Part I ALLIANCES
It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who You Get to Know
For the first maxim Matthews introduces, he takes the common saying in business, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and takes that a step further. The basic theme of this chapter is the idea of “retail politics”, which means creating close relationships with other politicians like a salesman would do to its customers, by interacting in one on one conversation and political talk. Matthews uses the example of Lyndon Johnson and how he climbed the ranks of Senate. Since Johnson did not have the best TV presence, he focused on his strengths and tried to make close relationships with as many politicians as possible. A specific example of this would be in the bathroom of the Dodge Hotel, which was a home for many congressional members. Johnson would take multiple showers a day and would brush his teeth multiple times in the morning in order to have an excuse to interact with the other politicians doing the same morning routine and to make small connections with them. This maxim means the simple fact of knowing someone is not enough in the political world and there needs to be a closer connection with people rather than just the name to face connection.
All Politics is Local
This political maxim also focuses on the ideas of “wholesale” versus “retail” politics. When it comes down to the issues, people care about the ones that affect them directly rather than the ones that are considered big problems and when voting comes they think about their individual self first. Harry Truman summed up this way of voter thinking when he said “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours”. An example used by Matthews is the incident with O’Neill and the $1 billion jobs program bill. O’Neill turned a national issue into a local one when he started to list the names of the individual streets and bridges that we not up to regulation and would be affected by the jobs program for fixing.
It’s Better to Receive than to Give
The best way to earn loyalty with someone is not to them a favor but to let them do a favor for you. People want to be a part of a movement and change so when campaigning and asking for a vote or money, the candidate acts as political stock the voter invests in. Billionaire Ross Perot saw this in human nature and he asked for the public’s help to get rid of the two party system and to help him get on the ballot as a third party candidate. This strategy worked because people who had never been involved in the political process felt powerful in the creation of a third party. The theory behind receiving rather than giving is simple because if someone does you a favor, it acts as stock and then it would be in their best interest since they have stock in you, for you to succeed as well. This can also go both ways because they do not want their stock to do poorly since this can be seen as their fault.
Dance with the One that Brung Ya
The basic theme of this maxim is loyalty. It can be explained as dance with the person that brought you to the dance, or in other words, stay loyal to the people who helped you get to your position today. Ronald Reagan was seen as a loyal candidate because of his devotion to the Republican party throughout the year of his political life. He had created these connections and stuck with people through his victories and his defeats so when Regan needed voters during the primaries of 1980, they came through to help him win. The two corollaries in this maxim are “you hire your boss” and “what have you done for me lately?”. The first one, means when you are choosing who to be loyal to, choose wisely since you will have to stick with them. The second one meaning people want to feel important so politicians will make people feel important so they do not question loyalty.
Part II ENEMIES
Keep Your Enemies in Front of You
This political maxim is based off of the popular saying “keep your friends close but your enemies closer”. In politics, there are great benefits to this idea. The first, it shows strength since it can be unsettling to an opponent when you engage in small talk after a heated debate. Second, it can offer useful information because the more you talk to someone, the more information they will give up about how they are feeling about your side, as well as how they feel about their side. And most importantly, connecting back to the first maxim of “it’s not who you know, it’s who you get to know”, there might come a day in which you need to work with your enemy. An example of this would be Ronald Reagan in 1976 announcing his running mate as Richard Schweiker to create a balanced ticket and to promote bipartisanship.
Don’t Get Mad; Don’t Get Even; Get Ahead
Rather than focusing on weakening your opponent, focus on strengthening yourself. Rather than planning revenge on someone who did you wrong, use that time and effort to better yourself. Nelson Mandela used this idea after he was elected Prime Minister of South Africa. Rather than punish the people who had treated him poorly, he moved past it because Mandela knew that vengeance would achieve nothing so he embraced the new South African inclusion of all races. Someone who did not follow this rule is Francis Sullivan who spent eight years trying to destroy his opponent’s career and despite successfully doing so, Sullivan later said “Herbie lived rent free in my head for eight years”.
Leave No Shot Unanswered
When campaigning it is important to respond to attacks immediately and to not let your opponent get away with anything since in today’s world of the 24 hour news cycle, a lie can become the truth within just a day. In the 1988 Presidential election since Dukakis did not have anything to say about the attacks being handed to him by the Bush campaign, they went unanswered and people took his lack of response as an admission of guilt. There are ways to counter these shots however. One being “catch em in a lie” meaning find discrepancies in their attacks and make them look foolish. The second defense is “Ridicule” which was used by Franklin Roosevelt to make a joke about the Republicans attacks. The third, titled “Jujitsu” is using the opponent's attack to bring them down like Jack Brooks did when he was accused of being a Communist, he made sure everyone knew he had fought against the fascists in WWII and would not hesitate to shoot the next person who called him a Communist.
Part III DEALS
Only Talk When it Improves the Silence
This maxim explores the value of listening rather than running your mouth and talking. This maxim can be in connection with the saying “if you have nothing good to say then don’t say it at all”. This is important because if someone speaks often and “its meaningless speech then they will not be taken seriously. This is what happened with Newt Gingrich when he would give his daily and often meaningless press conferences which would often be of bad news. So, overtime, Gingrich became associated with the bad news every time he came out to speak.
Always Concede on Principle
When arguing something it can be in your favor to agree with your opponent on something in order to come to some agreement later. Reagan did this tactic when trying to sell Congress on the MX missile. After campaigning hard for the one large MX missile, Congress turned down the missile and then had the pleasure of “educating” Reagan as to why the missile was bad. After, Reagan had sided with Congress and they then came to an agreement for more, smaller missiles instead of one large one. The goal of this maxim is to give the impression of compromise so that the other side feels as if they have won but in reality the side that gave in still got what they had wanted to begin with.
Part IV REPUTATIONS
Hang a Lantern on Your Problem
If there is a problem regarding your personal background, it is politically smart to address it personally and get out in front of the other people trying to use it against you. This move shows strength because it shows you are aware of the problem but since you are addressing it, it can help people move past it and onto the bigger issues. This can also show people your honesty because rather than trying to lie your way out of it, face it head on and admit the problem so there can be no spin. When Tylenol had the bottle tampering issue, they expressed the same outrage as the public, and in doing so their stock price was hardly affected.
Spin!
Spin is used by politicians to make bad news seem like not bad news by using certain words and acting a certain way in order to always come out on top. Spin is also an extension of “hang a lantern on your problem” because once you have established yourself as an honest person, spinning becomes an easier tactic. Bill Clinton used spin after the 1992 New Hampshire primary on Good Morning America. Despite losing the state, Clinton went on TV and acted as if he had won and acted like the loss was not a big deal. Spin was used because he could not ignore the fact that he had lost so rather than deny it, he embraced it and ended up winning in the Presidential election.
The Press is the Enemy
When dealing with the press it is important to understand what their job is as reporters. Their job is to create a good story and stories that usually include some kind of failure, misery, or disaster are normally the ones that make headlines. So when talking to the press they are looking for some kind of political disaster or mess up that will get high ratings. The press is also the enemy because even though ethics is taught in journalism majors, some journalists do not abide by some the common journalism code of ethics. There is no such thing as “off the record” and in the current era of “gotcha!” journalism, a writer will use your words to make a story as well as harm your name.
The Reputation of Power
Since in a democratic society, politicians don’t have as much real power, they have to use tactics to appear powerful. A tactic used to appear powerful is to play to your strengths. This was used in the Romney vs Kennedy election for Massachusetts senator. Romney played to his strengths as young and attractive, but what ended up winning was Kennedy’s experience and knowledge about the state of Massachusetts.
Positioning
Positioning is knowing what the voter wants and where you want to be in relation to them and then putting yourself in that position. Positioning is also a kind of playing to your strengths. Reagan knew he had a strength of being a political outsider and he positioned himself as an everyday man as not trying to fit in and be an insider.