(Excerpt from Chapter 3 of A PERFECT PRESIDENCY, A Political Novel)
Waiting for the Cooks to step down from the podium to take their seats, Wilcox’s mouth formed a rare smile. Then, he spoke, “Daniel, we need to start the strategy meeting.” A very simple statement that came out like an order. And Richardson clearly understood it: no more campaign style talks, no more boasting or hyperbole.
“A few political facts need to be ascertained before I go into policy and strategy.
“First, the American people are not as benign and generous as the Democrats especially the liberals have maintained. Their understanding of the voting populace is deeply flawed. Thankfully, they do not know it. But we do, thanks to our sophisticated research undertaken by Clint and his associates at the McPherson Group. Many of you may not be familiar with Clint and his Group; they are the best in their respective specialties. It is now an open secret that his company rivals the National Security Agency as the best information collector and data processor. They have demonstrated their powerful capability for defining political trends and predicting the outcome of a political campaign. Their contribution to our victory in the primaries was tremendous and is acknowledged by us all.”
Everyone in the room dutifully clapped their hands.
“Second, without power, a politician or even a political party is absolutely irrelevant. It may sound philosophical, but I want to emphasize here that that is a hard fact.
“Third, sometimes in politics, the end justifies the means. We believe in conservatism, Republican Conservatism. We believe it will save the country from the excesses of the liberals over the past several decades. To implement Republican Conservatism, to do good, we must have total power, not just control of the House of Representatives, or the Senate, or the White House, or the Supreme Court. Each win is just a step, or to be perfectly clear a means to reach the end, the ultimate goal: we are working to gain total power, the control of all four branches of the U.S. Government.”
Maven was shaken. He glanced at Davendorf who was staring in the other direction at Richardson. He had suspected Richardson’s extremism but believed that he was just one voice within the Movement. He had trusted Wilcox, Thalberg, Peterson and many others in the Movement to keep a tight rein on the extremists such as Richardson. They would let him speak his mind but never allow him to take the organization on a risky, and off the mainstream politics, adventure. Tonight, he was obviously the spokesperson for the Movement. His statement had no doubt been cleared by the other senior members.
“Fourth, the American people demand change. They want the U.S. government to take care of their citizens, not foreigners. They do not want immigrants. They want to preserve the Christian traditions, to live in accordance with Christian tenets and teachings. They want to preserve Western culture and civilization untainted by harmful ideologies. They do not want their society, built by their ancestors with sweat and blood, to be colored and changed by globalization. They want the liberal policies reversed.
“These are facts.
“We have done our own in-depth research for the past several years. These factual findings match the findings of our conservative brethren in Europe. And they are solidly supported by the data collected and analyzed by the McPherson Group. The findings will be essential planks of our platform…”
Bobby Reed did not wait for Richardson to finish, “The Republican Central Committee has commissioned several studies and polls too. We did find these trends among the public, but they are held by a minority. In fact, the people who express such feeling comprise only 10 or 15% of the population at the most, and mostly white…”
Richardson was blunt. He did not want to get into a frivolous argument. “Well Bobby, our candidate won the primaries; yours lost. That says a lot about the thoroughness of your polling experts and your candidates’ ability to take the pulse of the electorate.”
He heard Wilcox clearing his throat and knew that he needed to move on. “As I am speaking, our platform is being drafted to incorporate these findings.”
The room turned raucous with the participants vying to ask questions. “Who are writing the platform?”, “Why are we not consulted?”, “On what authority is it drafted?” Several participants pushed the chairs away and stood up.
“Please one person at a time,” the baritone voice of Wilcox rose above others’ and calmed the little storm in the Thalberg Library. Again, Richardson was acutely aware of the power of Wilcox’s personality and again, was reminded to tread carefully.
“Daniel, let me answer the questions. The Steering Committee has selected Republican conservatives in each field of society, politics, businesses, industries, religions, and many special interest and advocacy groups. The Steering Committee is finalizing the makeup of the group and will report to us. We have made our suggestions known to several members of that group, albeit incomplete, for their thoughts. The actual drafting of the platform will begin as soon as the group officially receives our approval.”
Maven heard no more protest or objection even though the platform was as unclear and obtuse as before Wilcox’s statement. He did not understand whom Wilcox meant “we” or “us”. All Republicans? The Movement? Or his Steering Committee? Or only a few of his close allies such as Hightower, Thalberg, Peterson, and Richardson? What suggestions? Who was “the group” that the suggestions had been made known to?
“My apology Daniel. Please continue your representation,” Wilcox yielded the microphone after making sure that Richardson would not veer too far from the main subjects, and the audience would not interrupt again.
“Thank you, Willie,” Richardson was back in charge.
“Our analysis of the electorate does not classify them into conservative, liberal or moderate,” he paused. All eyes were fixed on Richardson.
“That classification is outdated and misleading. It has in the past led us to designing wrong strategies. Our target is no longer the voters but the important issues of the days that we choose. It sounds confusing but it will be clear to you in a moment. Of course, we court the voters. But we work the issues and pull the voters to us,” he paused again walking back and forth as if he were a teacher in front of a blackboard trying to lead the class from the simplest point to his more complicated strategy.
“We look for ways to catch the voters’ attention. We look for a common theme that powerfully bonds the voters regardless of who they are. In grouping the voters into conservative, liberal, or moderate we forget that they are making choices not always about the topics but about their emotion. Let me clarify that with an example. Immigration. If our strategy is to attract conservatives, we would say we are against immigration. What would we get? I am sure not the majority of the votes to win us an election. If we want to woo the liberals, we will say we are for immigration because that is what they have been advocating. Again, we do not get the majority because we would lose the conservative votes. How do we win the moderate votes? Would we say an immigration policy should be human but…? Or immigrants have affected our society in many cases in harmful way, but …? Then again, we may get their votes but lose the conservatives and the liberals.
“So, we must work around the topic and go straight to the emotion of the voters. Therefore, framing the messages is the strategy. Framing, say, the immigration issue in such a way as to touch the emotion of all the voters, that is what we look for, the same emotion, in the conservative, liberal or moderate.”
Maven already knew where Richardson was heading, and he thought that Richardson needed to be confronted. But he was a member of the Steering Committee and a colleague of Richardson, he could not do that. Davendorf could. He turned his head to look at Davendorf, who seemed to be deep in thought.
“A political party especially the leadership does not just follow the mass’ desire and wish. It must lead …,” Reed did not have a chance to finish his thought.
“I get your point Bobby. But I want to paraphrase the motto of our good friend, the French professor Paul Bellamy, you cannot lead if you do not have power. In the longer term, we will lead. We will implement our political agenda. But the immediate goal is to win the coming election, which requires all our energy and skills, not just a political skill but a campaigning skill.
“They are probably the same, but I want to make this little distinction so that what I will present tonight will be clearer. We have a mandate from our Party’s membership to implement immigration reforms, uphold Christian values including the abortion issue, turn the country back inward to look after its citizens, its cities, its social problems. Political skill identifies the issues important to the people. But to win an election, we need campaigning skills.
“So, what is it? It is the skill to make the voters identify with us, accept us as them, trust us to represent them. In short, to give us the votes. We are all Republicans. All the candidates in the Republican primaries are Republican, that means they know and understand what the Republicans wants. But our campaign skill was superior. That’s why Zachary is now the Republican nominee.
“Our political skill is straightforward: doing thorough research, identifying the most important concerns of the people. Campaigning skills are more flexible. Our opponents, Republican as well as Democratic, call it by many names, manipulation, exploitation, or misinformation. I call it ‘nuance’”.
“Can you elaborate more on the nuanced campaign strategy of yours?” That was from former president Roger Wood.
Of course, senile old timer, Richardson silently said to himself. Out loud, he said, “Mr. President. I can summarize it in six words: ‘Birds of a feather flock together.’”
JOHN P. LE PHONG (This piece can be read on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com}
