Who we are is more important than what we do. Our character, our values, our ability to endure hardship—all of these things make us people who can hold compassion, do good for others, advocate for justice, form enduring relationships and alliances. All of the actions of love and justice stem from our character, our values, who we are at a deep level. Who we are as an American people is similarly fundamental.
When we think about how democrats, liberals, people of compassion, lost the election to republicans, we are right to reflect on our messaging, our strategies. Attention is being paid to the disparities in the media ecosystem. All of that is good, but I want to propose that this misses something. There’s a broader playing field that needs to be elevated. We’re often don’t name that playing field directly (although Ron Filipkowski just hit it head-on here), and we are not in the game on that playing field.
Republicans and conservatives make massive investments in culture building—in transforming the attitudes and instincts, the values and biases of people. They are winning people’s hearts and minds. When people say they lost their dad or grandpa to Fox News, that’s what they’re talking about. Their loved ones have adopted values and attitudes that are uncompassionate, dismissive, and resistant to other perspectives.
By the time election season comes around, the messaging and policy proposals we put out cannot counter the shaping of values and attitudes that have been fostered in a persistent, ongoing way. The right’s culture building investment has the goal of reducing political and social awareness, and cultivating attitudes of antipathy towards others, resentment toward experts, resistance to information, and aversion to government in general. We, with our values of freedom (in Kamala Harris’s framing), compassion and democracy, are not on that playing field.
So while there’s some value in dissecting our strategic decisions and messaging in 2024, I think it misses a larger point—that we can’t counter in an election season the ongoing influence operation that the other side conducts. The disparities of the media environment are a concern—and legitimately so. But when we restrict ourselves to bird-dogging the national media to writing better articles, and creating podcasts that appeal to highly engaged liberals—that’s like playing badminton when the other side is engaged in mixed martial arts. We need to be engaged in the hearts-and-minds project. And if we are, the national media will write better articles because the framing of stories reflects the goals and values that are culturally pervasive.
This would be a huge paradigm shift for liberals, but we have to do this. We can’t allow ourselves a failure of imagination. The fact that it’s daunting doesn’t mean it can’t be done or that it can’t be effective. Conservatives have demonstrated that it is effective and in a sense it can easily be done. They’ve invested and they’ve moved the culture. They’ve bought media outlets. They’ve hired influencers, they’ve created legal institutions to shape first amendment rights in favor of their culture building outlets. It’s achievable. Their investments have paid off.
Russia has also learned that a cost-effective way of gaining their global objectives is paying wages to people in troll farms to influence the dialog on social media and elsewhere. Obviously we would need to do it differently, but the lesson of effectiveness is striking!
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An all-hands-on-deck strategic conversation would be needed for us to get in this game. I can’t even scratch the surface of what those solutions look like—how they could rise to meet the need, and in ways that are consistent with our values. It would certainly involve understanding who is and who isn’t being reached by the existing information outlets, and the liberal/compassionate cultural influences. (Most Americans are not.) It would involve strategies for intentional and meaningful engagement in all of the social media where people’s hearts and minds are being shaped, and it would involve creating additional platforms, as well as new ways to participate in IRL communities. We would need to meet people who are not left brain thinkers, leaning into outlets and approaches that include humor, stories, and shared interests that have nothing to do with politics.
In all of these outlets and approaches, the goal would be to elevate the quality of information, communications, and connections—and to participate as people with values of freedom and liberation and compassion. I would encourage us to be slow to dismiss big thinking and ambitious strategies.
- Can we imagine a coalition of liberal investors buying TikTok, and writing algorithms that silo people less—at the cost of less profit?
- Can we imagine a Democracy and Compassion Volunteer Corp that pays people to participate with values of freedom, compassion and even friendship in online conversations?
- Can we engage and fund and learn from the grassroots activist community in their organizing, and invite them to lead us in connecting with hard-to reach communities?
- The right wing has an infrastructure of think tanks and nonprofits that convert billionaire investments into projects that shape attitudes and the legal environment, but there are billionaires and corporate leaders who want an enduring democracy. Can we imagine inviting their investment into institutions that advance the agenda of a democratic and compassionate society?
It’s a good time for us to gather people and think through this. We are removed from the levers of power, so we are on the defensive in many respects. We’re the resistance, and for a while we won’t be able to proactively advance a democracy building agenda. But we can do this proactive thing. We can invest in an influencing-hearts-and-minds project.
It’s a good time to gather thought leaders, grass roots activists, business leaders, supportive billionaires, and people who are engaged in and understand the communities we need to be in relationship with—for the purpose of leveraging our combined intelligence and compassion, and taking action to build a more loving society.
Right wing investors and operatives have built an influence ecosystem, the purpose of which goes well beyond persuading Americans to their way of thinking. Instead it intentionally shapes the character, values and attitudes of Americans, and it has been successful. In so doing it has divided and damaged people—and unleashed very real harm on people. Countering that means being on the same playing field. Investing in a freedom and compassion culture-building project may be needed to win elections again, especially because our democratic institutions will almost certainly be further damaged in the next four years.
And it would benefit us more broadly, in contributing to an American society that more deeply values and cares for one another.
