South Carolina has been a hotbed of activity for the last 2 weeks, but the most interesting thing that happened to us yesterday happened on the phone. It wasn’t (just) the push polls and robocalls, it was our Austin friends calling to make sure we had gone to the polls and taken advantage of our opportunity to participate!

Texas boasts a lot of great things, but one thing they don’t have is a voice in shaping party tickets for the presidential election. I’d have to say the folks who called were a little envious that, because of our address, our voices count and theirs don’t. It was extremely gratifying for us to visit the polls yesterday and then watch the coverage last night and know we had been heard.

Being heard is a deep, universal need. It is an outward confirmation of our existence and importance. In the last week, I have had need to send notes to 2 brands about which I care very deeply, and have not heard back from either. I am still holding out hope that they will acknowledge me, but intellectually I know that those pings will go the way of the feelings of Texas Democrats – unrecognized – and it will change the way I connect to those brands going forward.

We now interrupt the corporate brand discussion to cover a more appropriate MLK day topic, leadership.

I currently live in South Carolina, which means that for the past 2 weeks, I have had the strange experience of being bombarded by presidential ads that are NOT meant for me. When I lived in Austin, I could count on one hand the number of people I knew who were natives – almost everyone had relocated from another part of the state, country or world because of the remarkable lifestyle and employment opportunities there. On the flip side, I know very few people who are transplants to South Carolina and the candidates tailored messages accordingly.

As far as I can tell, all of the candidates made South Carolina-specific broadcast pieces and ran them until I curled up in a ball and cried uncle (1 week to go for the Dems). Republican ads hit the following messages in a big, repetitive way – I’m a Christian, I’m pro-life, I will protect the country. The manner in which they covered those points seemed almost condescending to me but I shrugged it off as “I’m not the target, they’re probably good ads”. In thinking that, I am as guilty as the candidates for underestimating my neighbors. NBC filmed a great interview Saturday night with a Christian study group in Columbia, South Carolina whose members said they were offended by the way the candidates were trying to use religion to gloss over their plans to deal with the very real & complex issues facing the nation. They didn’t understand how being photographed with a big cross in the background should supersede the need for them to understand candidate positions on long term plans for Iraq, the economy and illegal immigration. Sharing a common gender, race, college, sports team, or even religion is no guarantee that common values about the future of the country are shared.

I am no political pundit, but I think there is an opportunity for the candidate who wants to put a little faith in the intelligence of the American voter – even those in the “backward” southern states. Great leaders don’t rise to positions of power by insinuating that their followers are of lesser intellect.