Sunday, December 25, 2016

The Five Words That Win Elections

Even if you never hear a particular politician say these exact five words, they're the five words that get candidates elected to office.

These five words function at a more primal level than any particular policy proposal or ideological proclamation. In fact, the politician's task (if he wants to win) is to translate those policy proposals and ideological proclamations into convincing versions of these five simple words.

Translated into different slogans or campaign promises, these five words can appeal to a range of emotions from hope ("Yes we can! Si se puede!") to fear ("segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!").

These are the five words voters want to hear from a political candidate. And even more than wanting to hear them, voters want to believe them whether they're true or not.

Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election by saying these five words or their equivalent louder and more convincingly than Hillary Clinton said them to a key demographic -- the "Rust Belt" working class in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.

These are the five words:

"I am on YOUR side."

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