Four of the five worst stock market crashes in the last 100 years happened under a Republican President: Hoover, Reagan, Bush, Jr. and Trump (the fifth was under Clinton, after a GOP Congress slashed financial regulations). And whatever happened to that recession the media has been predicting for three years now?
Yet, polls tell us that most Americans believe Republicans are “better” for the economy. Through repetitious rote-programming, that absurd trope has become a self-perpetuating myth. As my title suggests, I wouldn’t have seen most of these headlines of the past six weeks if I didn’t read the business section.
We counter with rational arguments that show Dems are better for the economy, due to consumer protection rules, economic stimulus programs, etc. But that’s not enough, we need to rebrand the Dems on this issue. If you already get my drift and just want to grab some memes to post all over FB, X or wherever, please, please meme me, including on Trumpy / GQP social media comment threads. They can argue — but they can’t unsee. Come back for more memes in the future.
My next post is for memes about Trump’s convictions of various crimes. If you want the deep dive on the how and why, please keep reading.
Truth to tropes
I don’t know much about social media or going viral, so I need your help; but I do know marketing. As Republicans are well-aware, short branding phrases with simple visuals, repeated endlessly via right-wing media tropes, dog whistles and viral memes, are absorbed into people’s minds. They short circuit thought processes, cause one to doubt and, apparently, even rewire memories.
This power also can be used for good. So, here’s a series of memes for anyone to adapt, post and share on social media. Plus, there’s a template you can use to create your own memes by pasting in news clippings and dating them. By repeating the same frame, we reinforce its core message and people recognize it but their eye is drawn to the one thing that’s different each time: In this case, a news clipping.
The initial meme idea is simple and positive: Biden is good for the economy, so let’s put a nice, official picture of Good Ol’ Joe, next to good news for America. Real photo, real headlines. People can’t help but make a connection. If people are going to blame the bad on him, they can also credit him with the good. Simple but effective: “President Biden” is our guy. “Thank you” gives him due credit and “4 more years” is our goal. The frame messaging makes a fast visual mental impression that’s easy to absorb.
The template at the bottom of the page has a place for you to post your own news clippings. It doesn’t have to be about the economy, of course. Make new ones as needed. People will begin to anticipate what the next good thing is …
Biden’s strong economy
The memes don’t proscribe other factors for the good news. It just reminds people that President Biden has handled the economy well. These are actual headlines. The name of the meme includes the dates the articles ran and at the top of the scroll.
Check these out, post and share them, use the template to add your own positive news hooks (I plan to make more like these, regarding labor, the environment, foreign policy, etc.) and, most importantly, share them on social media. Even if they don’t agree, people see it and imprint the impression we present. The more often people see this type of meme, the sooner they will see that Biden is a great President who gets their vote.
The first three memes are about the stock market. Since I made these last week, the market has set yet another record, but my newspaper didn’t report it yet. The next four are about things that affect consumers directly and how the Biden economy is benefitting them. (Eg., the media moans and groans about inflation, but did you know that retail prices are actually falling?) The last meme is the template, of course.
More to come
Other messaging memes will follow as we go along, with different themes. Naturally, some tropes will be anti-Drumpf but mostly we want to focus on pro-Biden and pro-Democrat messaging, which is where I see the biggest information vacuum.
We plan to reinforce Biden as:
- Strong
- Effective
- Smart
- Authentic
- Fighting for common folks
- Fighting climate change
- Fighting for Democracy
We plan to expose Drumpf as:
- Weak
- Loser
- Senile
- Phony / Liar
- Out of touch elitist (golden toilets?)
- Fighting for the ultra rich
- Caving in to authoritarianism
Some memes will be more geared toward making a general impression. I am working with AI to create some illustration but, obviously, not fake photos or anything like that. After all, we aren’t MAGA — we are reality-based.
I look forward to getting your suggestions and feedback, especially after I post a few batches of memes so you get a better range of the themes and styles I have in mind. What kind of images and phrases do you find are most effective for reaching which demographic? How do we get pro-Biden memes to go viral? How do we soften up the MAGA mobsters to accept it when Trump loses again?
And, of course, if you think you can do better, go ahead, make my day.
If I were Biden
Speaking of effective imagery, do two things I would do now if I was on Biden’s campaign staff :
1) Challenge Trump to a bicycle race (Trump probably can’t ride a bicycle and will certainly back down, plus it counters the meme of Biden falling off a bike that one time). This challenge could be used to taunt Republicans who say Biden is “too old” — ‘So why’s the former guy afraid to race him?’
2) Take his photo with a group of active Centenarians to show that he’s still young compared to his lifetime potential.
Maybe someone who reads this can pass those ideas along to his campaign for me. Thanks for reading this and, especially, for endlessly repeating these messages to the voters via meme!