MAKE NEWS
Trump owns the news cycle, he’s the headline every damn day, whereas Hillary’s nowhere to be found. Taylor Swift did not become the biggest star in America by laying back and resting on the laurels of “1989.” She had listening parties, of both professionals and fans. She delivered Christmas gifts and filmed the ensuing hysteria. And despite experiencing a backlash, she could still sell out stadiums all across this great nation of ours. You see the fans don’t care about the haters. Don’t piss in the wind complaining, best your enemies by playing their own game, but better.
SPEAK TO HIS CONSTITUENTS
Want to replace Taylor Swift, do her act better than she does. Or come up with something transcendent that eclipses her. This election is about persuading the undecided. You’ve got to speak to their issues and convince them. The anybody but Trump faction is never gonna vote for him, don’t bother preaching to the converted, if anything it alienates the middle. The middle is worried about jobs and their future. And you appeal to these people emotionally, you feel their pain, something Bill Clinton was so good at. Stop railing against the Donald and go after his fans.
INNOVATE
Kanye is the master here, he held rallies to roll out his fashion line and his video, and charged for the privilege of attending. Kanye thought outside the box, he realized it wasn’t about unit sales, but mindshare.
ENGAGE
The person with the best message wins online. If Hillary were smart, she’d get into a flame war with Trump, engage him on his own terms online, spontaneously, on Twitter. The eyeballs and the news would be overwhelming. Trump’s a man of no substance, Hillary’s a wonk. She’d win any battle if she only played. Furthermore, it would set up the debates, it would defuse Trump’s firepower and put him on his heels. And Hillary could reference the online shenanigans during the ultimate televised encounters. Once again, Trump wins by being outrageous, that’s why people tune in, to see what he says next, it worked for him in the Republican primaries. Hillary’s got to go for the jugular, she’s got to be tough, we know she’s got it in her, she’s got to stop playing soft grandma and become bad ass grandma, which will further demonstrate her ability to lead, it’s a win win. Hillary’s not touchy-feely and that’s okay with the women on the work front lines, who have to deal with a man’s world every day and know how to play rough. 1992 was a generation ago, those ladies pissed off that Hillary didn’t want to stay home and bake cookies are in retirement homes wondering how they’re going to pay the next bill, if they’re not still working. People want a fighter and a winner, and that’s Hillary, not Donald, and if she’d just take off the gloves, stop smiling and start sneering…she’d issue the knockout punch.
ISSUES NOT PENUMBRA
Don’t take the bait! Don’t react to Putinism or the Muslim inanities, this election is about economic security, plain and simple. Once Donald gets you off point, you’ve lost. If someone was gonna be turned off by Donald’s wild statements and flip-flopping they’d have already abandoned him. You think the press is doing your job, by hammering Trump every damn day, but when it comes to entertainment there’s no such thing as bad publicity. And Trump has made this election about entertainment. You can’t win on that level, he’s better at that than you are, but if you illustrate his inadequacies by challenging him, you’ll succeed. Trump is thin-skinned and cannot let a comment slide, he’s always got to react. Go on Twitter and ask him how he’s gonna balance the budget with his tax plan, ask him how he’s gonna repair our nation’s infrastructure, ask him how he’s gonna keep black people and Latinos safe. Own the issues, play offense, not defense, that’s when Trump looks worst, when he’s force to respond to specific questions far from his wheelhouse, the ones important to undecided voters.
It’s a game folks. And Trump has revealed it to be a completely different one from what has come before. And all the established players have been caught flat-footed. The Republican party, the media and now Hillary Clinton. Past is prologue. Don’t be one of the seven dwarf Republicans playing your own aged game as Trump clears the board. Bush had a plan, no one cared, they want action and emotion. Rubio had no substance. And Carson was a dodo and Christie was tainted. And while they were jockeying for position, Trump redefined the race and then won it, to everybody’s amazement.
He’s gonna go low. He’s gonna say things that are gonna make many wince. But his words won’t be so different from those used in bars and households all over America today. Decorum is out the window, everybody uses the F-word, life is a rap battle, and the person who believes they’re above this is seen as out of touch and ends up being squeezed out.
Beyonce tested limits and got even bigger. Standing up for something instead of just smiling and playing nice.
And the “Voice” contestants play by the rules and then never succeed in the marketplace.
And Drake releases new music constantly, he’s always in the news.
And Bieber is the biggest and baddest, and he’s left a trail of missteps in his wake, but no one who listens to his music cares, they just love the songs.
Sing your song Hillary. Say what you’re gonna do instead of claiming America is already great. Be a leader, something Obama has faltered at. Challenge Congress. Push back. Organize. Have us follow in your wake instead of you following in ours.
As for Goldman Sachs and the speech money…do your Checkers mea culpa, say you needed the money and you kept making the money because money is power and you needed to accumulate so much to take on the corporations. Make your supposed flaws your assets.
Today’s musicians may not be cutting edge musically, but no one has done a better job of harnessing the new communication tools to reach the populace. It’s musicians who dominate social media, it’s musicians who are now unfiltered and in the marketplace every damn day. Better to consult with Taylor and Kanye than Robby Mook. And Bill’s aged and out of touch and Obama is so busy playing nice that he might have beaten Romney but would be challenged in today’s world.
The battle will be won by making your own news, by controlling your own narrative, not by being interviewed on Fox News, but by being all over Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Never forget, the mainstream media is last, stories are built online. You can create your own narrative, musicians do it every damn day, Kim Kardashian is the master of this. Hell, she’s a good example. People hate her for having no talent. But you know what talent she does have? Making money. By staying in the news and appealing to those open to her message.
And many more people would be open to your message Hillary if you just got into the pit and fought it out.
You can do this, I know you can.
Don’t be afraid of mistakes, they’re quickly forgotten, step up to the plate and take some whacks, it’s the home runs we remember.
P.S. Own the criticism. Just like African-Americans took back the N-word and Obama called the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare,” tweet Trump and tell him it’s CROOKED HILLARY! And that you’d be tweeting from Benghazi, but you couldn’t get a plane there fast enough, just like you couldn’t get troops in to save…
P.P.S. Ask any golfer, you play to win or you don’t. Sure, Hillary might eke out a victory with her present strategy, but who’s she gonna kick if she fails but herself. No one is better informed on the issues than Hillary, no one knows better how to shepherd change through our system, she’s got to stop having her seconds telling everybody this and DEMONSTRATE IT!
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