Democrats are bad at branding. 

Republicans, on the other hand, have been masterful at bending the language to their advantage. 

In 1997, strategist and pollster Frank Luntz turned the “estate tax” into the “death tax”, benefiting a tiny percentage of ultra-rich families and large landowners. (They sold the idea as a benefit to family farms and small businesses.)

In recent years, the GOP has characterized the rich as “job creators” and tax cuts for high-net-worth individuals as “tax relief.” They reduced air quality standards with the “Clear Skies Initiative” and increased logging with the “Healthy Forests Initiative.” School voucher programs became “school choice”, and anti-abortion measures were recast as “pro-life.” 

Indeed, the genius of the MAGA movement lies in a single word: “Again”. Following two terms of an African American president, MAGA tapped into a nostalgic yearning for something that never was, a mid-century utopia for straight white males. For voters who felt left behind, “Again” represented a way to reclaim their straight, white male privilege from women, LGBTQ+ individuals, Black and Brown people, Jews, and, in particular, immigrants.

Republicans are not only good at branding themselves, but they’ve also successfully rebranded Democrats. A cardinal rule of marketing is: “If you’re not branding yourself, your competition will do it for you.” By focusing on identity politics and pronouns, Democrats made it easy for them to do so.

Today, Democrats have been pilloried by the White House, Republican officials, the right-wing media ecosystem, and podcast bros. Once the party of the working class, Democrats are now coastal elites. Snowflakes. Socialists. Marxists. Globalists. Latte-sipping liberals. Weak. Woke.

While voters hold negative opinions of both parties, each polling around 60% unfavorable, Republicans haven’t experienced the vitriol associated with a “D” behind a candidate’s name. “I’d rather be Russian than a Democrat”, reads the t-shirt.

The last successful Democratic branding program took place in 2008, when the Obama campaign galvanized voters with “Hope”. But that was in the infancy of social media, before algorithms amplified grievance and outrage as the lingua franca of engagement.

Full disclosure: I spent most of my working career in branding and marketing, but not in the political arena. I lack the talent of a Frank Luntz for partisan manipulation. 

But I’ll bet there’s a person, a think tank, or perhaps a political marketing firm who can brand the Democratic Party, and Democratic candidates, in a positive light. A brand that stresses people over property, integrity over corruption, and fairness over cruelty. 

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?That’s it. That’s the project.