Yes, porn. Adult Entertainment. Hear me out. Looking through the tightened poll crosstabs, something stuck out: Much of the bleed-off from Hillary the last few weeks was to 3rd parties, particularly among millennial men, especially white ones, from the Obama collation. I ranted about this a bit on my own FB page, angrily saying that they were spitting in my face as a gay black man by throwing away such a vote and allowing Trump to gain power.
But a sober analysis made me think: A good portion of them may not care. Not in a visceral, internalized way. It’s a matter of self interests. If Hillary has been made to look like their scoldy grandma or mom who isn’t in good health, I’m willing to be they felt more comfortable reverting to a comfortable presidential image: A middle aged white guy. That said white guy supports legalized weed and leaving them alone to do whatever they want makes him a nice, reflexive (but not well-considered) fallback.
SO, how to reach these folks? More below the Orange Toaster Strudel.
The democratic party, especially during the Obama years, has done a good job of knitting together a party of overlapping interests from diverse groups. We’re a blob of intersecting Venn Diagrams. Realizing this then led to a few questions. For that group of millennials (white, socially liberal, reflexively libertarian-minded):
- What interests are in THEIR circles that can overlap with overall Democratic party values and platforms?
- What are the best, least risky but most impactful ways to get them to understand what’s at stake in a Trump presidency?
In answering question 1, I thought of a few. Weed legalization isn’t an overlap with Hillary at this point, so that's out. Cyber security is another, but her explanations require too much nuance to explain (either in ads or in speeches/rallies). Then I remembered my rant on FB regarding women’s rights, which led me to supreme court. A white, millennial male might not give a damn about the supreme court being packed with judges by Trump in regards to women’s uterine rights, or about the voting rights of black people. But the data from several porn streaming sites is unequivocal: They’re watching porn. A LOT of it. A conservative supreme court, hearing cases about banning internet porn, or outlawing exotic dancers? That might pose a problem *grin*, making it something they might care about.
Regarding question 2, how to appeal to them in a presidential campaign on something as controversial as porn: I’d like for someone to correct me if I’m wrong here, but most of the jurisprudence around it is wrapped up in the first amendment. For the campaign directly, I think obviously they can’t come out and say “If Trump gets Elected, kiss your porn goodbye”, but they CAN start appealing more directly to the 1st amendment and all the art forms that would be under threat with a Trump-selected supreme court (using much of Pence’s own words and record in ads and speeches). A second prong, though, could be more direct: Viral video. I think about some of the stuff from the ‘College Humor’ website, the old Jib-Jab videos and the like, and think the industry itself could work on things of that nature, to let them know what’s at risk. These, of course, needn’t be raunchy, just humorous and starting attractive people.
I know this was kind-of long (and I think my first blog here), but it’s a conversation I’d like to see happen in comments.
Everyone in the Obama Coalition is there because they have ‘skin in the game’ so to speak. Anyone wavering is doing, I think, because they may not see this. My point here is a theory that maybe the skin they have in the game is one that doesn't get talked about in polite circles.