Success Quote by Herman Cain

Cain’s line is a sales pitch disguised as a punchline: a plainspoken setup, a quick pivot, then the kicker that turns voter frustration into a verdict. “Most of the people” is intentionally vague but feels statistically true; it lets listeners supply their own list of villains. “Elective office in Washington, D.C.” compresses the whole federal machine into a single, distant place-name, the capital as villain’s lair. Then comes the folksy “How’s that workin’ for you?” - a rhetorical question that pretends to solicit feedback while delivering an indictment. It borrows the cadence of customer service and flips it: you tried the product (career politicians), you hate the results, so return it.

The subtext is anti-incumbent populism with a businessman’s framing. Experience, usually a qualification, gets recast as evidence of failure. Cain isn’t arguing policy; he’s arguing brand. Washington becomes a closed loop where prior officeholding equals complicity, not competence. The “you” is doing heavy lifting, too. It turns systemic dysfunction into a personal consumer grievance, inviting the audience to feel both wronged and empowered: if politics is a service, then voting is a refund.

Context matters. Cain emerged in the Tea Party era, when bailouts, gridlock, and distrust of institutions made “outsider” a credential. As a businessman, he positioned himself as the corrective to a political class that keeps getting rehired despite poor performance. The line works because it turns cynicism into a simple call to action: stop promoting the people who already had their chance.