Hello Daily Kos Readers:
I wanted to post this diary to present some Democratic messaging ideas that I think ANY Democratic Candidate can use for the upcoming Midterm elections. Warning — this is a long diary, but I hope that you like it.
Some background — I live in Austin Texas and have since 1997. When that traitor Manchin screwed us over with his announcement on Fox News of all places, I, like I suspect all of you here, got really pissed off! I stayed away from her for a few days because I didn’t want to read all of the gloom and doom panic porn dairies that spring up here, about how we were screwed, we just lost 2022, etc. I thought about it and said we need to go on OFFENSE and DEFINE the message for a change! So I wrote to the local Congressman Lloyd Doggett and sent the following letter. Doggett is a Texas Democrat and has been in Texas politics forever on both the state and national level. He has been in Congress since 1995, as he succeeded the late JJ Pickle. He has been my Congressman in the past, but unfortunately he is not now, thanks to the Texas Legislature. I am excited though that he will be my Congressman again due to redistricting. He is one of the good guys, a true definition of a public servant, and his office has helped me in the past even though he is not my current Representative.
I contacted his office and wanted to talk to him. However I forgot about the Hatch Act and how his aides can’t talk to me about election issues, that they were two separate entities. I am trying to talk to someone in his office now as well as the Travis County Democratic Party Chair. However, I did get a response from the Congressman to this email.
So I thought, why not share this here? While I don’t claim to be an expert on messaging, I think I have some good ideas that could be used by ANY Democratic Candidates. And if any of you know hoe to contact DNC Chairman Harrison please let me know.
Here is a link to Congressman Doggett’s campaign site if you all are interested: VoteDoggett.com
I hope that you all find this useful!
Dear Congressman Doggett,
Thank you for taking the time to read this email. In light of recent weeks, I have some thoughts on messaging for you and for Democratic Candidates as we go into this mid-term election year. As I write this to you on January 6th, I am terrified that if Republicans retake one or both Houses of Congress next year, they will steal the 2024 election and that for all intents and purposes, our democracy will be over. We cannot allow this to happen! I have some thoughts that I would like to share with you concerning this issue and hopefully these thoughts could be shared with all Democratic Candidates.
To be honest and blunt with you – we as a Party stink at messaging. Our messaging would have to improve to be called incompetent! And for someone like me who is a Democratic activist, one of the people who makes the phone calls for voter turnout, walks the blocks in neighborhoods for voter turnout, etc., the fact that we as Democrats are so incompetent at messaging is extremely frustrating! Add to that the overall incompetence of the American media, and their parroting of Republican Talking Points, and we start out each race at a significant disadvantage. What truly frustrates me is why the national and state parties are incapable of figuring this out! When it comes to messaging it always seems that we are a day late and a dollar short when compared to Republicans. The Republican Party also has their propaganda channel of Fox “News”, and their many hate radio stations to blanket the airways with their lies. And it has been shown that we cannot rely on the traditional American media to counter these lies.
My email to you today is based on three recent events:
The Anniversary of January 6 as mentioned above:. Last year, I spent part of January 6th on the phone with my then 94 year old mother. She was watching these events unfold and she was terrified that she was witnessing the end of our country. In reading about it later, it is shocking to see how close we came to that.
Beto O’Rourke’s recent rally in Austin: I went to the rally and actually had a chance to speak with him, briefly, as with his advisers. I told him that he needed to use the following phrase – Governor, you have failed this state! I told him that people may not remember policies, but if he uses this phrase over and over again, people may remember it when they vote. And it is true – Greg Abbott has failed this state in so many ways that I don’t have to tell you about. Plus, Abbott would not be able to defend against this, since we know his whole campaign is going to be about Beto saying he was coming after assault rifles. Beto liked the idea and said when he uses it, I will know that he got it from me. So why can’t we use this phrase with other candidates?
(Note — this phrase is a variation of the phrase “You have failed this city” from the show Arrow. However it is a good phrase and one that I think can work. For Congressman and Senators it can be You Have Failed This Country!)
Beto O’Rourke — The Next Governor of Texas!
Joe Manchin’s Fox “News” announcement about Build Back Better: I don’t even want to get into it why he is a lousy Democrat, who Robert Byrd would set straight if he were alive. It got me mad, because I was reading on the blogs about how our party was dead, how we are going to lose everything, etc. So I thought, why don’t we go on offense? Lay out what is in BBB and frame it in such a way that Republican X, why are you AGAINST these things? We need to play offense for once!
Much was accomplished last year, despite the media not talking about it. We have much to run on. We have a booming economy and we are recovering from the pandemic. Yet you wouldn’t know it though from the media.
These are some ideas that I have that can be used for any Democrat:
The January 6th Insurrection – If we as a Party don’t use this to maximum political benefit this year, then we deserve to lose! I hope and pray that the revelations that will come out from the January 6th Committee will be enough to wake up even the lowest information voter! We should be running ads, especially against Trump’s Congressional allies, to the effect of “Congressman/Senator X, by your support of these traitors, you have failed this country! You have failed the Constitution, and you have betrayed the Oath of Office that you have taken!” Use images of the riots in the ads with these words! Again, make the Republicans answer for their actions on this day!
The You Have Failed This Country message should be hammered home ad nauseam! Maybe people will remember it!
The Build Back Better Plan – The traditional media is completely incompetent, and is not going to do its job. We need to have talking points where we ALL talk about what is in the bill, NOT on how much it will cost. The media is focused on cost. Lay out in detail what each part of the plan does, and repeat it over and over again. Then run ads asking why Republican X is against this? Again, put them on the defensive. The majority of people do not know what is in the plan – WE as a Party need to tell them!
Infrastructure Bill – Lay out what was done in this bill and what it will mean for District X and State X. Then ask why Republican X was against this bill? And especially go after these Republican hypocrites who voted against the bill yet are claiming the positive effects for their districts/states. As Speaker Pelosi said, Vote No, Yet Take the Dough.
COVID Relief Act – Again, lay out what this act did for each District/State and how much it helped. Then ask why Republican X voted against it.
Pay for Play – What I mean by this is that I would like to see ads to the effect of Congressman/Senator X voted for/against some bill that would have/did improve the lives of people in their District/State. Yet they took $X in campaign contributions from Company Y that supported/opposed this bill. Who does Congressman/Senator X work for, us, or the lobbyists?
State of the Union Address – In my opinion, President Biden needs to go for the jugular here as the stakes are way too high not to. Our very democracy is at stake. He should lay out all of these things mentioned above, and ask point blank why Republicans didn’t support them and why they continue to put Party above Country. He has nothing to lose, since it is not like they will do anything but oppose anything he wants anyway! The time for being a nice guy is over! He needs to get back on the No Malarkey Express and state all of this in clean and easy to understand language!
These are some of the ideas I wanted to express to you. I would love to talk to you about this in more detail. Ideally, I would also like to express these ideas with President Biden, and DNC Chairman Harrison. But I have to also express my frustration with all of this. None of what I just said in this email is rocket science. None of this should be a surprise either. Why is it so seemingly impossible to Democrats to message correctly?
I want to close by thanking you for taking the time to read this. I am nobody special, just a Democratic activist and a concerned citizen who wants to make this country better. Thank You so much for all that you do – you are truly the definition of what a public servant should be, and I hope that you continue to have many more years in Congress. The Party and the Country need more people like you! And I especially want to thank you given the fact that I am not currently in your district, but will be if the new maps are approved.
May God Bless you and your family for a healthy and prosperous 2022!
So what do you all think? Can these ideas be used by all of our candidates?
I appreciate you reading this. I look forward to your comments.
