2016

As this blog draws to a close, I would like to take some time to talk about one last election: the upcoming one. Up till now, all the campaigns have been in the past and we know who came out on top in the end. Now we have an actual race in progress to look at; one where the slogans are vying for our attention.

As the final candidates have not been nominated yet, this post will be looking at the forerunners of the Democratic and Republican Parties.

For the Republicans, we have Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Donald Trump.

For the Democrats, we have Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

To be fair and to avoid anything that can be misconstrued as bias, I will be looking at each candidate in alphabetical order, regardless of party.

From nytimes.com

Hillary Clinton – Her official slogan is “Hillary for America” but it doesn't really have a ring to it, so the line I’ll be looking at is the one on the posters: “Fighting for us.” This line reaches out to all the people of America covered using only two letters. “Us” is a powerful word when talking to people. It is entirely inclusive and excludes no one. Furthermore, it does not alienate the candidate from the people. It effectively says that everyone is in this together. The choice of “Fighting” is a strong rhetorical choice as well. The verb acknowledges that there are challenges ahead and the candidate is prepared to take them on.

Ted Cruz – His official slogan is “Courageous Conservatives.” While this may not seem like much, it is extremely relevant in this election. The other major candidate for the Republicans is Donald Trump who has not-so-conservative ideas. Cruz is reaching out to the Republican voters who dislike Trump. His slogan states his type of beliefs and offers an alternative to Trump. Cruz also has a unique poster campaign. The word “Trusted” is displayed in all caps with the “Ted” part in red. When the word is said split like that, it sounds like “Trust Ted.”

John Kasich – His official slogan is “Kasich for us.” This one is pretty basic. It is worth pointing out that when written in all caps, “us” will look like “US.” The possibilities both suggest that the candidate will make a good leader for the people and for the country. To be honest, Kasich’s campaign isn’t at all flashy or catchy – it’s much more subdued, potentially because he isn’t going for a delegate win. Instead, he is trying to prevent Cruz and Trump from meeting the delegate requirement and then snatch the nomination at the Republican National Convention. According to The Atlantic, Kasich can compete with the Democratic candidates if he were to be nominated by the Republican Party.

Bernie Sanders – Sanders’ campaign has many catchphrases and flashy lines, but for me two stick out: “A Future to Believe In” and “Feel the Bern.” With the first one, Sanders is not implying he has plans for the future, instead he is telling the voters that they can believe in it. The second slogan is fun. Like many of the catchiest slogans, it is a play on words. “Feel the burn” is a slang term that often refers to the feeling after exercising. The connection between this and politics is minimal, but the fact that it exists shows that Sanders is not afraid of reaching out to the younger voters. In fact, that seems to be one of his major campaign goals.

Donald Trump – Here’s a joke I read on the internet recently: Why does Trump want to ban pre-shredded cheese? He wants to make America grate again. (It’s a joke. Laugh.) All kidding aside, Trumps slogan has become fairly well known. “Make America Great Again” is a shout out to the past and a promise for the future. “Again” acknowledges the past accomplishments of America. Slogans like these often show up when a candidate is looking to win over the presidency from the rival party. Trump’s slogan blames Obama (a Democrat) for America’s current state and that is why Trump (a Republican) should be elected president.

Out of all of these campaign slogans, I'm personally a fan of Sanders' chant. It has a unique fun feel to it that is seldom seen anymore. As far as which one is most effective, that will be up for the voters to decide in November.

Thanks for reading!

Hope

When President Obama ran for his first election, his campaign was spearheaded with a concise message. His posters, his speeches, and his supporters proclaimed two things: “Hope” and “Change.”

Image from linkedin

Officially the two slogans were “Hope” and “Change we can believe in.” The popular chant for the campaign was “Yes we can.”

This whole campaign exuded an air of hope and possibility. With positive campaign slogans that seemed to cover all the possible issues (albeit by being very vague), Obama’s campaign reached out to the voters of America.

For any problem there was “hope” for a better future, and by electing Obama “change” will happen.

The effectiveness behind this campaign was it empowered the people. Given the setting of the 2008 election when the economy was struggling, the war on terror was dragging on, and everything seemed dark and depressing. Then from the Democratic Party came a congressman proclaiming that there was hope. Furthermore, Obama was different from all the previous presidents. As the first African American on the ticket, Obama not only promised change, but appeared as a change from the norm himself.

The other part that made Obama’s campaign quite successful was his use of the internet and technology to connect with the voters. By 2008, the internet had come a long way since the last election of a new president. Heck, it even came a long way from 2004. This change a whole new media to campaign on.

Paper campaigns were very limited and often left the voters disconnected from the candidate. Travelling campaigns were better at forming a connection with the public, yet one candidate could only be in one place at one time. Television and radio campaigns eliminated the location restriction but came with the downside of time restriction as broadcasts can only air at certain times. With the internet, the campaign can reach anyone with connection anytime at all. This greatly increased the candidate’s connection with the voters and made it so much easier for messages to be spread.

Obama did an excellent job of utilizing the internet in his campaign. His campaign slogans and chants were short and concise, allowing for easy understanding by the attention deficit internet users we are. Furthermore, they fitted easily into Twitter messages and Facebook posts without becoming a wall of text.

Image courtesy of the wonderful Wikimedia Commons

Although most of the strength of Obama’s campaign came from his internet presence, the above picture shows one of his famous posters. This simple palette and short message quickly became iconic.

However, his second campaign did not fare as well. He struggled to find a new unique message to convey. Regardless, the campaign's official slogan of "Forward" is still effective. It continues the message of the previous campaign and once again looks towards the future.

Turn of the Millenium

Changing times often lead to a good amount of discussion about the future. This is no different in the realms of politics. Sure, some folks like to complain about the present or the past, but the majority of people prefer to look towards the future. People like it when the future is bright and shiny and some candidates keep this in mind when running their campaigns.

At the turn of the millennium, campaign slogans suffered a bit from maybe a lack of stuff to talk about or perhaps the candidates were just not very creative. So instead, we ended up with quite a few slogans talking about the time.

Bill Clinton, for his second campaign, ran with the line “Building a bridge to the twenty-first century.” In his campaign, he included the accomplishments of first campaign and worked on identifying ways he could continue the nation’s growth. Once Clinton had won the election, he set forward to increase government funding of science and medicine in an effort to keep America at the forefront of progress.

The year 2000 was a fiercely competitive election year. Al Gore and George W Bush had such a close vote that the election came down to a recount of the votes in Florida. Eventually the Supreme Court had to stop the recount with the final result of Bush winning the presidency.

In this election, an urban legend formed around Gore stating that he claimed to have invented the internet. Gore himself came to embrace the idea and referenced it on CBS’s Late Show in a humor list of the “Top TenRejected Gore-Lieberman Campaign Slogans.” While the statement is not true, Gore’s initiatives from his terms as vice president helped develop the commercial internet we know today. The Webby Awards honored Al Gore’s contributions in 2005 by presenting the former vice-president with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

By the next election in 2004, things had taken a much darker turn. The nation was still in shock from the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. In troubling times like these, a strong leadership is what the nation needs. President Bush had handled the aftermath of the incident excellently, earning high approval ratings from the public. Bush ran for reelection with the platform of “A Safer World and a More Hopeful America.

It was in this time that America needed hope. Bush was trying to bring this with his campaign. In certain ways, he was successful in persuading the public that he would be able to provide.

His rival John Kerry used a similar line “Let America Be America Again.” This slogan is somewhat similar to Harding’s “Return to Normalcy” in 1920. In my opinion, these slogans tend to have less of an effect. They reach out to the past, to something that once was and can never truly be again. It is always a best to keep looking forward, towards progress and tomorrow.