MyDD :: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or Whatever

The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or Whatever

by Matt Stoller, Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 08:42:31 AM EST

I wish Democratic Congressional leadership would stop the horrible messaging already. First it was 'Together America can do better'. Then it was culture of corruption. Then it was REAL Security or something like that. Now it's '06 in 06', which sounds like a stupid car commercial from the 1950s. Do you also get six dollars off your next purchase?

The Busby poll is getting closer to release, and there's lots of interesting data there. Some of it suggests that these kinds of policy-heavy messages just don't work because people don't believe that Democratic candidates can do what they say they will do. Just look at DSCC poster-boy Harold Ford Jr, who's running a perfect campaign according to Chuck Schumer. He's discussing the port deal, gas prices, and his opponents are in a brutal primary. And Ford is absolutely stuck at 41 in the polls.

Here's a new, simple idea for a slogan. It's not perfect. It's not even very good. But it's simple, and powerful.

Republicans support George Bush. Losers.

Update: I like this one, from the comments: "If you put us Dems in control of Congress, we'll do everything in our power to keep Bush from messing up the country any more than he already has."

It's not a bumper sticker. But you get the idea.

Tags: Democrats, 'New Direction for America', New Direction for America, Six for '06, Rubber Stamp Congress (all tags)

Permalink :: 36 Comments :: Post a Comment

To put it in 'narrative' form: (none / 0)

"If you put us Dems in control of Congress, we'll do everything in our power to keep Bush from messing up the country any more than he already has."

Bumper sticker version: "Had enough? Vote Dem in '06!"

by RT on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 09:12:12 AM EST

Re: To put it in 'narrative' form: (none / 0)

Something jazzier for the kids: "Stop the Suckiness! Vote Dem in '06"

miasmo.com

by miasmo on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 11:13:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: To put it in 'narrative' form: or (none / 0)

"Stop Teh Suck"

by zappatero on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 11:37:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: To put it in 'narrative' form: or (3.00 / 1)

"All your base are belong to Dems"

by Lucas O'Connor on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 01:35:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

YOU POLITICOS AMAZE ME (none / 0)

For people who are supposed to be so God-damned smart, it amazes me that you guys can't: 1) come up with even a campaign slogan; or 2) CAN'T EVEN LISTEN WHEN THE OPPOSITION SUGGESTS ONE IT WOULD USE IF THEY WERE IN OUR SHOES.

Instead, what do you smart guys propose?
"Republican support George Bush. Losers."
"Together America can do better"
"Culture of corruption"
"REAL Security...."
"06 in 06"

IT IS NO WONDER DEMOCRATS KEEP LOSING; THE PEOPLE WHO RUN THIS PARTY CANNOT FUCK THEIR WAY OUT OF A PAPER BAG.

Did you hear Clinton's stump speech for Lieberman? As tragic a waste of that talent might have been for someone so undeserving, Clinton put it simply:

"WHAT WE TRIED WORKED, AND WHAT THEY HAVE TRIED FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS HASN'T WORKED"

Newt Gingrich suggested that if he were running as a Democrat, he would paste the following slogan all over the TV, billboards, advertising, etc.:

"HAD ENOUGH?"

That last one would be really great on a TV commercial, with a moving photo collage of Bush's myriad failures as President, with Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" playing in the background. He is a good liberal; he will allow the song to be used.

I door knocked for John Kerry in 04, and when my ex-girlfriend and I went to the meeting, before the door knocking began, the young kid running the meeting felt compelled to give us a 10 minute dissertation on how he got involved in Democratic politics. WHO GIVES A SHIT??

Democrats like me have HAD ENOUGH of this crap. Get your act together -- FINALLY.

by jfrankesq on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 09:31:02 AM EST

Re: YOU POLITICOS AMAZE ME (none / 0)

Newt isn't a genius. That slogan is 60 years old and was used by republicans trying to take over congress in '46.

by adamterando on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 10:06:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: YOU POLITICOS AMAZE ME (3.00 / 1)

I don't like Had enough? Too negative.

But it's only fair to point out that the GOP won on the slogan in 1946.

Then, largely through indifferent leadership and no clear idea what they wanted to do with their control, they lost next time.

Another reason why Had enough? might not be the way to go...

(The Six for 06 document is tedious drivel, I'm sorry to say.

Not that that came as too much of a surprise...)

by skeptic06 on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 12:56:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: YOU POLITICOS AMAZE ME (none / 0)

There are some congressional candidates running on the "Had Enough?" slogan. I can't remember who, exactly, but I know I've seen it.

How about "Enough is Enough!"

"They got their chance!"

"We tried going Red...where did it get us? Go Blue!"

"Iraq, Katrina, Abramoff, DeLay, Donut Holes, Gas, Healthcare, <insert whatever here>...Its time for a change"

by JJCPA on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 02:03:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' ... (none / 0)

Matt - this site might interest you.

by jesselee on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 09:54:33 AM EST

Hillary's DLC Speech (none / 0)

was on CSPAN last night. They were in Denver. She sounded like the lack of oxygen got to her and the DLC - their little "American Dream Accounts" idea is pathetic.

Karl is laughing his despicable ass off about it even as I type.

Rubber Stamp Republicans is the message. Remember when Rove said ridicule would be their wearpon against Kerry? It was, it worked.

Let's make them eat every time they voted with Bush, agreed with Bush, praised and supported Bush, sucked up to Bush.

SHOVE IT DOWN THEIR FUCKING THROATS.

by zappatero on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 10:10:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

The 'rubber stamp' idea is pretty lame (none / 0)

Not quite in the class of Together, We Can Do Better, but in the same county.

The cognoscenti know that Dem MCs have had plenty of opportunities to put a spoke in the wheels of the regime's legislative juggernaut - and not made much of them.

And they'll remember the moment when Uncle Harry took the Senate into secret session to put a bomb under the GOP leadership to produce Part Deux of the SIC Iraq report - and how quickly that fit of pique passed, never to be repeated.

And they'll know that Rockefeller, for all his bellyaching about the lack of action in the SIC on intel matters, has failed to make any use of the independent investigatory powers that he as Vice-Chairman has under Rule 6 of the SIC Rules.

As for Joe Sixpack - how good do we think his grasp of the legislative process is? Does he have a view on how much oversight is enough? How salient is the issue of oversight compared with, say, Iraq or healthcare?

My guess is, to the extent he gives his mind to it, he assumes that rubber-stamping is what Congress does, at least when the prez's party controls it.

Of course, I expect Dem alphabet soup will have polled and focus-grouped the point extensively...

by skeptic06 on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 01:13:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better'... (none / 0)

Or this headline from three days ago...

Democratic ad ties all of GOP to Bush
Washington Times - July 28, 2006

Here's that ad.

by jesselee on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 09:59:58 AM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better'... (none / 0)

It's a good ad. Tell the people who came up with 06 in '06 to stick to the message.

by Matt Stoller on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 11:01:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better'... (none / 0)

It'd be better if

"Vote Democrats.
For a change."

didn't suggest that the audience was presumed never to do so.

by Avedon on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 05:19:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better'... (none / 0)

Oh, man, now why did they have to go and ruin a perfectly good ad? For almost all of the ad, I thought that was the first really good one I've seen the Democrats do this cycle. A little over-long by the end, but the music was good, the visuals were good, it manages to tie in Bush's message repetition with the overall message of change ... and then it ruins it with the final slide. The slogan "A New Direction. <u>Now</u>" is not too bad, but "Vote Democrats ... for a change"? God, why did they have to put that in there? Do Democratic message people have a congenital need to reinforce the feeling that Democrats are losers? What a pleading, defeatist-sounding statement. "Sure, we've been losing like the Arizona Cardinals for years, but why don't you give us a try?!?" I actually haven't put in any thought into a real slogan ... it's pretty hard to actually get a good one and no one's gonna use mine anyway, but .. how about: "Oops, that didn't work. Vote Democrat '06" "Out of Iraq and off of your phone line" "Republicans put the con in Congress. Vote Democrat in '06" "Democrats: Not a collection of Bush's bitches." And after the CT primary: "We booted our one Bush supporter. Vote Democrat in '06"

by BriVT on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 11:37:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better'... (none / 0)

The sad part is that if they'd left the "a" out it would be a whole lot better:

"Vote Democratic for change."

Not brilliant, but at least it doesn't sound like, "Why don't you stop kicking me for a change?"

by Avedon on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 05:21:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better'... (none / 0)

Great idea. I was thinking that. THe Repubs used a variation of that in 1980 with great success. Simple and to the point.

by John Mills on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 05:51:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better'... (none / 0)

Great ad. Perfect tagline and slogan.

by John Mills on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 06:01:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

That ad posted by jesselee is quite good! (none / 0)

by LY of Brooklyn on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 10:28:42 AM EST

Re: Or Whatever (3.00 / 1)

Out of Iraq. Health care now. Fix global warming.

by Gary Sugar on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 10:52:14 AM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' (none / 0)

How about, "Prune Bush"?

by drlimerick on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 11:05:33 AM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or (none / 0)

I really like "Had Enough?"

It's simple and motivational. There's no question of what you should do if you have "had enough."

The truth about McCain

by nstrauss on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 11:12:32 AM EST

Thank god I'm not the only one (none / 0)

...who's a tad disappointed with our weak campaigning. Might I suggest:

-Bring freedom and our soldiers back home.

-Energy for tomorrow. [oooh, multiple meanings!]

-Fight back.

by punkass marc on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 11:27:20 AM EST

Put the cool kids back in government (none / 0)

Republicans and conservatives have far too many bad ideas.

George Will in 2000 remarked something like he was glad glad the adults were back in the White House. That's something these "adults" should have pinned to their foreheads and some kind of angle for '08.

by Cold Porter on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 11:29:42 AM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' (none / 0)

The Bumper Sticker: "Had Enough of George Bush? Then Vote Democrat"

by littlehippocrat on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 12:16:37 PM EST

"...it's '06 in 06'" - oh no, it isn't! (none / 0)

Matt has even repressed the name of the wretched document: it's Six for '06.

But I quite understand why he's trying to put the whole ghastly concoction out of his mind...

by skeptic06 on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 01:26:09 PM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or What (none / 0)

"A Democratic Congress stops Bush"

by Lucas O'Connor on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 01:34:11 PM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or What (none / 0)

"Competency and Real American Values"

"It's Time For Common Sense"

"Restoring America"

The history of the left is a history of purists betraying the progressive movement so that they can feel good about their righteous selves.

by Populism2008 on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 02:20:37 PM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or What (none / 0)

"A Vote For Sanity, Honesty And Competency"

The history of the left is a history of purists betraying the progressive movement so that they can feel good about their righteous selves.

by Populism2008 on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 02:26:41 PM EST

Bumpersticker (none / 0)

My suggestion for a bumpersticker would be "Stop The Damage". It applies to any issue you can name.

I also think "You can't fool all the people all the time", would work pretty well. I like the idea of using Lincoln against the GOP. And it would remind people of Lincoln's identification of Bush's base ("You can fool some of the people all of the time") without saying so explicitly enough to be negative.

by PGE on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 02:33:30 PM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or What (none / 0)

I'm leaning towards "WE TOLD YOU SO, MOTHERF***ERS", but that's probably just me having a bad day.

by Ray Radlein on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 03:31:02 PM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or What (3.00 / 1)

Newt Gingrich TOLD us our slogan. "Had enough?"

Jesus. It's perfect! It's two fucking words. Strunk and White couldn't have put it more concisely. You can write whole paragraphs, essays, explaining what it means, but everybody understands it without polysyllabic SAT word.

Is it because Newt suggested it? Does that contaminate it in some way? Hell, that makes it even better! REMIND people it was Newt's suggestion! Let the media rub the Republican's faces in it! The Republicans had no qualms about using Zell Miller to savage us at the Republican convention. Focus groups commented afterwards, "Well, it really impressed me because Zell Miller is a Democrat, and he was saying they are all wrong."

So everybody quit being so fucking creative. Simple slogans, few words. People are going to vote this November because they are sick of where we are headed, not because of any utopian vision we can offer them. We just want sanity.

by Dumbo on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 04:55:05 PM EST

Pro: Together we can build a better country (none / 0)

It's not good enough to hate George Bush and all the things he and his cronies have done with this country and our government.

We do need a positive statement of what Democrats stand for and what we can do that's different.

Namby as it may sound to you ... I think that 'we can do it together' is actaully a good slogan. Too many of us feel disenfranchised ... as if our political effort would be useles, our opinions don't count ... and too many of us feel that there's nobody in Government or Business or our Schools who gives a damn about us or our kids or our kids' future.

Most of us DO want to work together to build something better. It's empowering, it's thrilling, and it leads to a better world.

Please move towards the positive, and don't trash those nice, positive slogans. They have my attention.

by MS on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 05:18:47 PM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or What (none / 0)

The democratic message needs to speak to substance, not just abstract comparisons with the Republicans (by which I mean substanceless terms like "better" "new direction", etc.). I would love to see the following four words as the democratic slogan:

Fairer, Freer, Safer, Smarter: Vote Democratic

(I admit that there's a problem with making "freer" translate into "free-er" in the mind's ear, but perhaps the marketing geniuses can do better without losing the punchiness of these four words.)

Each of these could be elaborated to show exactly what democrats would do if given control of the congress. And in fact I do think democrats stand for each of these ideas, and that we would do better than republicans on each account, and that combined these are election winning issues. But even if these aren't the concepts employed, democrats need to identify some set of broad but intelligible sales points that show what the democrats stand for (other than that they're not republicans). Hence, I urge the brain trust here to look for a substantive pitch for democrats that would give people grounds to trust their vote to them.

Ump.

by Umpteenth on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 09:13:59 PM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' (none / 0)

STOP THE MADNESS
VOTE DEMOCRATIC

by Sitting Duck on Mon Jul 31, 2006 at 10:16:33 PM EST

Re: The Next 'Together American Do Better' Or What (none / 0)

Bush + GOP = Failure

by Rook on Tue Aug 01, 2006 at 12:42:22 AM EST

You are not logged in.

In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.

If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.