Democrats Screwed Up The Messaging
Nov. 7th, 2022 08:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerIt has been disappointing watching the Democrats' lead in national polls erode over the past few weeks. They went from having a good chance of taking over the Senate while being close to even in the House, to being a bit behind in the race to control the Senate and most likely to lose the House. I blame inept messaging for their loss of ground.
Democrats have a number of good issues on their side. Abortion rights are supported by a majority of the voters nationwide. Republicans are trying to restrict voting rights based on falsehoods about the "stolen" 2020 election. And their policy platform is based on cruelty and hatred. To be sure, there's a segment electorate for whom these positives, but they're a minority.
So what have Republicans done right to turn the issues in their favor? They've gotten voters focused on inflation and crime. These "kitchen table" type issues are more immediately powerful than wonkier issues like whether ballot drop-boxes are open for 1 day or 7 days, or whether abortion is banned after 6 weeks, 14, or 20.
What have Democrats done? Frankly, they've screwed the pooch. They have done almost nothing to try to control the messaging, or even respond to it.
I blame Democrat leadership for this. Four years ago there was scuttlebutt about whether Nancy Pelosi was the right leader for the party. I was, and still am, on the side that Ms. Pelosi is the wrong leader. It's not because of her position on issues, BTW. I agree with her positions. It's because her understanding of campaigning is horribly outdated. She's leading the party's campaigning like it's still 1992. And she's not the only one. There are a lot of senior Democrats who need to go— not because they're old, per se, but because they've let their skills and leadership fall horribly behind.
What do I mean by "Like it's still 1992"? Three big things. ...Not all of which are specifically 1992, though the first is.
First, 1992 with Bill Clinton's election was when the power of "the 24 hours news cycle" was proven. Clinton's messaging team worked hard to stay ahead of news stories and thus control the messaging. People made jokes at their expense about how an unfavorable story on CNN wasn't really a national emergency that required multiple senior advisors staying up half the night in the White House's Situation Room. But it worked. Clinton and his team stayed ahead of new stories, exerting ability to shape them by fast response. They ran circles around Republicans who were accustomed to waiting for news media to come to them, or appear on Sunday talk shows. Today Republicans have learned that lesson while Democrats have forgotten it.
Second, Democrat leadership has remained in denial about the reality that Fox News, and other smaller players in its ecosystem, are basically propaganda machines for conservative politics. Fox and allies don't report news, they make it up. And they repeat their points, with distorted or false stories, morning, day, and night. In a context like this, Democrats can't simply wait for reporters to come to them and help get their message out— especially when traditional news media have been hollowed out. Even the traditional media today tend to "report the controversy" rather than dig to report the facts, because reporting "He said/she said" is easier and cheaper.
Third, Democrat leadership has completely missed the importance of social media. To me, this is what complaints that people like Nancy Pelosi (and Chuck Schumer, etc.) are "too old" means. It's not that, say, 68 is okay and 82 is not okay; it's that failing to understand the single most important shift in communication of the past 15 years is not okay. Republican leadership is killing it on social media. Younger Democrats are active on social media, but the party's leaders have totally missed the boat.
Continued in next blog entry....
Democrats have a number of good issues on their side. Abortion rights are supported by a majority of the voters nationwide. Republicans are trying to restrict voting rights based on falsehoods about the "stolen" 2020 election. And their policy platform is based on cruelty and hatred. To be sure, there's a segment electorate for whom these positives, but they're a minority.
So what have Republicans done right to turn the issues in their favor? They've gotten voters focused on inflation and crime. These "kitchen table" type issues are more immediately powerful than wonkier issues like whether ballot drop-boxes are open for 1 day or 7 days, or whether abortion is banned after 6 weeks, 14, or 20.
What have Democrats done? Frankly, they've screwed the pooch. They have done almost nothing to try to control the messaging, or even respond to it.
I blame Democrat leadership for this. Four years ago there was scuttlebutt about whether Nancy Pelosi was the right leader for the party. I was, and still am, on the side that Ms. Pelosi is the wrong leader. It's not because of her position on issues, BTW. I agree with her positions. It's because her understanding of campaigning is horribly outdated. She's leading the party's campaigning like it's still 1992. And she's not the only one. There are a lot of senior Democrats who need to go— not because they're old, per se, but because they've let their skills and leadership fall horribly behind.
What do I mean by "Like it's still 1992"? Three big things. ...Not all of which are specifically 1992, though the first is.
First, 1992 with Bill Clinton's election was when the power of "the 24 hours news cycle" was proven. Clinton's messaging team worked hard to stay ahead of news stories and thus control the messaging. People made jokes at their expense about how an unfavorable story on CNN wasn't really a national emergency that required multiple senior advisors staying up half the night in the White House's Situation Room. But it worked. Clinton and his team stayed ahead of new stories, exerting ability to shape them by fast response. They ran circles around Republicans who were accustomed to waiting for news media to come to them, or appear on Sunday talk shows. Today Republicans have learned that lesson while Democrats have forgotten it.
Second, Democrat leadership has remained in denial about the reality that Fox News, and other smaller players in its ecosystem, are basically propaganda machines for conservative politics. Fox and allies don't report news, they make it up. And they repeat their points, with distorted or false stories, morning, day, and night. In a context like this, Democrats can't simply wait for reporters to come to them and help get their message out— especially when traditional news media have been hollowed out. Even the traditional media today tend to "report the controversy" rather than dig to report the facts, because reporting "He said/she said" is easier and cheaper.
Third, Democrat leadership has completely missed the importance of social media. To me, this is what complaints that people like Nancy Pelosi (and Chuck Schumer, etc.) are "too old" means. It's not that, say, 68 is okay and 82 is not okay; it's that failing to understand the single most important shift in communication of the past 15 years is not okay. Republican leadership is killing it on social media. Younger Democrats are active on social media, but the party's leaders have totally missed the boat.
Continued in next blog entry....
