Demagoguery

"Originally Greek politics had been largely controlled by aristocratic and wealthy elites. They commonly conferred in private prior to an assembly meeting to determine how they wished issues to be decided. Then, speaking as a cohesive voice in the assembly, they created the impression that a large majority had formed an opinion. This strategy worked until an aspiring politician, Kleon, rose one day to proclaim he was a lover of the demos (the people). His direct appeals to common citizens effectively circumvented the powerful elites. Kleon's appeal had an electric effect on the previously unorganized masses...Kleon's practice earned him the title "demagogue," leader of the people, derived from the Greek demos for the people and agogos for leader."
- Introduction to Rhetorical Theory, 2nd ed., Gerard A. Hauser


It recently was brought to my notice that the office of our current president-elect (I had no idea this was even a real "office") has a website: change.gov.

The contents thereof is a stroke of true brilliance. President-elect Obama produces weekly video addresses (i.e. YouTube blog, or vlog or whatever these kids call it); the office of President-elect has their own blog, in case watching a movie isn't your fancy. And while you're checking that out, a whole sidebar on the right involves a bunch of links with the following headings:

Join the Discussion - Our policy teams will be sharing new developments with you, the American people, and asking for feedback.

Your Seat at the Table - Track the Transition's meetings with outside groups, and leave comments and ideas for the team.

Health Care Discussions - Host a health care discussion in your community and make your voice heard.

On the bottom of the page, a little box titled "Open Government" has a link boldly declaring: It's "Your America | Submit Your Stories - The story of the campaign and this historic moment has been your story. Share your story and your ideas, and be part of bringing positive lasting change to this country."

In other words, the office has made itself completely accessible to the people itself, completely bypassing the traditional media outlets and news sources.

Of course, this is incredibly politically savvy for several reasons. One, when you bypass the traditional media outlets and news sources, you are in control of what gets broadcast, and you have direct control over what gets published and what doesn't. This makes for incredibly good PR with the voters. Also, while it appears you can participate directly with the office of the president-elect, chances are, they're not really reading your comments. They may pay a staffer to scroll through the mountains of "OMG first p0st!!111" and "ur gay" to find little gems of ideas that they can use; and should that happen, they can then cherry pick the guy right out of the blue and place that person in the government payroll. The inspirational stories? That's just great PR fodder about how monumental this administration is, thus swaddling it in a cloak of powerful mythos.

But there is one thing that makes this more of a Kleon demagogue, and less of, say, a Hitler demagogue, and that is the name of the url. Change.gov? Everyone always mutters that it is so hard to get a beauracratic monstrosity like the U.S. government to move in one direction or another; there is just way too much inertia. President-elect Obama, however, is riding his entire administration on the mantra of change, not just his campaign. He easily could have stepped away from the more unrealistic promises once in office, like pretty much every other president in recent memory. But when you look at the headlines on his website - Revitalizing the economy, Ending the war in Iraq, Providing healthcare for all, Protecting America, Renewing American global leadership - he's putting these issues front and center. Then, reminding what his administration is all about every time someone types in the website address, he is reinforcing, not walking away, from the things he had promised during the presidential campaign run.

In marketing terms, this is known as positioning - how you want your product to be conceived in the minds of the customers. Obama is positioning his administration to be one about change - and not just any change; we're talking about drastic, overhauling fundamental American systems such as health care or energy change. We're talking war stopping change. In other words, if he doesn't make any significant progress in any of those categories or cause a significant amount of change, he's setting himself up for a hard re-election in 2012. And for someone who is as politically savvy as Obama, this isn't a mistake. This marketing scheme is very deliberate. No politician would set up such a high bar to follow in four years unless he really believed it could happen. He means to do what he says, or die politically trying.