Posted on 07/06/2013 3:56:53 AM PDT by servo1969
McDonald's feeds 68 million people a day, 88 percent of the WORLD population recognizes the Golden Arches, and 1 in 8 Americans has worked there during his lifetime.
Is McDonald's a great restaurant? Not really. It wouldn't be on most people's Top 10. How many people have a favorite food that's on its menu? Again, probably not many. Yet, it represents one of the greatest success stories in the history of business and the Republican Party can learn a lot from McDonald’s.
1) McDonald’s entire business is focused on doing things for its customers: McDonald's doesn't tell people they should eat there to help small business. It doesn't tell its customer to eat McChicken sandwiches in order to make America a better place to live. It doesn't explain why you need to show up every week so it can keep its fry cooks employed. Instead, its ads suggest you should come to McDonald's because you're hungry and it will do a great job of feeding you. As an extra added bonus, if you're a parent, you can bring your kid and it will give him a toy and a place to play for an hour so you can relax for thirty minutes while your kid obsesses over the slide.
Ultimately, people vote for politicians because they want to MAKE THEIR LIFE BETTER. Sure, voters may also care about the Constitution, the country, and their kid's future, but most of them are going to vote for the politician they believe will change their life for the better in some fashion -- or at least not make it worse. So, what are Republicans going to offer? Will we cut the price of gas? Will we reduce energy costs? Will we stop crime in their area? Will we reduce their taxes? Will we save their health care? Principles and big themes matter, but ultimately, we're going to win elections by the same way McDonald's wins customers: by fulfilling the personal wants and needs of the voters.
2) McDonald’s delivers what it promises: Whether you go to a McDonald's in Charlotte or Chicago, New Orleans or New York, Detroit or Dallas, you're going to find the restaurant, the food, the menu and service is all basically the same. You don't find moose heads on the walls in Alaska and a Big Mac isn't actually a taco in Texas. McDonald's may not be the best restaurant in the world, but you at least know what you're getting.
Can we say the same thing about the Republican Party? Does it keep its promises to its constituents? Can you count on Republicans to fight for the core principles they stand for whether they're in or out of power? Can conservatives trust Republican leaders to make a good faith effort to implement our agenda the way liberals can trust Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid to implement their agenda? No, we can't and that lack of consistency is the biggest reason why Republicans sometimes seem to spend more time fighting each other than the Democrats.
3) Its advertising is focused on mass appeal: McDonald's goes out of its way not to antagonize anyone because angry, upset people don't buy hamburgers. McDonald’s doesn't use controversial figures in its advertising, it tries to stay away from contentious issues and it wants to be about as threatening as a newborn kitten to anyone who could possibly eat at the restaurant chain.
In politics, there are too many Republicans in office who've forgotten this lesson. Instead of framing an issue in a way designed to bring as many voters as possible over to our side, they act as if they're trying to get a gig as a fill-in talk radio host or columnist. Politicians should leave the bombastic language, highly controversial quips and potentially offensive comments to those of us who don't have to run for office and focus on being the principled guy everyone would like to have a beer with at a ballgame.
4) Everybody knows what McDonald’s stands for: Why do people go to McDonald's? Because they want reasonably good food that's cheap and served in a timely manner. Is it healthy food? Not really, although McDonald’s added a salad to the menu so the one guy who wants to eat healthy can chow on that while his friends eat McNuggets. Does McDonald’s try to be everything to everyone? Over the years, it’s worked coffee, wraps and a few other things into the rotation, but ultimately people go there to get hamburgers in a hurry. That works for McDonald’s.
The GOP has a working formula, too. We're the party of small, honest government, low taxes, law and order, and traditional American values. So, what happened when you read that list? Did you choke on some of those descriptions? Of course you did because all too often the GOP doesn't explain its principles, promote its principles or most importantly, live up to its principles anymore. If Republican politicians aren't willing to make the case for what they believe to the American people, who do they think is going to do it for them? Do they believe the New York Times is going to bend over backwards to fairly explain why they believe and what they believe about gay marriage, welfare or the minimum wage? The less Republicans tell people what we believe, the more opportunities Democrats have to do it for us and you can be sure that their explanation will center around Republicans hating people.
5) McDonald’s portrays itself as a fun, happy place for fun, happy people: McDonald's ads feature young, cool, ludicrously happy, attractive people having the time of their lives eating delicious food while they're served by courteous, likable wait staff. Is that true? Hell, no! No one is breaking into a joyous dance because a pimply faced teenager serves him a double cheeseburger that's been sitting under heat lamps for 10 minutes. But, it's the image McDonald’s pushes.
Barack Obama does the same thing. He's about as cool and smooth as your great aunt who forgets to put her teeth in and serves you the same 12 year old bowl of hard candy every time you go to her house. The GOP's rainbow Republican convention in 2012 and Ted Cruz's Twitter comic making fun of Barack Obama show that we're starting to figure this out. However, there's a lot more to be done. How is the GOP portraying itself to minority groups? Are we seen as the out-of-it old person's party or the young person's party? Are we seen as technologically savvy and cutting edge or behind the times? Are we seen as the party that's friendly to blacks, women, Hispanics, Muslims, Jews, and gays? Sure, we MAY BE just as friendly as the Democrats, but is that our image? If the image doesn't match up to the reality, then what steps are we going to take to change it? Maybe image SHOULDN'T MATTER, but in a world where the worst President in history has won two straight elections campaigning primarily on "hope and change" in 2008 and, "There's a war on women," in 2012, obviously it swings elections.
If a dollar or two difference is important you should be brown bagging lunch, not eating the lowest quality beef. Home made can be better and cheaper.
Chick’s taste is superior to McD’s.
Excellent post...and spot on...
What does being Godly have to do with eating? Why should that be a criteria fo eating?
The author of the article doesn't know or realize government's only possible function of benefit is the protection or preserveration of individual life and property. Everything else is up to us as individuals. Every time someone envisions using government as a tool for use in implementing anything, the thing government is chosen to assist is destroyed and often with collateral damage.
Start with the post office.
Fifty years ago, the US had an incredible health care system, the envy of the world. No one was denied needed care whether they could pay for it or not. Claims to the contrary are wrong in spite of isolated rare exceptions. Political leaders and Congress saw a good thing and wanted more of it at lower price. And if someone could not afford to pay, no problem. We would all pay to eliminate the risk that the exceptions might increase in number.
Pick any topic; there is nothing that government cannot make worse. Conversely, what has government improved?
Education?
Science? We have a President who thinks he can change the the world's climate. The delusions of grandeur of government and its proponents know no limits in spite of a record of near perfect failures and virtually no successes apart from the illusions of isolated examples of a complex nature where it can be argued that goverment did something beneficial because the benefit is obvious but the problems are not so obvious. The interstate highway system being the first, and the space program possibly the second.
The twentieth century is the perfect example of government benefits. The greatest threat to human beings of any country proved to come from their own governments where governments around the world killed more of their own citizens than any foreign powers. If you think the US is an exception, maybe you should reconsider and examine all of the facts. Start by asking the Branch Davidians in Waco. Oh, that's right. You can't; they don't exist anymore.
Washington's Farewell address admonished against foreign entanglements especially with England and Europe. Have you ever really thought about why the United States got involved in WWI? Have you ever considered that Wilson bungled the peace treaty that ended WWI or that the treaty that ended WWI was the proximate cause of WWII. How many Americans died in WWI and WWII? A compelling case is easily built that our government's policies are responsible for almost all the American deaths of WWI and WWII.
No doubt many will argue that we fought those wars to protect our own freedom by expanding the opportunities for freedom for others in their own countries. Look around. How's that working out for us or for the other people?
Commerce, industry and trade are the essential ingredients that make it possible for us all to thrive and increase our wealth. Money is the single most important tool necessary to those efforts. The history of our money can be summarized in three quotes:
Not worth a continental!
Sound as a dollar.
It's our money, but it's your problem.
Before 1912, the United States was the envy and role model of the world. Woodrow Wilson and both major political parties amended and subverted the Constitution in direct opposition to the warnings from Thomas Jefferson, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” In one century, the US government stole more than 95% of the purchasing power of its citizens’ money.
The proponents for government attest to the God-like magical powers of a benevolent government. The success America has enjoyed is in spite of a government that was shackled by a prudent group of men who recognized who actually paves the road of good intentions. In 1830, Alex de Tocqueville wrote, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money. A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” When a leading institution's first thought about the responsibilities of government or the political parties that seek to compose it are “...focused on doing things for its customers” surely Jefferson's and de Tocqueville’s admonitions are about to become reality.
“Ultimately, people vote for politicians because they want to MAKE THEIR LIFE BETTER. Sure, voters may also care about the Constitution....”
WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP. That’s why America is circling the toilet right now.
People see Government as something that DOES things for you, instead of getting out of the way so we can be free. That is precisely why the nation is dying. Democrats have mastered this ruse, and now idiot Republicans want to follow suit.
I think Karl Rove DID write this garbage.
The “Constitution” thingy is hated by Democrats and Republicans alike.
yeah my daughter prefers Chick but sometimes I just crave those fries esp after a fast
McDonald’s has been selling hamburgers since 1955 and recently sold it’s 300 billionth burger. Washington racked up $300 billion in more debt in less than four months.
Rush was right. You cannot defeat Santa Clause. No where in the Constitution does it give the right of the people to vote themselves money from the treasury, yet, welfare and other programs do just that. So, polidiots find ways to promise money from the treasury and people vote for them. You cannot offer logic when the other guy is offering thousands of dollars of cold hard cash.
We have taxation without representation. I get taxed so the polidiot can represent someone else with my money.
yeah but let the rat party rule forever /s>
The GOP is fully aware of these steps. They just do not want to undertakes them because it creates a risk of loss of control of the party and that will never be allowed to happen - no matter what happens to the nation at large.
The article makes some good points, but the author must be manic depressive. He writes several paragraphs laying out his case, and then reverses his entire point in the last couple of sentences. Strange.
I know this - IF the IRS and FBI were targeting LIBERAL GROUPS for two years because of their politics - and those groups complained about it to the DNC - the DNC would have jumped into the fray to protect them.
When the IRS and FBI were targeting conservative groups because of their political beliefs - and we complained the GOP turned their backs on us. That’s why conservatives are walking away from the GOP.
Well, to do it you have to make it clear to the individual voter that ol' Santa isn't going to be giving YOU any free stuff - that's his hand you feel in your wallet. And that will also require identifying the actual beneficiaries, which can be seriously damaging to a Republican's media profile and corporate campaign contributions.
To take the author's point to its logical conclusion:
Where are the Republicans brave enough to promise young white men they will not be hurt any longer by affirmative action?
Where are the Republicans brave enough to tell young people not to join the military until a CiC is in place who will have their backs and spell out clear rules of engagement for any military action?
Where are the Republicans brave enough to go into Hispanic communities and promise a hard crackdown on black-on-Hispanic crime, and to tell black activists who protest to stuff it - they chose their side a long time ago?
Where are the Republicans brave enough to send in US Marshals to arrest Jon Corzine?
Where are the Republicans brave enough to call for the repeal of the Patriot Act and the abolition of the Department of Homeland Security?
Where are the Republicans brave enough to continually act to further the simple principle stated by Rick Perry in the last Presidential campaign: “I’ll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.”
I'll tell you where they are - they don't exist. For the same reason LeBron James is not allowed to play for the Washington Generals.
I don’t do McD’s anymore if I can help it. It’s way too expensive for what you get, imo. Last time I went there, I noticed it was the most I’d spent for a pile of sugar, salt and grease in quite a while.
Fast food for me these days means Taco Bell.
McDonald's is dead last on my list of fast food joints. BK is ok but if you have a Culver's in your area, I highly recommend that you try it.
How is the GOP portraying itself to anybody?
Answer - It doesn't portray itself to anyone. It doesn't communicate. Then once every 4 years, it spends hundreds of millions of dollars in ads created by people like Karl Rove and goes down to flaming defeat. Rinse or is that Reince, Wash and repeat. (See my tagline.)
All true BUT, remember, it is the Republican primary voters buying these repeated promises time after time. All the way from AZ to SC and AK to FL.
Do you give thanks before eating? Surely you understand the importance of eating with Godliness.
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