In politics, you’re either on-message or you’re losing. Let’s get to it.
Welcome to On Message, a weekly look at where the battle lines are drawn and who is winning the war of words.
This week… PLAY THE LONG GAME
A lot can change in just a week and, since our last On Message video, we’ve had President Biden give his first official State of the Union address (which likely had to be re-written in just six days), we’ve fringe Republicans getting hammered for speaking at a conference run by white nationalists before heckling the president at the State of the Union… and, oh yeah, the escalating violence in Ukraine and the resulting political commentary.
I told you it was a lot.
But over the past week or so one thing that really stood out to me from a political communication standpoint, and that was Mitt Romney.
Turn back the clock a decade to the presidential campaign of 2012. Romney, then the GOP nominee for President, declared Russia as America’s top geopolitical foe. President Obama disagreed.
Clearly things have come full circle on that front – and Mitt Romney could have launched a press tour centered around how right he was and how everyone else was wrong.
I mean, really, who could blame Senator Romney if he wanted to gloat a bit?
He was right on Russia. He stuck to his guns and has been proven right.
He also stuck to his guns on President Trump and stood as the lone Republican who voted to impeach Trump for his role inciting the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He’s taken all kinds of abuse from the MAGA wing of his own party.
He had every temptation to be smug… but he, once again, took the high ground.
Right there, Senator Romney could have let go of any built up frustration with his party, with his 2012 campaign, with whatever else may have been bothering him. It probably would have been therapeutic. But he didn’t.
And that’s today’s lesson.
When things aren’t going your way, speak on principle. Do your homework so you know what’s right, stake out your ground and stick to it.
And when things go your way… or when the long arc of history intersects with your position and proves you to be right all along… take the high road and remember that it’s not about you.
Making it about you may feel good in moment and it may even be advantageous – at least initially. But it never lasts and will almost always come back to hurt you.
Take the high ground in all things. Make your message about important issues and the people you serve, not about you. Your audience will respect you for it and reward you for it… sooner or later.
That’s it for this week.
More On Message in the next issue of the Utah Political Underground.
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