Last night, there wasn't any laughing at all. Instead, shock and awe.
This morning, as I drove to my work I kept asking myself the same question over and over: How exactly did Donald Trump win this election? I recalled the image and remembered a year ago thinking to myself, that while funny and original, it had some truth in it, meaning that despite any consideration or adversity faced, there was indeed a true and real chance that Donald Trump would win the election, despite most people being sure he wouldn't. Most of my friends are as puzzled as you can imagine, with no answers at all on what happened and why did it happen.
As I felt the enlightenment, I realized Trump won not because he's a good politician, but because he's an excellent marketer and an excellent salesman. After a lot of thought I came up to the conclussion that Trump not only taught America a political lesson, he taught the world three Sales and Marketing mastery life-lessons, that only time will tell, if it's worth paying for or not:
1. Have a brand and a slogan
I never really understood why Hillary didn't have a slogan, let alone a catchy slogan. Trump on the other hand from day one, stood for his four words that would become synonymous of what he believed in. "Make America Great Again".
Whatever Trump could say, do, comment, harrass or tweet, it didn't really matter, because all I could think of whenever I heard the name Trump and the words "presidential election", my mind immediately associated it with the words "Make America Great Again". You could read it in his twitter, on his facebook, on his caps, hats, posters, podiums, over and over non-stop.
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| Brand + Slogan = Success |
Hillary on the other hand, I guess she had a couple of slogans here and there, but in the end, nothing was definitive or conclusive. Trump's slogan had a huge weight right from the start of the campaign, and never, never, not even for a single second, did his slogan left him alone. Keep in mind the lesson to be learned here is HAVE A SLOGAN. We're not even talking about the type or meaning of the slogan... yet. That is my next point...
2. Have a slogan with a meaning... even if it isn't true!
I remember when I first read (or heard) the words "Make America Great Again", I thought to myself:
"wow, that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. America IS the greatest country on the planet. Why is Trump talking about making it "great again"? It's already great!"
Well, turns out I belong to the minority who think that America is not great and that more importantly, America has to be great again.
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| Trump living his slogan |
Trump reminds me of that handsome man that flirts with your wife of seven years of marriage. Your wife has been loyal, faithful, loving, but for some reason the chemistry, the sparks, the passion, it's all gone now. So all of a sudden this handsome man shows up and places his arm around her and whispers in her ear in a very grave and seductive voice: "listen dear, everything's going to be alright. Let's go out and get a cup a coffee." And then, over that seemingly innocent cup of coffee, she tells him about how things used to be, while he promises her to treat her like the fine Lady she is and she deserves to be treated like, and compliments her with wine, caviar, and eventually delivers a night full of passion.
Today november 9th, there is no doubt in my mind that America IS the greatest country on the planet. However, Trump's slogan achieved what seemed impossible: it made 59 million people believe that America IS NOT the greatest country on the planet, and more importantly, it made them believe that Trump and only Trump is the one person that is able to change that reality (or illusion) and make America THE greatest nation on Earth.
You see, regardless if you like it or not, Trump's slogan isn't true. My argument is quite simple: If America isn't the greatest nation on Earth, then which one is it?
China? Nope. Impossible, they have like 1,2 million people, half of them in poverty.
Japan? Nope. Too small, not enough resources.
Russia? Not a chance. Too much corruption and oligarchy.
Germany? They wish.
Great Britain? In their dreams
Canada? Oh, come on...
So which one is it?
The is no nation on the planet that is greater than the United States of America. Yet somehow Trump deceived almost 60 million people, that some other nation in the world IS the greatest nation on Earth (or at least, greater than the US). Which nation is it? Well, Trump never actually mentioned it. And that's the beauty of his slogan. He said his slogan, he repeated his slogan, he wore his slogan, he breathed his slogan.
He made a masteful use of a red herring, by giving a logical fallacy that led people toward a non-existent fact.
3. Promise, with no actual plan.
If you've seen that masterpiece of Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart, "It's a wonderful life" you'll probably remember one of George Bailey's most iconic quotes:
“What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary. ”
"It's a Wondeful life" is a perfect movie. It's a 10 out of 10. It's a masterpiece. If you haven't seen it, you haven't seen anything in life. There are so many other memorable moments in that movie, I can write two blogs about it. However, this particular quote relates to the topic on hand because of one simple reason: There is absolutely NO WAY someone can throw a lasso around the moon and pull it down for someone, regardless of how much that person loves his/her significant other.
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| George Bailey in action, conquering his lady's heart |
George is being romantic. That's it. In the end, he just want's Mary's love and that's it. In order to get it, he devises several plots, including dancing with her, visiting her, being nice to her, and well... offering her to pull down the moon with a lasso, which like I said before, is impossible. Of course, there is absolutely no way Mary will want the moon, or even say the word to order George to pull it down. Mary just want to hear those pretty words, and imagine... even if it is for one minute, how beautiful the moon would look in front of her as George pulls it down for her.
One of Trump first promises was as astounding (if not, more) as George's moon pulling-down promise:
"If I get elected, I'm going to build a wall on the US-Mexican border, and I'll make Mexico pay for it".
During all of 2016, not one day, not even ONE SINGLE DAY, anyone confronted, questioned and asked Trump, how exactly is he planning to build the wall, and more importantly, how is he planning on making Mexico pay for it? At least George gave away his plan, telling Mary that he'd throw a lasso. Trump didn't even give away anything!
Yes I know, there were some vague questions here and there, but never a direct confrontation with a direct answer from him. He just kept repeating the same thing over and over: We'll build the wall, and Mexico will pay for it.
59 million Marys... I mean, Americans, heard Trump's words and imagine, from the first day he said them, how beautiful the wall would look in front of the US-Mexico border, as Trump received on behalf of the US government, a gigantic multi-billion Dollar check for "Wall construction services rendered".
4. Sometimes taking the high road doesn't work.
I remember in the early 90s, the console wars between Nintendo and Sega, and how they got nasty at some point during the peak of the NES and the birth of the Genesis. Sega's new console was backed up with an aggressive marketing campaign that featured a very, very hardcore slogan: "Genesis does what Nintendon't." It was quite effective because in four words, it praised the capabilities of the 16-bit Genesis, while degrading the capabilities of the 8-bit Nintendo"
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| He was relentless and rude. She was silent and polite |
During one of the debates between Hillary and Trump, Hillary said something between the lines of "when they go low, we go high", referring to Trump's insults and degrading comments. Apparently, Hillary didn't learn that in politics, sometimes taking the high road doesn't work. The classy act got old really fast and Trump sticked to going low all through the campaign. He was relentless and never paused for breathing. Hillary on the other hand, had her chances on going low, and attack and fulminate Trump, but she missed them. Now, she's paying the consecuence.
5. There is no such thing as bad publicity.
This one is quite simple. Trump:
- Insulted Vietnam veterans
- Insulted Iraq veterans
- Insulted LGBT
- Insulted muslims
- Insulted latins
- Insulted women
- Insulted, insulted, insulted and kept insulting.
Then, he...
- Was discovered saying he grabbed women by the pussy
- Lied about paying taxes
- Bragged about not paying taxes
- Bragged about lying about not paying taxes
- Bragged about buying chinese workforce and manufacturing.
and still, with all this said and done, 59 million Americans, voted for him.
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In my opinion, those are the five main reasons why Trump won this election. A lot can be said about education, ignorance, classes, nationalism, and several other subjects to try to understand what happened during the last 24 hours.
I myself am proud to be an American, and I'm all about the Manifest Destiny, the Mayflower and America for Americans. I posted a while ago that I disagree with some of Trump's ideas, however I agree with others.
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| Manifest Destiny |
I do believe immigration is a huge problem for our country and that while America was the land of opporunities for immigrants decades ago, things have changed in this new Century, and perhaps we may want to look in to that, because America cannot continue to welcome people that run away from their countries just because their countries are not in good shape. I'm not sure a wall is the answer, but I do know that there is a lot of flexibility in the system of moving from another country, to the US.
I also believe that this election proved that facts and achievements sometimes don't matter, and that while Obama will hand over the country with half the unemployment rate he was handed over, half the gas-prices he was handed over, no recession or sub-prime crisis, and no Bin Laden threat, apparently this meant nothing to 59 million Americans.
Who is to blame for the results? The system? Education? Society? Media?
I have both Republican and Democrat friends. I will go as far as saying that most of my Republican friends are rich and spoiled kids, who haven't worked for a living or do not know what it is to work for a living. Most of them started random businesses, and most of them failed, not because of the government or the system, but because they simply have no idea how to run a business. Yet in their minds, there was only one person responsible for the failure of their businesses, and that person was Obama. All of my Republican friends voted for Trump because of this. They bought each one of the five reasons I mentioned above.
I'll also go as far as saying that my Democrat friends voted for Hillary, because they didn't want Trump to win, and not because they really bought Hillary's ideas or philospohy, which brings me to my closing thought:
Donald Trump, the 45th President of my country, won the election because he did exactly what he promised to: he never became a politician. All he did was run a one-year Master's in Sales and Marketing.
And he graduated with honors.
Finally, I've never been a believer of democracy of the masses. It simply does not work. Our world is filled with more ignorance than intelligence. That's why smart people are smart, and smart people should be in charge, so that days like november 8th never happen again. Unfortunately, the world, our world, our planet Earth, and more importantly, our people, us, humans, apparently do not understand that.
That though, will be matter for another time.
Ladies and gentlemen, the 45th President of the United States of America:
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