The political class has clung to conformism as if it’s way to protest him.
One business lesson Donald Trump has applied in politics is to be original. Companies spend tremendous sums to make unique products, brand them and protect them from copying. Electoral messages are easy to copy, yet few candidates seem to recognize the threat.
Mr. Trump may be the most copy-proof politician in modern history. “I do my best work off script,” he told the Black Voices for Trump Coalition in Atlanta in the fall. “I also do my worst work off script.” He gets away with his worst work because of his best work, which rivals have proved incapable of imitating.
Most of this happens through their own self-limitation. Mr. Trump has found an issue mix that other candidates’ orthodoxy prevents them from adopting. Democrats can’t embrace border security, across-the-board tax cuts or limits on abortion; Republicans shy away from tariffs, entitlements and limits on foreign aid. Both parties were equally flummoxed about how to argue against Mr. Trump’s policy mix and tried unsuccessfully at different times to use his behavior to disqualify him.
Mr. Trump’s political prowess includes his behavior. The virtues he eschews—formality and restraint—are among the most easily learned behaviors, which is why they are taught to children. Most politicians display them in spades, yet they’re unpopular as a class.
By contrast, communicating off the cuff to audiences is something politicians generally avoid because it’s risky and takes a long time to become comfortable with. Even as Mr. Trump has turned Twitter into a political megaphone, almost all tweets coming from his Democratic antagonists and Republican supporters read like press releases.
Mr. Trump’s meteoric rise via seemingly reckless policies and behavior should contain a lesson for other politicians: Being formulaic is no formula for success. Yet in party orthodoxy and campaign style, the political class has clung to conformism as if it’s another way to protest Mr. Trump. This is damaging candidates on both sides.
Eleven Democratic presidential aspirants have at least 1% in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC national poll. Most have struggled to attract attention despite generous free media and have relied on biography for attempts at differentiation. The list is full of moderate, experienced candidates who have flopped, yet Joe Biden leads because of superior name identification. As the front-runner, he looks in danger of becoming the Democrats’ Jeb Bush—a well-known name with little of interest to say.
Republicans in places where Mr. Trump is unpopular have tended to embrace workaday or local issues that Democrats find easy to copy. It didn’t work in Northern Virginia, where Democrats swept races for state Legislature this November and transgender Delegate Danica Roem handily won re-election by playing down social liberalism in favor of traffic troubleshooting. In 2018 Rep. Jennifer Wexton easily captured the area’s last Republican House district in a contest that was waged largely on agreeable causes like limiting highway tolls and raising federal pay. If embracing Mr. Trump won’t help the GOP defend their suburban seats, neither will this strategy of off-brand pragmatism.
Which Democratic candidates could offer Mr. Trump competition as a pathfinder in politics? Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders stand out for their willingness to do and say things other candidates won’t. Both espouse a left-wing economic populism reminiscent in some ways of Mr. Trump’s conservative populism. Mr. Sanders has appeared on Fox News and other venues to talk to audiences outside the party.
Mr. Trump has shown that, in an era of polarized politics, being a brand is a better strategy than being a commodity. Most politicians are indistinguishable, interchangeable, easily copied. Their policy proposals are similar to their peers’ and tenuously connected with voters. They are told by consultants to “stay on message” and are respected by the media for doing so. That’s why Americans are sick of their politicians—and why Mr. Trump has succeeded.
Mr. Danker is a former adviser to the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.