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… Simplest Message Wins.
When I first began working in strategic communication, a wise mentor taught me that policy and communication have to go hand in hand. Create a policy without thinking about how you are going to talk about it or have something to say without fully fleshing out the idea and you are on a path to failure.
I bring it up because it’s a simple principle that gets ignored far too often and it results in good ideas going to waste or bad ideas becoming law. And it happens on both sides of the political isle.
Let’s look Georgia voting law. On March 25th, the state legislature made a number of changes to the voting laws, and passed it along party lines.
Now, unless you live in Georgia, are a policy wonk, what you actually know about the law that was passed a few weeks ago is probably limited.
The actual bill reads this way:
“No person shall solicit votes in any manner or by any means or method, nor shall any person distribute or display any campaign material, nor shall any person give, offer to give, or participate in the giving of any money or gifts, including, but not limited to, food and drink, to an elector”
Fact checking articles are all over the internet for anyone willing to read them. But most people have probably heard only that it makes it harder for people to vote absentee and that it makes it illegal to give someone a drink of water while they wait in line.
And that last bit is the simplest message that is making the biggest impact.
Full disclosure: I am not an expert on this law, just an observer trying to sample from the dogma of each side to form some kind of informed opinion.
And when one side can say that the other made it illegal to give a thirsty person a drink… well, that message hits home for a lot of people.
Back to that policy and comms go hand-in-hand stuff for a minute. Let’s say there are issues with Georgia voter fraud; and let’s say those really needed to be corrected… why wasn’t anyone in the room willing to speak up and say, “hey, if we do that water for thirsty people thing, we’re going to get crushed in the court of public opinion.”?
Making no comment on the policy, someone dropped the ball by not pointing out that a single provision would arm their opposition with the simplest talking point and that could be the difference. Maybe not in whether or not the measure would pass, but someday when voters retain even fewer of the details and only have it in their mind that Republicans want voters to go home instead of getting a drink.
We live in a busy world with a lot of apps, texts and emails vying for our attention. Not everyone is going to read your bill. In fact, very few will. And that’s all the more reason the simplest message can make all the difference.
That’s it for this week.
More On Message in the next issue of the Utah Political Underground. Don’t forget to like this video and subscribe to our new YouTube channel.
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