Elections over decades have been won piggyback riding on catchy slogans. And slogans that have caught the people’s fancy have been economic ones.
WHATEVER be the form of government, winning elections and governance have largely depended on catchy slogans, especially the economic ones. Whoever said ‘man does not live by bread alone’ must be repenting how he went so wrong. From ‘workers of the world unite’ in 1848 to ‘achhe din’ in 2014, slogans laced with a tinge of economy and prospects of coins jingling in your pocket have enthused millions to choose a government or throw the unwanted ones out.
A year before the 1992 US Presidential election, 90 per cent Americans approved George Bush’s job-creating economy. Bill Clinton’s campaign strategist, James Carville, re-hashed a phrase and coined a new slogan “It’s the economy, stupid”. What was meant to be one of the three political agendas (the other two being ‘Change vs more of the same’ and ‘Don’t forget health care’), turned out to be a winning slogan. In 2016 again, most of the (stupid) Americans heard things like ‘need more job creation, taxation is in a mess, interest rates need correction, house for all…..’
Sounds familiar to what we have been hearing since Independence in India that is Bharat? Politics all over the world has been in transition forever, piggyback riding on economics.
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Denne historien er fra January 2017-utgaven av gfiles.
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