The Massachusetts Message

When Barak Obama campaigned on a message of “change” and “hope,” America jumped on the bandwagon. The message resonated because America believed a fundamental “change” in the broken, old-school, business-as-usual Washington crowd would bring “hope” to the American economy, security and overall standing in the world.

After one year of rushed legislation, bulldozer diplomacy, back-door deals and ill-conceived publicity stunts, it’s become apparent to many that what Barak Obama really meant by his messages of “change” and “hope” were exactly the opposite – that a fundamental “change” in America would bring “hope” to the broken, old-school, business-as-usual Washington crowd.

And that is what America is pissed off at.

This disconnect with how the target audience defined the new administration’s brand is why, in my opinion, we’ve seen political upsets in Virginia, New Jersey and now in Massachusetts.

At least from my branding vantage point, these upsets are not a repudiation of the Obama agenda, as right-wing pundits would want us to believe.

Similarly, this is not a function of some “deep discontent with the pace of change” as communications from the Obama administration and pundits from the left are suggesting.

Instead, the anger and frustration coming from the American voter seems to me to be about HOW things are getting done in Washington as opposed to WHAT things are getting done.

America, in general, wants health care reform. They just don’t want a government takeover filled with politically motivated “deals” and a very, very big price tag to drive up taxes and eliminate personal choice.

America, in general, wants Banks and Wall Street to be held accountable for screwing with the economy, tanking people’s retirement funds and selling people mortgages they could never afford. They don’t, however, want the government to take over our banking industry and create intrusive mandates on how private business concerns are to be run.

Most importantly, though, American voters want a seat at the table. The country does not want people they do not trust making decisions that will heavily impact their lives and the lives of their children. They especially don’t want these decisions to be made behind closed doors. And they definitely don’t want these decisions to be politicized in any way.

As the Democrats and Republicans in congress continue to feud between themselves – deploying strategies and setting policy seemingly solely as a means of partisan sparring – the American voter has felt increasingly left out of the process.
The beauty of the system we have in place, though, is that it always allows the voter to eventually speak. And speak they did - in New Jersey, in Virginia and now in Massachusetts.

Did you hear what they said?

Our “hope” will come with a fundamental “change” in how Washington plays politics.

Longtime incumbents beware.