Text 33211, 93 rader
Skriven 2009-06-09 21:46:01 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Well?
=============
Hello Robert,

On Tuesday June 09 2009 20:21, you wrote to me:

 RB>>> "Pirates" puts many people off with the negative connotations

 MV>> Only grumpy old man like you and me. They do not matter. Look at
 MV>> http://www.piratpartiet.se/partiet/medlemsstatistik and scroll
 MV>> down to the graph with the dates of birth of the mambers. The vast
 MV>> majority is under 30.

 RB> Which is a weakness in a political party.

Why? I think having a well defined target group and a clear POV is a strong
point.

I think not having that is what made the PvdA (the social democrats here) lose
big time. They were trying to get a lot if votes by trying to please everyone.
With the result that they pleased just a few.

 MV>> We don't count Bob.

 RB> We certainly do. We - the older ones - now make up a majority of the
 RB> population and the preponderance will increase with time if the
 RB> demographics are right.

That may be so, but as I wrote you can not please everyone. The Pirate Party
has obviously chosen for the younger generation as their target audience, And
it worked. If they would change their programme to please you, they would no
doubt lose a lot of votes on the other side of the generation gap.

 RB>>> (thieves, murderers, freebooters),

 MV>> Or the romance of "Pirates of the Caribean"...

 RB> Maybe, but not many think of that when they hear about the latest
 RB> piracy around the Somalian coast.

How do you know that? Have you asked the voters who voted for the PP?

I think you overestimate the effect of the association.

 RB>>> particularly in view of the problems off Somalia.

 RB> No comment on that, I see.

What is there to comment?

 RB> People in Germany - maybe not the below-30 group, but most of the
 RB> others who read newspapers - are not amused by the doings in that part
 RB> of the world.

I do not think anyone of any age likes what is going on in Somalia. But
contrary to you, not everyone makes the negative asociation when they hear
about the PP. *I* don't make that asociation.

 RB> Possibly the below-30 group don't read newspapers or inform themselves
 RB> about world affairs,

Of course they do. They just don't associate the Pirate Party with the pirates
in Somalia.

 MV>> "Freiheitspartei" translates into "Partij voor de Vrijheid".
 MV>> Which is the name of the party of ultra right winger Geert
 MV>> Wilders....

 RB> Who got a big chunk of the vote, as we see. Smart politics: labels
 RB> count.

What I was trying to explain is that lots of people do NOT want to be asociated
with Wilders and his abject ideas.

No, Wilders did not win because of a clever sounding name. It is not a very
good name in my view. To vague and non-descript. No, he won because he did NOT
try to please everyone. He won becuase he had a well defined target audiance
and a very clear POV. A view that I detest, but a clear view it is.

 MV>> The Pirate Party is successful under that name. Changing is would
 MV>> be a very stupid move.

 RB> If you're interested in ideology instead of votes. But if you're not
 RB> interested in votes, why go into politics to begin with?

Of course they are interested in votes. But you can not please everyone, trying
that is often counter productive.

I think changing the name would cost them a lot more votes than it would get
them.

Cheers, Michiel

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