Money, power, influence, and politics

What can we do to influence the political process? Vote, certainly. Make your voice heard. But amplify your voice by augmenting it with what politicians care about.

Politicians are no different than any other kind of audience. If we are to get what we want, we have to provide value in return. This is the eternal agreement – we must give to receive. We marketers understand this; it’s how we’ve done business for ages.

What do we have that politicians care about? Influence and money. Think of a politician’s career like a business. Votes keep them in their current job, in a position of power. If we can influence their constituents to support them during elections, if we can market effectively on their behalf, we provide real, tangible support. Our influence is a double-edged sword; we can easily lend it to others.

The same is true of money. Politicians need funding to run for office and remain in office; the more money they have, the higher their aspirations. We can provide money as individuals, and we can organize to provide collective amounts of money. In return, we gain access to the politician to have our voices heard personally.

The more money and influence we offer, the more access and power we gain. Politics is no different than any other commercial transaction.

Thus, if you have a particular cause you care about, focus less on shouting loudly on social media. Focus less on complaining about the opposition. One like or a million likes doesn’t give you more personal power to effect the changes you want.

Instead, focus more on growing your own influence, building your own fortune, establishing your own connections and network. The more money and influence you have, the more tangible support you can lend to leaders who can then influence the political process in favor of the causes you believe in. As a side benefit, you’ll also have more money and power to use for yourself, or to directly advance causes you believe in.

You might also enjoy:

• You Ask, I Answer: Reliability of LLMs vs Other Software?
• You Ask, I Answer: Retrieval Augmented Generation for Tax Law?
• Almost Timely News, February 11, 2024: How To Evaluate a Generative AI System
• Almost Timely News: Recipes vs. Principles in Generative AI (2024-03-03)
• Almost Timely News, February 4, 2024: What AI Has Made Scarce

Take my Generative AI for Marketers course!

Join my Analytics for Marketers Slack Group!