Message discipline means everyone talks about a common campaign, policy project, or another political goal in the same way, agreeing to use specific words and phrases that inspire support from the intended audience.
Any television interview, town hall, social media post, or public conversation must include one or more of the following: the message of the day, the top priority issue-driven message, and the defining message of the party. The best possible outcome is when the listener, after hearing the message only once, can repeat it and feel personal identification with it. That makes it likely that future repetitions of the message will reinforce a decision to donate and vote.
Good message discipline has five parts:
- Craft a simple, memorable message with an emotional hook voters feel drawn to
- Repeat the message at EVERY opportunity.
- Avoid the opponent’s messaging and framing at all costs.
- Reframe the opponent’s message to your benefit whenever possible.
- Reward people who stay on message.
For decades the Democratic Party has been in great need of better message discipline.
Daily Kos has the resources to step in and provide it.
Every day, the progressive community complains about how Democratic leaders and candidates communicate as if no one said the same thing yesterday or the day before. Democrats need a better message. Democrats don’t know how to stay on message. Dems need to find a way to burst through the conservative-dominated media bubble and get our message out before it is too late.
This is followed by handwringing about the undeniable messaging advantage enjoyed by Republicans, which seems particularly insurmountable in ruby red areas of the country. All the old arguments and justifications explaining the “vast, right-wing conspiracy” go out for a spin: biased television reporting, hundreds of talk radio channels, the reduced influence of national print media. “Something must be done,” the pundits cry. Tempers flare for a while, and then the discussion dies down. Until tomorrow.
Sometimes it seems as if no one in party leadership is working on message discipline or even acknowledges its importance. There is no single clear thread running through Democratic campaigns and interviews, and at times conflicting messages bounce off each other and cancel each other out. Meanwhile, the other side has a well-oiled machine churning out uniform servings of misinformation, propaganda, and lies; folks consume it eagerly because the bite-sized chunks feel familiar and are easy to swallow. And Dems stand around shaking their heads, asking, “Why can’t we do that?”
The George Lakoff research that turned into several guidebooks on messaging strategy and tactics was originally published 25 years ago, in 1996. Even back then, the Republican advantage had already been established for 30 years, sparked when the Southern Strategy that had failed Goldwater worked perfectly for Nixon. LBJ predicted that the landmark civil rights legislation of 1964 and 1965 would give the South to the GOP for 40 years, but if Democrats don’t turn this around by the next presidential cycle, it will be closer to 60 years.
Or we can stop it now. Insert your favorite clip of Captain Picard growling, “The line must be drawn HEAH!” If no one else is taking charge of message discipline, why can’t we?
Daily Kos has reach and readership. We have the attention of politicians, pundits, party leaders, and others who have an even wider reach. We have an overabundance of creative activist minds on this site: songwriters, speechwriters, cartoonists, comedians, graphic designers, video directors, and centuries of combined political experience. If we rally our forces and put our best work out there, the worst that can happen is nothing, leaving the party in the same condition it is in now.
But the best that can happen is that Daily Kos becomes a clearinghouse for fresh ideas, and we’ll add our two cents to the resistance in an organized way that makes a difference.
Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. Crafting a simple message.
We will build on each week in subsequent weeks, so if you don’t add to the discussion today, Step One input will still be accepted in coming weeks.
What is the simplest and most memorable way to express what the Democratic Party has to offer?
Let’s recap the guidelines most of us know already.
For a slogan: Fewer words are better; two or three words are best.
For a mission statement: use action verbs that evoke an emotional response. A third-grader must easily understand every word with no additional explanation. Use positive language: say what we want instead of what we don’t want. It must be no longer than ten seconds. Five is even better. The first time someone hears it, they should remember it and say it back to you, word for word.
Rhyming, alliteration (every word starting with the same letter or consonant sound), and assonance (repeating the same or similar vowel sounds within different words) also help make messages memorable.
Build Back Better is not bad, exactly, but “build” is a verb with very little emotional impact. “Build” is about as stodgy and practical and boring as a verb can get. If you can’t think of a whole slogan, make suggestions about interesting verbs.
Think about the slogans that have caught on, and why they worked. Contract On America. Marriage Equality. Black Lives Matter. Think about slogans that work for the other side--can we flip them somehow so that people saying their slogan will also think of ours? Thank you, Brandon! Brandon is winning!
It’s easy to complain about what is wrong. It’s harder to offer something better. Maybe more folks will appreciate how difficult it is to do quality messaging as we try our collective hand at it. Stop bellyaching and start brainstorming. Somebody right here at DK may come up with a viral idea that captures the electorate, swings the election, saves the country and the planet.
No snark; no joke.
Let’s throw all the spaghetti on the wall. This is a situation so desperate we need to consider everything. Go through those old notes and pull out that wacky idea that always sounded good to you, but you never figured out how to get anyone to pay attention to it.
If we are unhappy with the messaging in the Democratic Party, let’s see if we can do better.
There is nothing to lose and everything to gain.
hiding’s only half of playing hide and seek