What's Missing From the Speeches

It’s an interesting thing, but I just heard Obama speaking about the power of hope, the generosity of the American people, and their willingness to work hard and sacrifice. And the thing that has been missing throughout this entire election cycle, and indeed throughout the last 8 years of the Bush administration, leapt out at me and smacked me in the head. Sacrifice.

We’ve not yet been asked to sacrifice anything. Oh, we’re making sacrifices. No doubt about that. But we’ve not been asked to sacrifice anything. We’ve just been handed the bill as an afterthought.

Now, if you want the American people to rally around a cause, make something happen, or support an ideal, they will. The can-do spirit of the American people is a force of nature yet to be equaled anywhere in the world. We’re a young nation with a vigorous will and a refusal to believe that we are fallible. We can do anything. But the real leaders who have gone before have always asked us, up front, to count the cost and set our minds firmly on the goal, and make it happen. They didn’t just pay lip service to their belief in us. They didn’t lie to us and tell us that someone else would pay for it. They didn’t tell us that we could just bomb the shit of somebody and it would all be over in 2 weeks with no actual loss of life. They didn’t tell us that we’d get everything we want. They didn’t tell us that it would all be free and easy. They told us it would hurt. They told us we’d have to ration our goods, fend for ourselves, and sacrifice comfort in order to accomplish a larger goal.

President Kennedy rallied the troops by telling them he was going to raise taxes and institute social programs because it was the right thing to do. FDR instituted all kinds of rationing to ensure a successful war effort. The founding fathers never once attempted to sell the colonists on the idea that a revolt would be quick, painless, and likely to succeed.

How did Ross Perot manage to secure nearly 1/5 of the popular vote as a third-party candidate? He told the truth. He said we were going to have to reduce the deficit and it would hurt like hell. But he reminded us with every other sentence that the pain was necessary; that it was a sacrifice we needed to make as individuals for the greater good of the nation, and for our children and grandchildren. He told us right up front that we couldn’t have any more goodies until we did our chores. He said we had to do it because it was the right thing to do.

Who in the current race has asked us to make a sacrifice? Behavioral science has known for a long time that people value what they are invested in. The flip side is that they do not value what they have not paid for. If it’s free, it has no value. So why should they pay for it? Maybe this is the mistake that all the candidates are making. It’s a mistake I caution my artist friends against all the time. The need to get your work seen or heard often outweighs the practical necessity of getting paid for your product. But if you give it away, you are saying that you aren’t sure it’s worth charging for. And if you aren’t sure, why should anyone offer to pay? They aren’t likely to volunteer their money, and furthermore, they’ll be pissed when you do decide to charge. After all, they got it for free before. Now they have a sense of entitlement.

It’s a risk to demand that people sacrifice something of value to them in order to acquire whatever you are selling. They may well reject you and move on to the next seller. This is as true for politicians as it is for anyone else. But there’s no use sending them a bill after they’ve agreed to a freebie. They’ll only feel cheated, and they’ll be right.