The Peevish Penmen: Direct Mail and US Elections

Abstract

Political direct mail is the best example of the transliteration of commercial ideas to political election salesmanship; it is a necessary adjunct and no campaign is complete without it, for mailings generate an independent, privatised source of campaign finance and instant if superficial loyalties. And they provide the precision targetting so crucial in modern America campaigns. Large-scale political employment of political direct mail began with Goldwater; McGovern exploited it well and since then political groupings of every tincture have assiduously sought to use it. Outside the United States British Conservatives have now made mail technology an article of their political faith. It illustrates how political merchandising techniques, once incubated in America, spread internationally.

‘It must be acknowledged that equality, which brings great benefits into the world, nevertheless suggests to men (as will be shown hereafter) some very dangerous propensities. It tends to isolate them from each other, to concentrate every man’s attention upon himself; and it lays open the soul to an inordinate love of material gratification.’

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America