MSNBC lefty pundit
Flavia Colgan makes some good points in a piece about how many Dems haven't adapted to the new media environment (consolidated media, sound bites, etc). She doesn't excuse the situation, but says we've got to adjust so we can get our messages out in this environment.
"It sounds stupid and superficial (because it is), but Democrats, need to start talking in pithy sound bites instead of wonk-speak, show emotion sometimes, connect with the audience on a visceral emotional level... Instead of stubbornly sticking with the old way of doing things, a young candidate named John Kennedy figured out how to play by the new rules to win, yet succeeded in forcing more sophisticated debates once in power."
Of course, getting on the national "cable babble"* shows isn't enough -- while the elites watch them, their audience is limited, still less than the 3 network evening newscasts. And at the grassroots level, there's local radio, TV and don't forget, a lot of people (especially likely voters) still read newspapers. :-)
Whether at the national or local level, those ideas still apply -- speaking in down-to-earth plain English, making the campaigns about the voters (thank you, "West Wing") or as I like to put it, "Why you should care."
For example, if you're only going to get one sound bite on local radio or TV, and you're telling them why importing Colorado's "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" (TABOR) budget cap is a bad idea, you could:
(A) say that Colorado cut $150 million in higher education funding
(B) say that the cap caused tuition at the University of Colorado to go up 50 percent in two years.
Or if you really want to get people's attention, you could talk about the Colorado prison guard whose family blames his murder on understaffing caused by "TABOR." Who the heck wants people thinking they're going to make it easier for prisoners to assault guards -- or escape?
(That would be the reverse of the infamous flat answer Gov. Dukakis gave to the death penalty question in a 1988 debate.)
(For details on this budget-cap stuff, including Colorado's TABOR mess and the voters' decision to suspend that cap, see the thorough website that PA House Democrats have put together.)
I'm not saying that Democrats should stop thinking in complex terms or that we need to switch to our own version of simplistic right-wing policies like "Government bad, taxes always bad." But we have to be able to express ourselves in ways that regular people relate to.
Thanks and don't forget to tip your dealer, I mean recommend this diary. :-)
* To my knowledge, the term "cable babble" originated with Terry Michael.