The “people we need” are not watching CNN or MSNBC. They are not reading the Times or the Post or anything else that even sort of seems like it might be left leaning. Therefore. if they want to get their messages across, Dems need to go where the “people we need” are. Sorry, but there still need to be tv ads during football games and March Madness that ask whether he’s done what he said he would do. Right from the first day. And to the first point, staying focused and having a coherent strategy could really help push a cohesive message. Give us out here in the world the words to say and we’ll say them. At the same time, all together. Using social media to try and overcome the newsmax/fox advantage. But we’re all over the place, still a bunch of chickens who just got our heads cut off.
It's clear that Dems need to break through, but this is impossible with the current algorithm-driven media ecosystem.
Algorithms designed to hold a users attention is what drives people into cynical, conspiratorial, and/or hard right media silos. These algorithms could be far less manipulative, addictive, polarizing, and dangerous if the platforms serving the content didn't have such a deep understanding of individual user psychology.
Every device we use collects a staggering amount of information about the user. Examples include phones, TVs, smart home devices, computers, and so on. Modern consumer vehicles, for instance, collect super intimate information about both drivers and passengers -- from medical and genetic information, to your “sex life”, to how fast you drive, where you drive, and what songs you play in your car. In addition, many services, such as your doctor, the DMV, insurance, ISPs, social media, free email providers, and just about every app on your phone, also collect an astonishing amount of personal information.
Some of this information is shared with law enforcement and government, and nearly all of it is sold to data brokers. These brokers purchase the data to create detailed personal consumer profiles, which are then sold to interested buyers. Currently, entities that collect data are not mandated to store this information responsibly and are not held liable in the event of a data breach. These practices leave every American vulnerable to scams and identity theft.
**Most importantly, this very personal user data feeds the media algorithms that serve users content designed to capture and retain user attention.**
I think the most effective way to address this is to establish comprehensive digital rights that protect consumers. This should include prohibiting invasive data harvesting and the sale of personal data, enforcing opt-out by default, and requiring data brokers to delete personal user data in earnest.
I believe this is a unifying issue across the political spectrum; no one is comfortable with the pervasive surveillance we endure just to function in society. Additionally, depriving these algorithms of individualized personal data would enable people to see a broader range of popular content, ultimately helping to dismantle information silos.
I agree 100%! I think the way you try to fix the problem is to teach people digital wellness. When you try forcing it in a "government control" type of way, it immediately turns the right into angry children. The messaging shouldn't be finger waging. It should be a set by example. Be the "brand" everyone wants.
Side note things could get so much worse if the department of education gets gutted.
Could not agree more. But Republicans benefit from this, so they aren't going to want any changes. Not until it starts to hurt them. They're the ones who opened up or date to the businesses and media.
In the short term, isn't it wise to stay off social media? I know... I'm on it now, but honestly, Twitter/X is a land mind and set up to spew angry right wing propaganda at anyone who uses it. As are most of the main sites.
To combat this in the short term do we need our own Elon Musk who spends all of his time manipulating algorithms? I know, we don't want to be like them. But we can can manipulate the message with truth and positives. Sadly, many Americans don't want this.
This issue is really complex in the immediacy. I have no idea how to compat Fox and their mainstream media.
TBH I don't use social media. I purged it from my life in 2016 and never looked back. I used a script to overwrite all my old social media posts and comments with a period (.), un-liked, un-followed, un-friended, and deleted everything. I'm not sure if this script is still available, but it took a few days to run across multiple platforms.
People in my life are astounded, and I am always asked "but how do you keep in touch with friends/family?". The same way we did it before 2010: I call, text, and share photo albums on SharePoint/google photos. I use chat platforms like Discord with friends, and I made a slack for family chats. I also use reddit on my desktop only (this is not really "social media", it's a forum). I also subscribe to a few newsletters/pod casts, like Dan's, NPR, and Crooked Media, to name a few.
My quality of life and mental health improved drastically when I unplugged from social media. Reflecting back, I can't even begin to put into words how angry, anxious, and exhausted these platforms made me feel day in and day out. After I purged and closed my social accounts, I realized how much time I was wasting on the screen. To say it was "unhealthy" would be an understatement -- hours every single day! It was hard to resist the urge to re-open an account at first, but it got easier with time. After about 3 months, I didn't care anymore. I didn't think about the pending messages, or friends posting things I might miss.
I was free.
I filled the time I got back with hobbies, exercise, and gardening. I get great sleep, I have time to cook healthy meals, and I can focus on my career and relationships. I'll never go back.
Whether or not a person disagrees with Trump’s tax policy or abortion position, if they voted for him, they voted for every horrible thing he and his minions plan to do. His minions are even more horrible than he is. Their plans will devastate the country by making everything worse. The ignorance of the people who voted for him WILL come back to haunt them.
Mandates are mythical things. If someone is elected, they get to use the levers of power assigned to that office, whether they win by 30% or 1%. Of course a larger majority in Congress can make it easier to enact sweeping changes in the law, but this isn’t that kind of election. Trump is going to be more focussed on the stuff he can do without Congressional authorization, and he doesn’t need a “mandate” for that.
Also? Let’s give the man (or at least his minions) credit where credit is due. Announcing his run for president the second he was no longer president was a good move. Let’s start the Dem primary process on January 21st. If not officially, then definitely with people considering a 2028 run (assuming we still have elections by then) out and vocal to try and proactively counteract the relentless noise of the upcoming chaos presidency.
We should be concentrating on 2026 first, we need to win more state houses and take back Congress. We can’t be like Trump because we don’t have a cult built around Harris or anyone else who could claim the nomination now.
Stunningly large in that every demographic group except Black women, moved to the right. Blue states moved to the right by pretty stunning margins. We lost the House (after two years of total mismanagement by the GOP), and lost the popular vote for the first time in two decades. It stunned a lot of us.
Those margins don't look stunning to me, especially in swing states. And is it true that "every demographic group except Black women moved to the right"? As reported by the Guardian on Nov. 6: "But Harris made inroads with [white women]; she lost them by only 5 points, according to CNN. (In 2020, they broke for Trump by 11.) More surprisingly, Trump’s lead among white men also shrank, from 23 points in 2020 to 20 in 2024." True, this was reported the day after the election, and votes are still being counted a week later, but there it is.
But Reagan was nothing like Trump. People actually liked Reagan, while a significant number of people who voted for Trump hate him (they just hate Democrats more).
The fact that Trump wasn't utterly crushed after running the worst campaign I've ever seen in my entire life, and in fact WON, makes this a stunningly large victory. We're getting lapped by a guy that's afraid of stairs and thinks global warming is a Chinese experiment to steal American jobs. It's time to admit defeat and figure out where we go next.
Many people who voted for Trump never heard what Harris has to offer. They are trapped in their right-wing ecosphere and heard a bunch of terrifying lies about trans people and immigrants. How do we get their attention so they hear what we have to offer. We know they agree with our policies. On a blind basis, our policies win. As Beth M said, these folks are not watching any main-stream media. Where is our Joe Rogan? His Trump interview got 47 million views on YouTube. The majority of this country listens to FOX news on a regular basis. We need a larger and better targeted megaphone if we're going to be able to fight their hate machine.
Part of the effort to reclaim the information realm is to be very strategic about the narrative. Trump won, but it was not a “stunningly large victory,” in the same manner that Obamacare never had “death panels,” and those who oppose choice are not “Pro-life” (they are “Anti-choice.”)
The right wing is unapologetic in their spin and it is WAY past time for everyone else to push back against their BS. Good policy alone is not sufficient. It’s a luxury we can no longer afford.
Where is our Frank Luntz? We need someone who can make the emotional appeal to people with as few words as possible. We like to be so precise and intellectual with our message that it alienates people. It’s like we’re asking people to come into the grocery store for produce and we market broccoli by slapping a nutrition label on it and R’s sell fruit snacks and call it 100% fruit. Throw some cheese sauce on that broccoli and tell people it will make them thin and beautiful.
Luntz’ achievement was using focus groups and polling to hone a carefully crafted message that could appeal to normal people. Democrats demand that voters adhere to our standards and call them dumb and racist when they don’t. It’s all about meeting voters where they are, if you can’t do that you can’t get them to move towards you.
I am so astonished that liberal people are calling voters who chose the other guy some pretty vile names. Who doesn’t realize we will need to attract some of them. Is math now cancelled?
God save us from Frank Luntz, but you make a great point. I'll add that often, when old-school Dems try to be short and pithy, it's beyond cringe, like the gaggifying "Build Back Better". Surely we can do better.
The Harris campaign was doing GREAT with this before the consultants showed up. "When we fight, we win." "Hard work is good work." "We are not going back." Those came out of the early days of the campaign, and they resonated all the way to the end, even as she was touring the country with Liz freakin' Cheney.
I particularly appreciate the call for discipline. We simply cannot afford to be hair-on-fire any more. It wastes time and energy, it reduces to noise, and it gets us no where. Nor can we afford to exaggerate the impacts of what Republicans will do - they are bad enough on their face. Over selling only costs us credibility.
We have to have the discipline to get out of our comfort zones and talk to people we don't normally talk to. Not the MAGAs, but the people Dan is talking about here - the non-evil people who get their content (I can't bear to call it "information") from social media and have very little clue about the depth and breadth of Trump's ugly agenda. nor about what the Republican Party has become.
And we have to resist the temptation to wag our finger and say "you voted for it, you deserve it", and instead focus on "Trump lied to you". Because he did, he does, and he will. And the more people who are able to see it, the better our chances.
Coalition idea: Pew Center shows that the segment of American people living solo and not benefitting from the 1000 tax laws favoring married people is exploding. When a politician says “we will help working families”, they are ignoring 38% of the adult population. Most who are on the relationship escalator (coupled and building a life with someone), have a huge blind spot for this.
This does not sound like a good place to pick a fight—38% is still far from a majority. And we probably already have that demographic. The advantages of being single outweigh whatever small tax advantage someone might have from being married (the main advantage of being married is still that of sharing a single unit of housing).
Gotta say, as a single woman by choice, I like this idea. Every time I hear a politician (including my U.S. senator, Elizabeth Warren, whom I admire greatly) emphasize "working families" my teeth itch.
This was a giant ANTI vote. Against preachy, know-it-all professional elites; against the status quo; against old institutions (media! DNC! academia! Congress!) and all the smug power-holders and talking heads in Washington and NYC... These voters are angry, reactive, raw... and now we are forced into a world of hurt and disastrous consequences.
The old guard Dems must pass the reigns -- the crusty power brokers must move along. The party is NOT generationally relevant.
Dems have got to get back to basics: walk the walk -- listen to working people; speak the language of real people; relate to the concerns of people who don't have power. DO THE WORK. Activate younger generations. Build a meaningful and effective Democratic party from the ground up.
Yep. Blame the people who wanted a normal country with sensible policies, not the overwhelmingly stupid and depraved Trump voters. These voters make up the idiocracy and I don’t think they’re going forward any time soon. “preachy know it all professional elites” - finding them on the Trump side isn’t hard. They’re the corrupt billionaire oligarchs and Republicans in Congress who pushed an insurrectionist back into office
This isn’t how we win, even if it feels good to blow off steam.
Sure, some Trump voters are idiots. So are some Dems. There are Trump voters we will never persuade.
But we need the Trump voters who fired the Dems ‘cuz they stood aloof lecturing about eleven-teen Nobel economists praising Bidenomics while prices rose for three years, and who allowed an endless parade of migrants into the country for those same three years.
I believe those two failures lost us the election. So let’s win them back instead of calling them names.
2019 prices aren’t coming back - ever - and inflation is now at around 2.5% annually/ the second best achievement among the G7 nations after Italy. The U.S. economy stands out for its growth Facts are facts and just because Democrats don’t know how to market their successes doesn’t mean they’re not true. Trump voters decided to ignore the crimes committed by a half demented strongman and don’t understand the effect of the wrecking ball he’s about to throw on low inflation. “Parade of migrants” is the straw men the other side uses while the stream of migrants has basically been stopped by executive order in the last year and was only stopped by Trump due to the pandemic. It’s tiring to reason with the exact same arguments to Trump voters who want to lecture us that their choice was OK. It is never ever going to work. We need the smart people and new voters to come to our side
All true. But for millions of people that seems disconnected from their complaint: prices kept going up for three years for gas, groceries, childcare, housing, and transportation—none of which people can scale back. No one in the Administration talked about it often, or even tried to do anything about it.
I have a degree in Economics—though it’s from long ago—so I thoroughly understand your facts. Clearly—whether anyone thinks they should or not—millions of switch voters don’t care, don’t know, or just decided Dems and their Nobel economists weren’t paying attention. That doesn’t make them idiots. It makes Dems idiots for forgetting how to talk to people.
As for immigration, I’m a liberal Dem. But I found it maddening that for three years, everyone seemed helpless to stop migration through non ports of entry. Completely illegal according to current law. If Biden wanted that kind of out of control migration, build a consensus and liberalize the laws. Otherwise enforce the laws. And to stop it as the election approached just seemed cynical.
Elections are math in the final stage. The only way to make the math works is to be endlessly patient in making our case to people who voted for the other guy.
1. I've read that the deportation plan runs afoul of the fact (?) that countries to whom we'd wish to deport people have, on the whole, refused to accept such deportees. Obviously this makes the plan pretty unworkable; those who're deported need to be sent *somewhere*. Do you know if this is true?
2. How do we convince anyone who voted for Trump of the facts surrounding both him and Democratic opinions/plans, when Fox et al have 1000x the penetration of any media on the left? As I see it, Dems could cure cancer and solve the climate crisis yet still get blamed (and reviled) for costing jobs in the armament and petro industries. I'm curious about how you see this media imbalance being overcome.
I have the feeling that Crooked is planning something that will expand their media reach by a significant factor. There have been hints that “we need a place where a Joe Rogan for the left can thrive” as well as other hints. The push to annualize subscriptions, which makes for an immediate cash flow boost (though a small one).
I can only hope it is so, and that it’s more effective than, say, Air America.
Thanks Dan. When GWB was President and I was working for EPA I was worried about him gutting the CWA. What we are now looking at is a whole new level of WTF! Anne Applebaum reports that an EO has been written to remove the Army Generals currently in place….. like again WTF…. I am really concerned about all of this.
Dems need to be loud and everywhere, like the campaign never ended, including paid media. Ignore the mainstream press as they're largely complicit and virtually useless, but instead reach voters where they are via social, podcasts and videos. Remind voters of Trump's promises and how he's failing to meet them. Create "price tracker" websites that show the cost of essential items every day and allow easy creation of memes.
Finally, elected Dems need to sow chaos and division among Trump's cabinet. Authoritarian regimes are held together by loyalty to the leader, but the second rung is usually a viper's nest, and we should use that to our advantage. Leak stories to the press about shit talking and back stabbing, which is probably the only good use of mainstream media because they care more about games than policy and goad them to turn on each other.
I have no idea if any of this will work, but I do know governing is way harder than campaigning and we can make every day of the next four years miserable for them.
Already noted in several comments, but I share the concern of how to break thru the right-wing media sphere. No doubt, PSA and other Dem-oriented media outlets need to grow. But, that's not enough. What else can be done? I admire Pete Buttigieg and what he does on Fox, but he cannot do it alone. It makes me ill to give credence to Fox "News" (recall, there is only one major media outlet that paid $787.5M to settle a defamation lawsuit only minutes before the trial was to start). Nevertheless, is the answer for Dems to REGULARLY go on Fox to sharpen and spread messages and hone debate skills?
Dan -- Do you have recommendations of where I can put my financial resources to support Democrats efforts? The DNC? ACLU? I'm very attracted to Every State Blue.
The “people we need” are not watching CNN or MSNBC. They are not reading the Times or the Post or anything else that even sort of seems like it might be left leaning. Therefore. if they want to get their messages across, Dems need to go where the “people we need” are. Sorry, but there still need to be tv ads during football games and March Madness that ask whether he’s done what he said he would do. Right from the first day. And to the first point, staying focused and having a coherent strategy could really help push a cohesive message. Give us out here in the world the words to say and we’ll say them. At the same time, all together. Using social media to try and overcome the newsmax/fox advantage. But we’re all over the place, still a bunch of chickens who just got our heads cut off.
It's clear that Dems need to break through, but this is impossible with the current algorithm-driven media ecosystem.
Algorithms designed to hold a users attention is what drives people into cynical, conspiratorial, and/or hard right media silos. These algorithms could be far less manipulative, addictive, polarizing, and dangerous if the platforms serving the content didn't have such a deep understanding of individual user psychology.
Every device we use collects a staggering amount of information about the user. Examples include phones, TVs, smart home devices, computers, and so on. Modern consumer vehicles, for instance, collect super intimate information about both drivers and passengers -- from medical and genetic information, to your “sex life”, to how fast you drive, where you drive, and what songs you play in your car. In addition, many services, such as your doctor, the DMV, insurance, ISPs, social media, free email providers, and just about every app on your phone, also collect an astonishing amount of personal information.
Some of this information is shared with law enforcement and government, and nearly all of it is sold to data brokers. These brokers purchase the data to create detailed personal consumer profiles, which are then sold to interested buyers. Currently, entities that collect data are not mandated to store this information responsibly and are not held liable in the event of a data breach. These practices leave every American vulnerable to scams and identity theft.
**Most importantly, this very personal user data feeds the media algorithms that serve users content designed to capture and retain user attention.**
I think the most effective way to address this is to establish comprehensive digital rights that protect consumers. This should include prohibiting invasive data harvesting and the sale of personal data, enforcing opt-out by default, and requiring data brokers to delete personal user data in earnest.
I believe this is a unifying issue across the political spectrum; no one is comfortable with the pervasive surveillance we endure just to function in society. Additionally, depriving these algorithms of individualized personal data would enable people to see a broader range of popular content, ultimately helping to dismantle information silos.
I agree 100%! I think the way you try to fix the problem is to teach people digital wellness. When you try forcing it in a "government control" type of way, it immediately turns the right into angry children. The messaging shouldn't be finger waging. It should be a set by example. Be the "brand" everyone wants.
Side note things could get so much worse if the department of education gets gutted.
Could not agree more. But Republicans benefit from this, so they aren't going to want any changes. Not until it starts to hurt them. They're the ones who opened up or date to the businesses and media.
In the short term, isn't it wise to stay off social media? I know... I'm on it now, but honestly, Twitter/X is a land mind and set up to spew angry right wing propaganda at anyone who uses it. As are most of the main sites.
To combat this in the short term do we need our own Elon Musk who spends all of his time manipulating algorithms? I know, we don't want to be like them. But we can can manipulate the message with truth and positives. Sadly, many Americans don't want this.
This issue is really complex in the immediacy. I have no idea how to compat Fox and their mainstream media.
TBH I don't use social media. I purged it from my life in 2016 and never looked back. I used a script to overwrite all my old social media posts and comments with a period (.), un-liked, un-followed, un-friended, and deleted everything. I'm not sure if this script is still available, but it took a few days to run across multiple platforms.
People in my life are astounded, and I am always asked "but how do you keep in touch with friends/family?". The same way we did it before 2010: I call, text, and share photo albums on SharePoint/google photos. I use chat platforms like Discord with friends, and I made a slack for family chats. I also use reddit on my desktop only (this is not really "social media", it's a forum). I also subscribe to a few newsletters/pod casts, like Dan's, NPR, and Crooked Media, to name a few.
My quality of life and mental health improved drastically when I unplugged from social media. Reflecting back, I can't even begin to put into words how angry, anxious, and exhausted these platforms made me feel day in and day out. After I purged and closed my social accounts, I realized how much time I was wasting on the screen. To say it was "unhealthy" would be an understatement -- hours every single day! It was hard to resist the urge to re-open an account at first, but it got easier with time. After about 3 months, I didn't care anymore. I didn't think about the pending messages, or friends posting things I might miss.
I was free.
I filled the time I got back with hobbies, exercise, and gardening. I get great sleep, I have time to cook healthy meals, and I can focus on my career and relationships. I'll never go back.
THIS. Came here to say this.
Whether or not a person disagrees with Trump’s tax policy or abortion position, if they voted for him, they voted for every horrible thing he and his minions plan to do. His minions are even more horrible than he is. Their plans will devastate the country by making everything worse. The ignorance of the people who voted for him WILL come back to haunt them.
Mandates are mythical things. If someone is elected, they get to use the levers of power assigned to that office, whether they win by 30% or 1%. Of course a larger majority in Congress can make it easier to enact sweeping changes in the law, but this isn’t that kind of election. Trump is going to be more focussed on the stuff he can do without Congressional authorization, and he doesn’t need a “mandate” for that.
Also? Let’s give the man (or at least his minions) credit where credit is due. Announcing his run for president the second he was no longer president was a good move. Let’s start the Dem primary process on January 21st. If not officially, then definitely with people considering a 2028 run (assuming we still have elections by then) out and vocal to try and proactively counteract the relentless noise of the upcoming chaos presidency.
We should be concentrating on 2026 first, we need to win more state houses and take back Congress. We can’t be like Trump because we don’t have a cult built around Harris or anyone else who could claim the nomination now.
Also a good idea!!
No!!!!! Stop it!! Trump did NOT win a “stunningly large victory!””” WTF!
Stunningly large in that every demographic group except Black women, moved to the right. Blue states moved to the right by pretty stunning margins. We lost the House (after two years of total mismanagement by the GOP), and lost the popular vote for the first time in two decades. It stunned a lot of us.
Trump won by a very slim margin. He does NOT have a mandate. F...K the mainstream media for claiming otherwise.
https://www.alternet.org/trump-victory-slim/
Those margins don't look stunning to me, especially in swing states. And is it true that "every demographic group except Black women moved to the right"? As reported by the Guardian on Nov. 6: "But Harris made inroads with [white women]; she lost them by only 5 points, according to CNN. (In 2020, they broke for Trump by 11.) More surprisingly, Trump’s lead among white men also shrank, from 23 points in 2020 to 20 in 2024." True, this was reported the day after the election, and votes are still being counted a week later, but there it is.
It’s not about the size, it’s about the complexion. Democrats lost a lot of young and nonwhite voters.
Seriously. I was alive in 1984. I know what a stunningly large victory looks like.
I cast my first presidential vote in 1972, so -- what you said.
But Reagan was nothing like Trump. People actually liked Reagan, while a significant number of people who voted for Trump hate him (they just hate Democrats more).
Absolutely. My point was simply that Trump did NOT win a stunningly large victory.
The fact that Trump wasn't utterly crushed after running the worst campaign I've ever seen in my entire life, and in fact WON, makes this a stunningly large victory. We're getting lapped by a guy that's afraid of stairs and thinks global warming is a Chinese experiment to steal American jobs. It's time to admit defeat and figure out where we go next.
Many people who voted for Trump never heard what Harris has to offer. They are trapped in their right-wing ecosphere and heard a bunch of terrifying lies about trans people and immigrants. How do we get their attention so they hear what we have to offer. We know they agree with our policies. On a blind basis, our policies win. As Beth M said, these folks are not watching any main-stream media. Where is our Joe Rogan? His Trump interview got 47 million views on YouTube. The majority of this country listens to FOX news on a regular basis. We need a larger and better targeted megaphone if we're going to be able to fight their hate machine.
Just subscribed so hello 👋 new community.
Part of the effort to reclaim the information realm is to be very strategic about the narrative. Trump won, but it was not a “stunningly large victory,” in the same manner that Obamacare never had “death panels,” and those who oppose choice are not “Pro-life” (they are “Anti-choice.”)
The right wing is unapologetic in their spin and it is WAY past time for everyone else to push back against their BS. Good policy alone is not sufficient. It’s a luxury we can no longer afford.
Hello, and welcome!
Where is our Frank Luntz? We need someone who can make the emotional appeal to people with as few words as possible. We like to be so precise and intellectual with our message that it alienates people. It’s like we’re asking people to come into the grocery store for produce and we market broccoli by slapping a nutrition label on it and R’s sell fruit snacks and call it 100% fruit. Throw some cheese sauce on that broccoli and tell people it will make them thin and beautiful.
Luntz’ achievement was using focus groups and polling to hone a carefully crafted message that could appeal to normal people. Democrats demand that voters adhere to our standards and call them dumb and racist when they don’t. It’s all about meeting voters where they are, if you can’t do that you can’t get them to move towards you.
I am so astonished that liberal people are calling voters who chose the other guy some pretty vile names. Who doesn’t realize we will need to attract some of them. Is math now cancelled?
Who is calling them these names? I didn’t hear Kamala or Joe calling them these names.
God save us from Frank Luntz, but you make a great point. I'll add that often, when old-school Dems try to be short and pithy, it's beyond cringe, like the gaggifying "Build Back Better". Surely we can do better.
The Harris campaign was doing GREAT with this before the consultants showed up. "When we fight, we win." "Hard work is good work." "We are not going back." Those came out of the early days of the campaign, and they resonated all the way to the end, even as she was touring the country with Liz freakin' Cheney.
Who are you hearing that question from?
I particularly appreciate the call for discipline. We simply cannot afford to be hair-on-fire any more. It wastes time and energy, it reduces to noise, and it gets us no where. Nor can we afford to exaggerate the impacts of what Republicans will do - they are bad enough on their face. Over selling only costs us credibility.
We have to have the discipline to get out of our comfort zones and talk to people we don't normally talk to. Not the MAGAs, but the people Dan is talking about here - the non-evil people who get their content (I can't bear to call it "information") from social media and have very little clue about the depth and breadth of Trump's ugly agenda. nor about what the Republican Party has become.
And we have to resist the temptation to wag our finger and say "you voted for it, you deserve it", and instead focus on "Trump lied to you". Because he did, he does, and he will. And the more people who are able to see it, the better our chances.
People rarely answer the door anymore, that’s not a winning strategy either. People need to make more friends IRL, apparently.
Corr, we welcome your comments but please cut out your offensive language directed at Susan but really aimed at all women. Thank you.
Coalition idea: Pew Center shows that the segment of American people living solo and not benefitting from the 1000 tax laws favoring married people is exploding. When a politician says “we will help working families”, they are ignoring 38% of the adult population. Most who are on the relationship escalator (coupled and building a life with someone), have a huge blind spot for this.
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/10/05/rising-share-of-u-s-adults-are-living-without-a-spouse-or-partner/
This does not sound like a good place to pick a fight—38% is still far from a majority. And we probably already have that demographic. The advantages of being single outweigh whatever small tax advantage someone might have from being married (the main advantage of being married is still that of sharing a single unit of housing).
Gotta say, as a single woman by choice, I like this idea. Every time I hear a politician (including my U.S. senator, Elizabeth Warren, whom I admire greatly) emphasize "working families" my teeth itch.
This was a giant ANTI vote. Against preachy, know-it-all professional elites; against the status quo; against old institutions (media! DNC! academia! Congress!) and all the smug power-holders and talking heads in Washington and NYC... These voters are angry, reactive, raw... and now we are forced into a world of hurt and disastrous consequences.
The old guard Dems must pass the reigns -- the crusty power brokers must move along. The party is NOT generationally relevant.
Dems have got to get back to basics: walk the walk -- listen to working people; speak the language of real people; relate to the concerns of people who don't have power. DO THE WORK. Activate younger generations. Build a meaningful and effective Democratic party from the ground up.
Yep. Blame the people who wanted a normal country with sensible policies, not the overwhelmingly stupid and depraved Trump voters. These voters make up the idiocracy and I don’t think they’re going forward any time soon. “preachy know it all professional elites” - finding them on the Trump side isn’t hard. They’re the corrupt billionaire oligarchs and Republicans in Congress who pushed an insurrectionist back into office
This isn’t how we win, even if it feels good to blow off steam.
Sure, some Trump voters are idiots. So are some Dems. There are Trump voters we will never persuade.
But we need the Trump voters who fired the Dems ‘cuz they stood aloof lecturing about eleven-teen Nobel economists praising Bidenomics while prices rose for three years, and who allowed an endless parade of migrants into the country for those same three years.
I believe those two failures lost us the election. So let’s win them back instead of calling them names.
2019 prices aren’t coming back - ever - and inflation is now at around 2.5% annually/ the second best achievement among the G7 nations after Italy. The U.S. economy stands out for its growth Facts are facts and just because Democrats don’t know how to market their successes doesn’t mean they’re not true. Trump voters decided to ignore the crimes committed by a half demented strongman and don’t understand the effect of the wrecking ball he’s about to throw on low inflation. “Parade of migrants” is the straw men the other side uses while the stream of migrants has basically been stopped by executive order in the last year and was only stopped by Trump due to the pandemic. It’s tiring to reason with the exact same arguments to Trump voters who want to lecture us that their choice was OK. It is never ever going to work. We need the smart people and new voters to come to our side
All true. But for millions of people that seems disconnected from their complaint: prices kept going up for three years for gas, groceries, childcare, housing, and transportation—none of which people can scale back. No one in the Administration talked about it often, or even tried to do anything about it.
I have a degree in Economics—though it’s from long ago—so I thoroughly understand your facts. Clearly—whether anyone thinks they should or not—millions of switch voters don’t care, don’t know, or just decided Dems and their Nobel economists weren’t paying attention. That doesn’t make them idiots. It makes Dems idiots for forgetting how to talk to people.
As for immigration, I’m a liberal Dem. But I found it maddening that for three years, everyone seemed helpless to stop migration through non ports of entry. Completely illegal according to current law. If Biden wanted that kind of out of control migration, build a consensus and liberalize the laws. Otherwise enforce the laws. And to stop it as the election approached just seemed cynical.
Elections are math in the final stage. The only way to make the math works is to be endlessly patient in making our case to people who voted for the other guy.
Dan, I have two questions:
1. I've read that the deportation plan runs afoul of the fact (?) that countries to whom we'd wish to deport people have, on the whole, refused to accept such deportees. Obviously this makes the plan pretty unworkable; those who're deported need to be sent *somewhere*. Do you know if this is true?
2. How do we convince anyone who voted for Trump of the facts surrounding both him and Democratic opinions/plans, when Fox et al have 1000x the penetration of any media on the left? As I see it, Dems could cure cancer and solve the climate crisis yet still get blamed (and reviled) for costing jobs in the armament and petro industries. I'm curious about how you see this media imbalance being overcome.
thanks, skip
I have the feeling that Crooked is planning something that will expand their media reach by a significant factor. There have been hints that “we need a place where a Joe Rogan for the left can thrive” as well as other hints. The push to annualize subscriptions, which makes for an immediate cash flow boost (though a small one).
I can only hope it is so, and that it’s more effective than, say, Air America.
Thanks Dan. When GWB was President and I was working for EPA I was worried about him gutting the CWA. What we are now looking at is a whole new level of WTF! Anne Applebaum reports that an EO has been written to remove the Army Generals currently in place….. like again WTF…. I am really concerned about all of this.
Dems need to be loud and everywhere, like the campaign never ended, including paid media. Ignore the mainstream press as they're largely complicit and virtually useless, but instead reach voters where they are via social, podcasts and videos. Remind voters of Trump's promises and how he's failing to meet them. Create "price tracker" websites that show the cost of essential items every day and allow easy creation of memes.
Finally, elected Dems need to sow chaos and division among Trump's cabinet. Authoritarian regimes are held together by loyalty to the leader, but the second rung is usually a viper's nest, and we should use that to our advantage. Leak stories to the press about shit talking and back stabbing, which is probably the only good use of mainstream media because they care more about games than policy and goad them to turn on each other.
I have no idea if any of this will work, but I do know governing is way harder than campaigning and we can make every day of the next four years miserable for them.
Already noted in several comments, but I share the concern of how to break thru the right-wing media sphere. No doubt, PSA and other Dem-oriented media outlets need to grow. But, that's not enough. What else can be done? I admire Pete Buttigieg and what he does on Fox, but he cannot do it alone. It makes me ill to give credence to Fox "News" (recall, there is only one major media outlet that paid $787.5M to settle a defamation lawsuit only minutes before the trial was to start). Nevertheless, is the answer for Dems to REGULARLY go on Fox to sharpen and spread messages and hone debate skills?
Then Dems will never see them.
Dems can follow Crooked Media, we need to reach people who aren’t Dems.
We need a symbol that says ‘irony alert’.
Dan -- Do you have recommendations of where I can put my financial resources to support Democrats efforts? The DNC? ACLU? I'm very attracted to Every State Blue.