Yes, Democratic Messaging Sucks. But It’s Harder to Fix Than You Think.

[OfTheCross]

Yes, Democratic Messaging Sucks. But It’s Harder to Fix Than You Think.

It’s a lot easier to be the party that wants to break government than it is to be the one that wants to use it.

newrepublic.com

It’s a lot easier to be the party that wants to break government than it is to be the one that wants to use it.

Structural difficulty number one: There just aren’t as many liberals as there are conservatives in the United States.

Structural difficulty number two: Not quite half of Democrats are liberal. Here’s a Pew result from early 2020 in which Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents were asked their preferred ideological label.

Structural difficulty number three: The Republican message is just a lot less complicated. Democrats have a lot of things they want to do.

These three factors combine to make Democratic messaging a lot trickier than Republican messaging. But having said all that, Democratic messaging is still pretty lame.

Democrats and their consultants need to think outside the box in which they’re trapped. Show elected Democrats doing things and going places you wouldn’t normally expect to see a Democrat, things that reinforce that they’re on the side of working people of all kinds, even those who don’t vote for them. And name names. Take on enemies. Every time you name an enemy you also name the people you’re trying to defend. People have a much better sense of what you stand for when you tell them what, and who, you’re against. They’ll trust you more if they think you’re on their team.

I submit that this kind of approach will help address the structural problems I laid out above. Democrats across the ideological spectrum—from the conservatives to the very liberal—will respond favorably to a politics that emphasizes the idea, “We’re against the powerful interests that are scheming against you.” If people see liberal politicians taking creative and brave stands, we might even bump that liberal number up above 25 percent, since liberalism will stand for something positive again to your average person. This kind of politics can also slice through the media chatter: Republicans understand that the media loves conflict, so they serve up some new ones every week. The public always knows who the GOP is mad at, and they don’t pay a price for being the “angry” party.

 

[High Art]

The dems are tasked with balancing liberal agendas and, for the most part, conservative agendas essentially. Too many cooks in the kitchen. These issues were inevitable. I can understand why they've settled on "the repubs are evil, please vote for us". It's simple and straightforward, albeit, terrible overall.

 

[Matt504]

Democrats:

 

[KFBF]

What does the democratic establishment feel is a legitimate criticism that can be leveled against them? Can’t be blamed for messaging, can't be blamed for going back on their word, can't be blamed for being out of touch, etc.

Also, maybe if they tries being an actual left party for the people rather than performing being a left party (a lot of meaningless grandstanding) they’d have more success.

 

[acri1]

Honestly there's no fix, that battle is already lost. You're never going to out-message a party that really only has to appeal to one demographic.

Maybe after a few decades of terrible Republican leadership people will get tired of them, but in the near term it's a wrap unless the economy suddenly improves.

 

[Pressure]

Republicans can over promise and under/never deliver because as @acri1 points out, their base knows what it's really about:


Dems do the same and there's 100 think pieces about wielding power and making false promises by folks who don't participate:

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

What is this dude doing?!?!????



What the fukk!!!

 

[cheek100]

Dems have too many tribes to agree on the littlest thing.
Republicans agree to scorch the earth everyday all day and when u have no soul that’s really easy. Two party systems are built just for this.

 

[Pure Water]

Dems may have tried this idk. But I think grassroots town hall meetings in conservative areas would help out a lot. Just listen to their grievances. Have conversations. Let them present their side and you present your side. This isn't something that's going to change in a year or two, but you have to speak to the people.

If I was a state level politician, I would set up multiple meetings. So they can explain their issues with the Democratic platform, another to allow me to explain or counter their grievances, and more to plan solutions to fix said issues.

I just feel like people don't talk to each other anymore.

 

[Pressure]

Dems may have tried this idk. But I think grassroots town hall meetings in conservative areas would help out a lot. Just listen to their grievances. Have conversations. Let them present their side and you present your side. This isn't something that's going to change in a year or two, but you have to speak to the people.

If I was a state level politician, I would set up multiple meetings. So they can explain their issues with the Democratic platform, another to allow me to explain or counter their grievances, and more to plan solutions to fix said issues.

I just feel like people don't talk to each other anymore.

Dem aligned groups should host more events that don't try and target everyone all the time.

 

[acri1]

Dems may have tried this idk. But I think grassroots town hall meetings in conservative areas would help out a lot. Just listen to their grievances. Have conversations. Let them present their side and you present your side. This isn't something that's going to change in a year or two, but you have to speak to the people.

If I was a state level politician, I would set up multiple meetings. So they can explain their issues with the Democratic platform, another to allow me to explain or counter their grievances, and more to plan solutions to fix said issues.

I just feel like people don't talk to each other anymore.

I'd say they just need more organized events in general.

Look at CPAC. What's the Democratic equivalent? I have no idea and I've been a Democratic voter my entire adult life.

 

[the cac mamba]

The dems are tasked with balancing liberal agendas and, for the most part, conservative agendas essentially

they need to separate left wing populism from today's left wing cultural issues

medicare for all shouldnt be in the same conversation as drag queen social hour and "latinx" i mean im sorry, but the far left brand is awful for national politics. it needs to stay localized in the dark blue districts

 

[KFBF]

they need to separate left wing populism from today's left wing cultural issues

medicare for all shouldnt be in the same conversation as drag queen social hour and "latinx" i mean im sorry, but the far left brand is awful for national politics. it needs to stay localized in the dark blue districts

The conflating of crying about Netflix not having enough lgb+x shows and Medicare for all is a failure of the Democratic Party.

 

[OscarAcosta]

A broad church with many one-issue voters will always be a fukking disaster, especially when you try to placate one and all equally.

Surely it is not difficult to establish the most important policy achievements to satisfy the rump of your voter base; ensure that these are realistic and deliverable across the duration of a term; campaign and message on those.

Am I missing something?!

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

they need to separate left wing populism from today's left wing cultural issues

medicare for all shouldnt be in the same conversation as drag queen social hour and "latinx" i mean im sorry, but the far left brand is awful for national politics. it needs to stay localized in the dark blue districts

if anything, a lot of this started when right wingers started seeing this shyt online even if they never see it offline. Its hard to keep that shyt offline if right wing trolls are just going to signal-boost anything weird they find.

This is what happened with Tumblr shyt.