You would have to contextualise a slogan like Make America Great Again to give it a negative connotation; on its face it is objectively normatively positive.
The Brexit slogan was Take back control. Again, normatively positive.
Same for Black Lives Matter.
The psychology behind successful political slogans is that people are generally in favour of positive things.
> The psychology behind successful political slogans is that people are generally in favour of positive things.
Are there any examples of negative political slogans? "Don't vote for us, we're losers"?
I don't think it's very informative to point out that these slogans are positive. What's more informative is that the messaging came with an idea of an insidious enemy, and of betrayal, and a desire to return to a former, previously great, and deserved status.
For what it's worth, I don't think "Black Lives Matter" had those same connotations.
> For what it's worth, I don't think "Black Lives Matter" had those same connotations.
Really? The impression I had[0] was that this slogan was a cry for equality in the eyes of a police force which acted as though black lives did not matter — the mistreatment being very much insidious, very much a betrayal of “protect and serve”, and while I wouldn’t call the BLM slogan itself it a “return to a former, previously great” status, it is clearly a desire to have a deserved status (of having one’s life matter).
[0] caveat: I’m caucasian British, the closest I got to this was having an American partner a few years ago
Your interpretation is correct. Unfortunately, as with everything else to do with Black and progressive activism in the US, the right wing has been very successful at bad faith redefinition of terms.
The Brexit slogan was Take back control. Again, normatively positive.
Same for Black Lives Matter.
The psychology behind successful political slogans is that people are generally in favour of positive things.