I’m underwhelmed by the (rumored) new Democratic party slogan “A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future”.  Yes, I want a better future for my kids, my neighbors, and all of my fellow citizens and better jobs and wages will almost certainly be a key element of that but, taken in total, the slogan feels timid.  It sounds like something George Carlin would savage mercilessly.  Timidity has been the calling card of the Democratic Party for the past couple decades so I’m not surprised, but it’s still a let down.

The other week I was re-reading Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  In it King registers his disappointment with “white moderates” who “[are] more devoted to “order” than to justice; who [prefer] a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice”.   “A Better Deal” has ‘negative peace’ tattooed all over it. Think about it:  Not great deal but a better deal.  Nothing too drastic. Wouldn’t want to offend anyone…  Really, that’s the best we’ve got?  (Snark aside, “A Better Future:…” might be a workable starting point. That is, after all, the desired end state.)

For the past day or so I’ve been thinking we should go with

The Freedom Agenda:

Freedom of speech.

Freedom of worship.

Freedom from want.

Freedom from fear.

Think anyone would go for it?  Who doesn’t love freedom?

I go back to the first question from Heilmeier’s Catechism:

What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon. What is the problem? Why is it hard?

The Party slogan needs to address the first two sentences and should allude to the third and fourth.

UPDATE:

Get the details of A Better Deal here and here.  The substance of it is fine but the ‘branding’ is awful.