Eight years ago, 2016, when Donald Trump the then Democratic candidate won the American elections Hillary Clinton he based much of his presidential campaign on attacking and demonizing the Donald. His main communication key was to convince Americans how ugly and evil the tycoon was.
It did not work.
1. Because the electorate doesn't need to be convinced to change their minds (indeed, it even bothers him to be considered a sort of minus habens), and even less does he want to be convinced by a candidate he doesn't contemplate voting for. Otherwise he would already vote for him and therefore he wouldn't need to be convinced of anything. It is therefore a useless waste of energy, a strategy that does not move votes. Yes, it's true, there is always the great unknown of the undecided, and the so-called swing states. But notoriously the big issues weigh here, and therefore how convincing are the answers that the presidential candidates are able to give, certainly not the stabbing of each other.
2. Attacking your opponent is an implicit admission of weakness and since world and world weakness does not conquer, it is not a vote-getting element. In the 2016 campaign, one of Clinton's main slogans, certainly churned out by some political marketing genius, was: “Love Trumps Hate!”, “Love wins over hate”. A slogan played on the word “trump” which in fact had the effect of providing free advertising for the opponent.
Today, the electoral committee of Biden produces an advert in which he defines Trump as a dictator, and to underline the concept, even the voice of a character loved by the general public such as Robert De Niro is used. A stunt that seems to me to be confirmation that little has been understood about the mistakes of the time, so much so that he has already started to make people talk, especially about Trump.
Author of the book IpocriSea, the truths hidden behind the clichés about immigration and NGOs (Aliberti, 2022). He works for RAI. Writings by him have appeared on Corriere della Sera, The truth, Panorama, Defense Analysis and other.
TheVermilion.com is also on Whatsapp. Simply click here to subscribe to the channel and always be updated (free)