Agree that we need more media infrastructure, which I know Dan is involved in creating. Absent that (because it is a multiyear/decade process that may take way too long), we need to make sure that the people most likely to carry the message (the base/activists) have the tools to do so. Anat Shenker-Osorio (between Dan and Anat, I think we've got messaging covered), contends that while it might be true that we have to convince the swing voter, no swing voter is going to hear a message in the current environment. So we need to empower the base with strong and consistent messaging to carry that message. By that she means (and I concur), that the choir needs to be empowered to run with the message and pass it on over social media, in real life, and any other creative way possible. She, Mike Podhorzer (AFL/CIO) and Dr. Jiggy Geronimo hold biweekly briefings for the activist base on messaging to keep it simple, consistent, and powerful. It's now up to us to get out there and hammer the hell out of it. My organization creates content using this messaging strategy (moreperfectdemocracy.org) as do DemCast, DemocracyLabs, DemVoice1, and many others. People need to pick one or more of the orgs and amplify the hell out of the messaging, preferably among all the people they know in real life. We're on FB and Twitter and welcome other channels. We're obviously not going to get the major media on board (except for a select few individuals) so we're going to have to make something of nothing before we can rely on the big money to create massive media channels (again, besides crooked), to do this. Rant over for now. Thank you, Dan, for these newsletters. Your voice forms a large part of More Perfect Democracy messaging strategy.
If the difference between who becomes a Democrat and who becomes a Republican is having a college degree, I feel like the takeaway here should be "make college cheaper and more accessible to everyone" rather than "screw Black people". I had to stop about halfway through Ezra Klein's article because throwing America into reverse and going back to 1994 is fucking moronic. (It's also dripping with the universalization of white male experience of which white male pundits are so often guilty.) I mean, come on...the old "Ivory Tower Liberals" shtick? Give me a fucking break. I lived in the Ungovernable Tribal Regions for years, and I can tell you that there is a giant class divide between who can and can't afford college. Republicans know that shoveling America's wealth upwards not only pleases our wealthy overlords, but delivers them a dependent and desperate population of workers to abuse. Economically destabilizing people makes them ripe for someone to blame. Republicans then deliver a scapegoat--Those People. This is how you create Republican voters. LBJ fucking said it out loud. The technique is older than the sun. So level the damn playing field. Cancelling student loan debt and free higher education WILL manufacture more Democrats, so how about we give that a whirl?
If cultural issues drove some low-information swing voters into the Republican party, and outrage-inducing cultural issues drives online traffic, gaining traction via Facebook algorithms, part of a new approach to messaging would seem to be truthful, catchy, sharp, fear-inducing negative campaigning. "Senator "Cancun" Cruz,, the Ivy League Wacko Bird, yakked for 21 hours against basic health insurance while a million uninsured Texans face dying alone." "Chuck "No Dementia" Grassley promoted mass shootings by mentally-impaired; who dies next?"
Also part of a new approach might be a focus on the outcomes, not the means, of the benefits from BBB; instead of "lowers housing costs" say "homeless vets finally helped with the rehab and construction of millions of homes."
No question need to find donors (I would gladly be one) to build a "factual media" infrastructure to counter right wing BS. Having said that, if D's ever come up with anything as utterly stupid as "Defund the Police" again, I'll run as an independent just to get media coverage to let everyone know how f'ing stupid that is. Also, I think Shor is right about the economy. Blacks and Latinos did well economically under Trump (not due to his policies, he inherited a good economy from Obama) and when Corona hit, many probably blamed D's for shutting things down and hurting them economically. To most people, getting corona and being hospitalized or killed was/is an abstract concern. Losing your job and not being able to pay rent or buy food is a concrete concern. Focus on people's concrete concerns. This, among many reasons, is why wokeness is also so ridiculous. Who TF benefits concretely from all that nonsense? Worse, most of it just doesn't hold up to logic or evidence. If we're the party of science, we can't get caught up in wokeness. D's need to both change their tune, and get a louder radio to play it.
I will work like hell for D candidates in 2022 and 2024, just like I will to defeat the MAGA School Board WRITE-IN candidates who, frankly, are doing a great job of getting their signs out here in purple Chester County PA (ie "Make OJR School District great again") and seeing NO signs for the traditional R and D candidates. Since signs cannot be put up on public property until two weeks before an election, this means that the MAGA candidates have been going door-to-door here and they are finding success. I pray that the voters don't think that 'those with the most signs, win' but meanwhile, today, I am downloading the passport application as are two older artist friends of mine. If all goes to hell, we will need to get outta here.
One thing the septuagenarians that run the party could do today is open a 24/7 war room to put out a clear and consistent message every day and especially on weekends. Can’t anyone here play this game?
“Give me a one-handed Economist. All my economists say 'on the one hand...', then 'but on the other...” ― Harry Truman.
Herein lies a big problem with trying to define a political approach that is failing, or one that will be successful, there simply isn't good data that will prove it, and there may never be when you're dealing with irrational people.
There seems to be some growing data that shows that the uninformed voters (the swing voters) don't vote based on facts of what you did for them, or promises of what you'll do for them. If they did, Republicans would lose every election by unanimous rejection. And yet Democrats continue to run on messages like "we'll lower your prescription drug prices by 10%", while Republicans run on things like, "there are hordes of Ebola filled zombie children storming the borders to come murder your family". We are genetically programmed to have a strong response to fear (fight or flight), and Republicans realize that and have run campaigns for decades on lies, fear, and hate.
But you really nailed it about the right wing propaganda machine and our absolutely failed stenographer media that sees its job as being balanced enough to give equal weight of Republican lies and the truth.
The greatest truth Democrats can use to instill bone chilling fear in swing voters is the truth that our democracy is under attack from a fascist GOP and the consequences of losing this fight will be an unimaginable horror for you and your family. But if we can't punch through the right wing propaganda control of information flow, no message will matter.
Agree that we need more media infrastructure, which I know Dan is involved in creating. Absent that (because it is a multiyear/decade process that may take way too long), we need to make sure that the people most likely to carry the message (the base/activists) have the tools to do so. Anat Shenker-Osorio (between Dan and Anat, I think we've got messaging covered), contends that while it might be true that we have to convince the swing voter, no swing voter is going to hear a message in the current environment. So we need to empower the base with strong and consistent messaging to carry that message. By that she means (and I concur), that the choir needs to be empowered to run with the message and pass it on over social media, in real life, and any other creative way possible. She, Mike Podhorzer (AFL/CIO) and Dr. Jiggy Geronimo hold biweekly briefings for the activist base on messaging to keep it simple, consistent, and powerful. It's now up to us to get out there and hammer the hell out of it. My organization creates content using this messaging strategy (moreperfectdemocracy.org) as do DemCast, DemocracyLabs, DemVoice1, and many others. People need to pick one or more of the orgs and amplify the hell out of the messaging, preferably among all the people they know in real life. We're on FB and Twitter and welcome other channels. We're obviously not going to get the major media on board (except for a select few individuals) so we're going to have to make something of nothing before we can rely on the big money to create massive media channels (again, besides crooked), to do this. Rant over for now. Thank you, Dan, for these newsletters. Your voice forms a large part of More Perfect Democracy messaging strategy.
If the difference between who becomes a Democrat and who becomes a Republican is having a college degree, I feel like the takeaway here should be "make college cheaper and more accessible to everyone" rather than "screw Black people". I had to stop about halfway through Ezra Klein's article because throwing America into reverse and going back to 1994 is fucking moronic. (It's also dripping with the universalization of white male experience of which white male pundits are so often guilty.) I mean, come on...the old "Ivory Tower Liberals" shtick? Give me a fucking break. I lived in the Ungovernable Tribal Regions for years, and I can tell you that there is a giant class divide between who can and can't afford college. Republicans know that shoveling America's wealth upwards not only pleases our wealthy overlords, but delivers them a dependent and desperate population of workers to abuse. Economically destabilizing people makes them ripe for someone to blame. Republicans then deliver a scapegoat--Those People. This is how you create Republican voters. LBJ fucking said it out loud. The technique is older than the sun. So level the damn playing field. Cancelling student loan debt and free higher education WILL manufacture more Democrats, so how about we give that a whirl?
If cultural issues drove some low-information swing voters into the Republican party, and outrage-inducing cultural issues drives online traffic, gaining traction via Facebook algorithms, part of a new approach to messaging would seem to be truthful, catchy, sharp, fear-inducing negative campaigning. "Senator "Cancun" Cruz,, the Ivy League Wacko Bird, yakked for 21 hours against basic health insurance while a million uninsured Texans face dying alone." "Chuck "No Dementia" Grassley promoted mass shootings by mentally-impaired; who dies next?"
Also part of a new approach might be a focus on the outcomes, not the means, of the benefits from BBB; instead of "lowers housing costs" say "homeless vets finally helped with the rehab and construction of millions of homes."
Could the Pod Save team go big? Weeknight prime time show? Now there is an ecosystem!
No question need to find donors (I would gladly be one) to build a "factual media" infrastructure to counter right wing BS. Having said that, if D's ever come up with anything as utterly stupid as "Defund the Police" again, I'll run as an independent just to get media coverage to let everyone know how f'ing stupid that is. Also, I think Shor is right about the economy. Blacks and Latinos did well economically under Trump (not due to his policies, he inherited a good economy from Obama) and when Corona hit, many probably blamed D's for shutting things down and hurting them economically. To most people, getting corona and being hospitalized or killed was/is an abstract concern. Losing your job and not being able to pay rent or buy food is a concrete concern. Focus on people's concrete concerns. This, among many reasons, is why wokeness is also so ridiculous. Who TF benefits concretely from all that nonsense? Worse, most of it just doesn't hold up to logic or evidence. If we're the party of science, we can't get caught up in wokeness. D's need to both change their tune, and get a louder radio to play it.
I will work like hell for D candidates in 2022 and 2024, just like I will to defeat the MAGA School Board WRITE-IN candidates who, frankly, are doing a great job of getting their signs out here in purple Chester County PA (ie "Make OJR School District great again") and seeing NO signs for the traditional R and D candidates. Since signs cannot be put up on public property until two weeks before an election, this means that the MAGA candidates have been going door-to-door here and they are finding success. I pray that the voters don't think that 'those with the most signs, win' but meanwhile, today, I am downloading the passport application as are two older artist friends of mine. If all goes to hell, we will need to get outta here.
One thing the septuagenarians that run the party could do today is open a 24/7 war room to put out a clear and consistent message every day and especially on weekends. Can’t anyone here play this game?
“Give me a one-handed Economist. All my economists say 'on the one hand...', then 'but on the other...” ― Harry Truman.
Herein lies a big problem with trying to define a political approach that is failing, or one that will be successful, there simply isn't good data that will prove it, and there may never be when you're dealing with irrational people.
There seems to be some growing data that shows that the uninformed voters (the swing voters) don't vote based on facts of what you did for them, or promises of what you'll do for them. If they did, Republicans would lose every election by unanimous rejection. And yet Democrats continue to run on messages like "we'll lower your prescription drug prices by 10%", while Republicans run on things like, "there are hordes of Ebola filled zombie children storming the borders to come murder your family". We are genetically programmed to have a strong response to fear (fight or flight), and Republicans realize that and have run campaigns for decades on lies, fear, and hate.
But you really nailed it about the right wing propaganda machine and our absolutely failed stenographer media that sees its job as being balanced enough to give equal weight of Republican lies and the truth.
The greatest truth Democrats can use to instill bone chilling fear in swing voters is the truth that our democracy is under attack from a fascist GOP and the consequences of losing this fight will be an unimaginable horror for you and your family. But if we can't punch through the right wing propaganda control of information flow, no message will matter.
Hillary Clinton’s 2020 campaign…2016?
Might you want to share this with Jen Psaki?