America's Genius

Man-oh-Man is there a lot of tension these days in the political arena! The fights taking place in Washington D.C., and throughout the country, are something to behold. They really get people fired up, and understandably so. When it's all said and done, politics is about values. And, in that way, it's very much like marketing. As marketers, what we do is we deal in values. So strongly are products a reflection of our values that we often integrate brands into our very personalities. We need look no further than an old bumper sticker I once saw. It said, “I would rather push my Chevy than drive your Ford.” Realistically, the difference between a Chevy and a Ford isn't all that great. But Ford people are Ford people, and Chevy people are Chevy people. And that's just the way it is.

The distinction between Republicans and Democrats isn't all that different. And I wanted to write a post to remind people that, in the battle between the R's and D's, there is no right or wrong. It's all just an argument about the relative values of the different sides. There's no need to get so heated as to hate the other side. Different people are entitled to different sets of values. That's a big part of what makes American so great, isn't it? It's the melting pot, right?

In fact, Peter Drucker once wrote an essay titled, “The American Genius is Political.” Remember, Drucker was born in Austria and voluntarily emigrated to the United States. He was the consummate student of America. And, the US Constitution was one of his all-time favorite documents. Peter's prose is usually so elegant that I figured I would simply quote a passage verbatim.

“The genius of the American people is political. The one truly saintly figure this country has produced, the one name that symbolizes the “fulfilled life” to most Americans, the one man whose very life was dedicated toward directing human activity onto a higher goal, was a politician: Abraham Lincoln.

“The phrase which since early days expresses the essence of their own society to Americans is the political promise: the “equal chance of every American boy to become President.” One only has to translate the slogan – for instance, into a promise of “equal opportunity for every boy to become Prime Minister” – to see by contrast that it is uniquely American, and this is not because the promise of equal opportunities in itself would be absurd, but because the political sphere is the meaningful sphere of social values only in this country.

“The American nation itself has been formed out of a multitude of diverse national traditions not by imposing on the newcomer a uniform religion, uniform customs, a new culture – not even by imposing on him the American language. It has been formed by imposing on him a common political creed. What makes the immigrant into an American is an affirmation of abstract political principles, the oath of citizenship in which he promises to uphold “the republican form of government.”

“Above all, the meaning of this country – what it stands for for Americans themselves as well as for the world – is a political meaning. It is a form of government, a social order, and an economic system that are equally in people's minds when they praise America and when they condemn her. And when Americans sing of their own country, they sing of her – in the words of our most popular anthem – as “the sweet land of liberty,” which would hardly occur as a definition of one's country and as an avowal of one's identification with it even to the most ardent of European liberals.

“We have to go all the way back to Rome of Augustus with its concept of “Latinitas” to find a society that so completely understands itself in political terms as does the United States. Yet Latinitas was wishful thinking and never became reality, whereas the political meaning of the United States furnished its essence: its ideal personality, its promises, its power of integration and assimilation. That the American genius is political is therefore the major key to the understanding of America, of its history, and of its meaning.”

Powerful stuff! Have you seen the movie Lincoln? I really enjoyed it. Daniel Lewis did an excellent portrayal of Honest Abe. As you probably know, the movie is based on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Goodwin. In the book, Goodwin writes the following, “In the only country founded on the principle that men should and could govern themselves, where self-government dominated every level of human association from the smallest village to the nation's capital, it was natural that politics should be a consuming, almost universal concern.”

Some people choose to tune politics out and others choose to get involved. If you choose to get involved, and participate, I'd like to point out one simple observation. The other side isn't evil, and they aren't destroying America. Indeed, it's these political wranglings that had made America what she is; the greatest country on Earth.

Yes, politics is a lot like marketing in that it deals in values. And because values are so deeply held, they often stir up strong emotions. So, if you choose to get involved in the political debate take a page from the marketer's playbook. Marketers are often studying influence and here's one thing I'm rather certain of; you can't influence someone after calling them dumb or evil. Would you like to bring some people over to your side of the political divide? How about trying to understand them, rather than change them? After all, perhaps the best way to be persuasive is by not trying to persuade. Like most high-level stuff, that's a paradox, isn't it?