In a previous article, I lamented the fact that House Democratic leadership had blown a golden opportunity, because of the manner in which they handled the “$600” COVID relief package compromise.
I posited that the smart move would have been for House Democrats to pass their own “no-compromise” bill just prior to the GA Senate runoff, heavily promote it in the media, and force McConnell to either pass it, or block/reject it under a public spotlight. I argued that such a strategy would have been a win-win from a messaging standpoint — If the Senate passed it, the Democrats would get credit for a popular bill. If McConnell blocked it, it would hand us a clear message for the GA Senate runoff — “the Republican Senate is blocking effective COVID relief , your vote can directly flip the Senate and fix it” .
Instead, Pelosi chose to adopt and pass the compromise “$600” proposal from McConnell, going so far as to tout it as a lifesaver in her announcement — leading low-information voters (i.e. most voters) to largely blame this unpopular bill on House Democrats:
@SpeakerPelosi
Congressional Democrats have reached an agreement with Republicans and the White House on an emergency coronavirus relief and omnibus package that delivers urgently needed funds to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people. 7:01 PM · Dec 20, 2020
Leader McConnell @senatemajldr
Senate Republicans have been trying since July to get more targeted, bipartisan relief into the hands of the American people. Until the election, Democrats kept saying no.I’m glad for our country that we are finally moving ahead together. 5:32 PM · Dec 21, 2020
@JoyWhite54
Replying to @SpeakerPelosi
Great. $600 for the last 8 months = 1/16 teaspoonful of cough syrup when we have pneumonia. This is how Pelosi cares for us. She could have approved and forced $2000 per month, but she didn't even try. 12:21 PM · Dec 21, 2020
Even before I stopped shaking my head in disappointment at this messaging blunder, an unlikely hero came to our rescue — Donald Trump. Motivated by vengeance against his own party (for not supporting his coup vehemently enough), he did essentially what I thought the House should have done, i.e. he put out a clear message that a better, non-joke stimulus was on the table, and positioned it so that everyone would know who was to blame if the Senate blocked it. Thankfully, Pelosi and company ran with this gift from Trump, and it now seems to be playing out much as I had originally hoped — the House passed a popular bill, McConnell blocked it, and Democrats/media are making hay with this as a key message in the GA Senate race.
The thesis in the original article, that House leadership’s failure to follow sound strategy in the COVID relief bill’s handling/messaging had squandered an obvious potential advantage in the GA Senate runoff, received what was to me a surprising amount of pushback. The gist of the opposing feedback was that “messaging” would not make a difference for various reasons, including media bias, intransigence among the Republican base, drowning out of any message by Republican pols, and voter apathy.
I said then, and maintain even more strongly now, that just because there is no guarantee that well executed messaging will break through and be as effective as we hope, it is no excuse for leadership not to bring their A Game. It’s as pathetic as it is ironic that Trump had to bail out Democrats on this, by doing out of spite what House leadership should have done all along. But they seem to lack the skill and/or desire for effective strategy/messaging, and for the life of me I don’t know why.
Whether the current message of “the Republican Senate is blocking stimulus relief and GA voters can fix it” is enough to flip the two seats at stake in the runoff, only time will tell. But at least that message is out there now, for every GA voter to easily hear and understand. And to those who are still skeptical that strategically positioning something like COVID relief makes a difference, compare the twitter response to the “$600” bill announcement (above), to the top tweet that comes up tonight when I search “Georgia”:
Here’s the deal: the whole reason McConnell can block $2,000 checks to begin w/ is bc he’s Senate Majority leader.He’ll block clean $2k relief as long as GOP run the Senate. GEORGIA can change that!
If GA votes Warnock/Ossoff on 1/5, the doors open up for COVID relief
8:14 PM Dec 29, 2020
Yes, these messages are anecdotal, but I submit they are a fair representation of the mood then, when a poor messaging strategy had been followed, and now, when Trump forced House leadership into following a sound strategy. Messaging matters. Believe it.