JANUARY 2018
communicate your experience,” he said, to members of Congress and federal regulators. He urged the audience to reach out to their elected Representative and Senator, particularly, and to communicate with them and try to establish rapport with them. And it makes no difference if their representatives are Republican or Democrat.
It is very important to communicate your experience to members of Congress and federal regulators.
Elected officials are always looking for opportunities to meet and mix with constituents, he noted, and to obtain favorable media coverage of visits to businesses. Those visits are an opportunity for a company to explain what it does and how it positively affects the community.
In a question and answer period, the first question posed to Paul was about immigration. “It’s going to continue to be a fight,” said Paul. Trump has “dug his heels in” on a lot of immigration matters, he noted, but the president also has flip-flopped on issues. “It’s really tough to read the tea leaves,” said Paul. Trump has learned, however, that he needs support from both Republicans and Democrats to achieve accomplishments.
Another factor in the elections will be current events and media coverage immediately prior to the elections. “People have such short memories,” said Paul. Both political parties have their bases, but the independent swing voters generally are influenced at election time by the news of the day. “Whatever is dominating the news cycle at that time...that will be the biggest thing that impacts the election,” he said.
The political environment -- and the upcoming election -- is quite different, according to Paul. A lot of it has to do with the rise of social media, and he noted even Trump personally uses social media like Twitter to weigh in on an issue or make a statement. People constantly check their cell phone for the latest social media updates, he noted. In addition, there has been a rise in blogs and other opinion-based content on social media.
The proliferation of social media “has caused individual voters to feel like they have their own brand,” said Paul. “They create silos,” insulating themselves by adding and following social media accounts based on their beliefs and ‘unfriending’ people with contrary views. Their social media influencers and sources of information are people with like-minded ideas and opinions.
The effect has been to create an electorate that votes based on their emotions, said Paul. In 2017, many Republicans who supported Trump didn’t vote in state or local elections, and energized Democrats made gains, picking up seats in some elections that they had not won in 20 to 30 years.