I have been reading and listening to some really great thinkers over the past few years. There are some great insights that can help us change peoples’ minds about politics and maybe drive a wedge between some deeply held beliefs by creating cognitive dissonance with existing mental constructs. There are also great insights into getting progressives to want to get out to vote and take America to the next level of getting to a “more perfect union.”
This is a work in progress, but here is what messages and messaging I think will work in the coming year. (A work in progress, of course!)
- Messages that:
- Convey that we are in the majority.
- Convey that we are winning and will continue to win, but quoting Keith Ellison, Atty. Gen. of Minnesota who said, “power knows exactly what it’s doing.” The argument is that speaking truth to power is not enough. The goal is to achieve enough power and force change. FDR allegedly said to a group of activists, “You’ve convinced me. Now go out and make me do it.” We have to create the change in attitudes that will gain the power required to change the country.
- Change is inevitable Our future will include (ASO: Change is necessary and inevitable, so let’s get on with it!):
- Anti-racism and education reform
- Economic prosperity for all through fairness
- Workers’ rights
- Union rights
- Fair distribution of profits in the workplace
- LGBTQ Rights
- Reproductive Freedom and the end of paternalistic Puritanism
- Universal healthcare (AG: “Freedom Care” or USA: Universal, Simple, Affordable)
- Universal healthcare would represent a massive expansion of human freedom in employment, life in general and economic freedom we have never known.
- Gun control.
- The end of weapons of war in civilian hands.
- The end of guns in untrained hands
- The end of guns in dangerous hands (abusers, criminals)
- Green Energy Transition
- Investment in renewable energy
- Phasing out fossil fuels
- Investment in public transportation
- Investment in a new energy grid
- Immigration reform that lets good people continue the tradition of 250 years of diversity and inclusion. (Anat Shenker-Osorio, ASO: “create fair immigration process that respects all families.”)
- SCOTUS Reform with a progressive majority
- Ending Citizens United campaign financing and corporate “personhood.”
- To add some needed reason for optimism, look at what happened in Minnesota:
- They have gained a one-seat majority in the Senate, in addition to controlling the House and having a Democratic governor.
- Passed laws include mandates for paid sick days, bans on non-compete agreements, sectoral bargaining for nursing homes, negotiation of class sizes for teachers, and protections for workers in various industries.
- They have also guaranteed a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers, passed pro-LGBTQ protections, legalized recreational marijuana, and implemented measures `for gun control, education overhaul, and free prison calls.
- Other achievements include paid family and medical leave, universal free school breakfast and lunch programs, protection of abortion rights, restoration of voting rights for felons, and the expansion of the state budget by 40 percent.
- Additional consideration is “Issue Bundling” which has historically favored the GOP.
- People feel strongly about certain issues such as abortion or guns or capitalism. So in spite of agreeing with progressives on nearly every other issue, they vote GOP.
- Is there a way to make that bundling advantage trend Dem? I think in Millenials and Gen Z, absolutely as the intensity on our “inevitable” issues is quite strong.
- Convey the moral imperative that all of our goals represent.
- Do we want to live in an America that is so selfish it lets people die because of it?
- Every policy goal above represents ongoing suffering and death while we wait for the aging Fox viewers to “come around.” They aren’t coming around. We have to do this in spite of them and for all of us.
- Start Naming the Villains.
- “Malefactors of Great Wealth” (TR) is not hyperbole. Look around. (For more, see the work of Mariana Mazzucato, particularly “The Value of Everything.”)
- For 2024 Election purposes, the villains are of three sets:
- The Executive Ruling Class: The overpaid wealth extractors of our nation who do nothing but extort money from employees and consumers. Who pass on their exorbitant wealth and privileged access to their trust-fund children. They will protect this wealth and privilege at all costs, and convince the poor and middle class that it is not their fault, but the fault of immigrants and people of color and “others,” (see “wars, culture”) but never them. They have pounded into us the fiction that they are “wealth creators” and job “creators” after all, not the leeches that they actually are.
- Thought: “This summer’s smoke and deaths from the smoke are brought to you by the fossil fuel industry executives who know they’ll be wealthy until they die, and don’t care about you not one little bit.”
- The politicians who support them. This is primarily conservatives (but plenty of “centrists,” too) who swallow the whole “job creators” bullshit willingly and proudly, and vote accordingly. Although the money flowing to support these politicians is virtually limitless, we see though it and can and will overcome it and end it.
- Us. Those of us who passively support the above two groups and do not actively fight for change. As MLK said in Letters from a Birmingham Jail, it isn’t the KKK that is the problem, it’s the people in the middle who passively stand by and hope for the discomfort to pass. Also from Matthew Desmond (“Poverty, by America”): “Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.”
- Messaging techniques and targets. (Mostly ASO)
- The purpose of the story is to motivate action: registering to vote, voting, volunteering.
- The target must be the protagonist in the message. “Nobody is coming to save us, I/we have to save us.” Save us “from” might be ripe for targeting, especially millennials and Gen Z.
- Turns out Medicaid recipients have very low voting rates. Have to think about this one!
- The target must have agency and efficacy. We are the winning team, you can choose to make a better country and better world.
- Thought: Greta Thunberg can be a superstar climate activist but if I/we don’t vote, the planet still dies. Flip: We can take back the climate from Exxon/Shell/Fossil fuel companies and their bought and paid for politicians.
- Using contrasting images and questions to engage the audience: This is what we want, this is what they want. (Again, smoke filled cityscapes, burning forests, and mega yachts of fossil fuel execs.)
- Emphasizing individual responsibility in decision-making: AGENCY. The youth antismoking campaign from Jonah Berger’s The Catalyst is a great example. “Here is what the industry is doing, they said. You tell us what you want to do about it.”
- Highlighting the choice between MAGA and the rest of America. The vitriol, scapegoating, “otherization,” and backwardness trying to take us backward in history should be an easy sell.
- No one is coming to save you - it's up to the voter, listener, viewer.
- Dueling images on both sides - November is a time to choose sides.
- It's not about Republicans vs Democrats, it's about MAGA vs America.
- Democrats have done well with messaging on the topic of freedom.
- Freedom singular trends conservative, while freedoms plural trends progressive
- The concept of freedom/freedoms should be deployed by Democrats.
- The Importance of Freedom in Unions and Work
- The freedom train has been around for many generations.
- Testing messaging around unions showed that the top message was about valuing freedom.
- Real freedom means more than making a living: It means you have time to take your loved one to the doctor, go to a parent teacher conference and retire in dignity, take a vacation, etc.
- Some people perceive the freedom discourse as inherently right-wing (This is George Lakoff stuff from “Whose Freedom.”)
- Using Fear. (Anand Giridharadas)
- People's fear can be different for different people and can change over time.
- A smart political actor understands this and uses it to their advantage. There is genuine trepidation, if not outright fear, of the heavily armed and often abusive MAGA crowd.
- Daniel Allen's Vision for Renewal: Power Sharing Liberalism
- Early 19th century by classical liberalism, which is about pursuing our own private interests.
- Allen argues for “republicanism,” a conception where wellbeing flows from public participation, rather than from what we do in our private lives. This dovetails with the target audience being the protagonist and flows into participatory democracy, the idea that seems forgotten by many: we are the government. Or we should be!
- It is important for any given effort to deliver for people materially in their lives. Messaging should reflect this and contrast with conservatives’ nihilism about government. (Look at MTG speech chronicling progressive achievements – she thinks these are tragic, not triumphant.)
- Messengers. (ASO, Words to Win By “Greater Minnesota” campaign)
- Successful political campaigns require not just a good candidate but also effective messengers who can reach a wider audience.
- Organizing community leaders, like pastors or schoolteachers, can help spread a message to a broader group of people.
- Using creative approaches like tapping into people's identities, such as dog owners, can also be effective in motivating people to take action.
- From Berger: You want messengers who are like you, not like you, people you respect.
- Social Media messengers
- Influencers (Christian Hughes)
- Search engine optimization (Francesca Tripodi, “The Propagandists’ Playbook”) AND saturation and paid advertising and coordinated messaging.
- Negative message or misinformation inoculation (Kurt Braddock, AU)
- Some Additional thoughts from conversation with Rachel Bitecofer
- Energize the Base
- Isolate the Opposition
- Give people an out. “they have been hoodwinked by big-money corporations.” (This echoes Anne Applebaum’s arguments about how to win over the disaffected.)
- Negative partisanship: Given USA Healthcare polling on healthcare, we can easily go negative on opposing universal healthcare.
- “Startling facts.” For example, the New York Times video of citizens of other nations looking at our healthcare system.
- Villainizing the barriers to change. (i.e., Koch Network, Pharma, etc.)
- Pointing out the greed but need a better framing. (Mazzucato has it, I think)
- Progressives have no central brain, like the Koch/Murdoch networks. Brad Parscales created a research lab out of nothing and manipulated Facebook tremendously for Trump. We have no war room to speak of.
- Middle voters are turnout sensitive and so negative messaging about their likely candidates/party will lower their turnout.
- An article from The Nation, “The Power of Negative Thinking,” about Negative Partisanship and its potential power in changing election outcomes.
That’s all for now! Input and feedback appreciated!