What do you stand for? After last night's GOP Presidential Debate, it is still unclear what the candidates stand for. We know what they are against, we know what they don't like, but what is their message and what is the brand they want us to remember them by?
They, along with the Democrats need to get hacked. Hackathons are generally an all day/all weekend event in which programers and creatives come together and collaborate on various projects around a specific problem.
Democrats and Republicans need to bring together the most creative minds they can find to solve the problem of what Democrats and Republicans stand for today. The Republicans can no longer be just pro-life and anti-tax just as Democrats can no longer be simply the party that fights for equality, stands up for children, workers, veterans and seniors. The political parties must stand for something different in today's world and I hope the GOP Presidential Candidates we saw last night can cut through the clutter and talk more about the problems we face as Americans and how they have the plans to solve them, in addition to what makes us as a country strong and how they intend to make us stronger by brining us together, on issues that we can all agree on instead of fight over.
Earlier this summer L.A. Global Shapers and the City of Los Angeles organized a civic hacking weekend. For 48 hours hackers worked to address a number of problems facing cities and states, including California's drought. More than 500 people showed up from all ages and all backgrounds. According to Winston Binch, in an article he prepared for Advertising Weekend, "The Challenge for the teams was to devise tech or marketing solutions that would do one of three things: help reduce water consumption, increase water recycling practices or keep water consumption habits top of mind." Advertising Week, August 13, 2015, 12).
By engaging the creative and tech-savvy community, the political parties will tap some of the most creative minds to help their cause. They will find these individuals are passionate, energetic and now they have tapped a new demographic and a new set of voters.
Democrats and Republicans need to get hacked because they need to find ways to breathe new life into their parties. It will help establish a new base, redefine a new party and find ways to motivate a new electorate to come out and vote.
Today politics is synonymous with entertainment. The candidates last night were the stars of their own reality show that will go on for the next 13 months, without commercials that none of us want to binge watch let alone digest another political ad.
It is time we end politics as usual and shift the focus issues that matter and solutions that work. It's time to get hacked.
