strategy of explaining how politics can ease people's lives is crucial in education-and-self-development, as it enables voters to understand the practical benefits of political campaigns and thus make informed decisions during election campaign periods.
