What do we need to do?
One of the things that some loyal readers of this blog have asked me is to outline a battle plan for liberals, progressives, and Democrats. Admittedly, those are three different things and that’s one of the things that presents a problem. However, it is a fair question.
My first suggestion is easy and yet it hasn’t successfully been done. We have a list of problems people commonly agree on. At least we agree that they are problems. The first thing you do is list all of the things that you have done to fix those problems. That includes mostly legislation passed by the House. You include what the bill was for, how many Republicans voted for it, and what percentage of Americans were in favor of it. Usually, these things died in the Senate and that’s also something you have to mention.
Believe it or not, Congress has enacted 139 laws since January 3, 2021. So, Congress is always acting more than people think. Most of these laws are ones you’ve never heard of, but it always is a good idea to remind them of the good stuff you have done. How many Republicans voted for those measures? What percentage of Americans were in favor of those measures?
The picture you begin to see is the fact that Democrats (be they progressive, liberal, or moderate) are trying to address our nation’s problems. The way they are addressing them are popular with a majority of the American people. The other side is not. They are actively blocking those things even when a majority of the people want them.
The second thing we need to do is the harder thing. Hearts and minds are tough to change, but the conservatives in this country have managed to beat the drum on gas prices, supply chain issues, and inflation. They have pulled off two major coups. First, they have convinced enough people that these are the main issues of the day. Secondly, they have managed to successfully blame Joe Biden.
You can tell people that the president doesn’t set the gas prices. You can tell people that the president can’t control world markets. You can tell people that world markets are terribly complex and susceptible to numerous factors out of everyone’s control. Then, you are explaining. When you are explaining you are losing.
This one is hard because it requires resetting people’s priorities. If the price of gas is the most important thing in your life then you don’t have much of a life. If the availability of a particular product or rising costs of goods are the most important thing then you’ve lost them. In many cases it will be. Some people can’t be bothered to care about quality of life issues. They can’t be bothered to care about safety. They can’t be bothered to care about anyone else’s life and how it has been improved by something Democrats have actively done. You won’t capture everyone or even most. You can capture some.
From there, you simply circle back to what is currently being done to alleviate that problem. You also go back to the fact that the other side hasn’t done a damn thing or even suggested a damn thing. They’ll tell you something Biden has supposedly done wrong. Make sure to fact check those things. Did he actually do that? If he did then did it have the negative impact those people say it did? Again, we won’t capture the majority, but we can capture some. Some is what we need.
Your strategies are designed for intellects.
A good friend has pointed out to me that Democrats tend to want to quote statistics to win arguments. Unfortunately, the more effective strategy to win hearts of people is a story approach and Republicans often have done that very effectively. These days they don’t even bother with the specific story but just make up emotionally stirring vague stories.
The book Made to Stick by Heath and Heath really points out that stories are more motivating. They are something people can be engaged by and are more “sticky” in our memories.
It seems that Democrats believe logic will work for convincing people. Brain science tells us that most people make a decision based on emotion, almost instantaneously, and then use the frontal cortex to rationalize it–thinking they made a decision on logic.
I don’t feel fear or hate should be the emotional targets in the message, but I do think to 1) get people’s attention, and 2) hold it long enough to get their commitment of action that messages need to aim for the heart and be “sticky.” A good example is the green converse shoes as how the girl’s identity was established from the Uvalde shooting. McConaughey did a good job of telling that emotionally engaging narrative.
1Nick, maybe you need to have that coffee checked.
2It’s not a coffee problem Alan. It’s a WordPress problem. It’s fixed now.
3You’re right that the Rethugs have done a great job tying Biden to gas prices and inflation in general. I think you’re getting somewhere near the end. Dems have to empathize that gas prices are high, mention a bill that would help and hammer the the Rs that voted against it. Repeat with baby formula, minimum wage, etc.
1. We know that X is a real burden on real Americans.
42. We wrote a bill to help you.
3. Rs voted against helping you.
4. Repeat for all values of X.
Every single Democrat and Democrat-leaning voter needs to vote. If you’ve got an hour to spare, votefwd.org still has over 2 million letters to write to increase the turnout, especially of underrepresented voters. I like this effort because they have actual research to back them up- and it’s really easy.
5Is anyone else sickened by Barr’s attempts to distance himself from the mire of the Dump Misadministration?
6Remember his brazen rewriting of the Mueller Report?
“no collusion”,
His refusal to give unredacted copies of the report to Congress?
He actually helped to set up the Big Lie by describing mail-in voting as rife for voter fraud and turned the DOJ into Dump’s
personal law firm. What a Hypocrite!
I want national Democratic Party to BE LOUD.
7I want March for our lives to be used also as VOTE for our lives in reference to guns, health care, prescription prices, LGBTQ issues, etc.
Maryelle, I’m sick of him too. He very recently praised trumpf as a great president. What a two face opportunist. The only good news is trumpf is calling him names. At least he told the truth when he was subpoenaed and under oath. He’s probably trying to sell books to both sides.
8I’m a registered Republican. I stay that way because it gives me a little voice in choosing rational, if there are any, Republican candidates for office in Texas. One of my favorite quotes from Will Rodgers is something he said many times in slightly different ways. The content was, “I’ve never been a member of any organized political party. I’ve always been a Democrat.”
Mr. B
9I think we CAN attack them on an emotional plane. You need to intersperse images from Jan 6 and from mass shootings along with the facts the the GOP actively participated and/or did nothing.
10Nick Carraway @ 10,
Nick, the images of Covid-19 pandemic, the mass deaths, the denial and intentional negligence by Repubs could be equally powerful. I think just about all of us know someone who died or lost a family member or had this horrible virus.
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