People have enough problems of their own
Democrats suck at messaging. So, many first-time campaign volunteers want to write the white paper that will remake the Democratic Party. From our redoubt in North Carolina, they imagine their message will spread and win elections nationwide for candidates who don’t know them from Adam and have no reason to listen. Democrats’ leadership would rather their candidates listen to (and spend campaign funds with) the incestuous, old-boy network of former Hill and state capitol denizens I call the campaign industrial complex.
Anat Shenker-Osorio, who lives in Oakley Oakland, Calif., is sometimes called Democrats’ Frank Luntz. Luntz is the Republican dial-testing message maven. And those would-be amateurs? Good luck. Democrats don’t listen to their Luntz, Anand Giridharadas writes in “The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy.” Maybe his new book finally will persuade them to.
Slowly, painfully slowly, Democrats may be finally getting religion. Among her one-liners is “Sell the brownie, not the recipe.” And “Don’t take your policy out in public. It’s unseemly.” A message your base won’t repeat for you is not a good message. The problem with progressive messaging is so much “Have I got a problem for you” when people have plenty of their own. They don’t want yours, Shenker-Osorio says.
Instead, “Paint the beautiful tomorrow.” Say what you’re for. Help people see it.
An example she found inspiring was video from a Kenosha, Wis. block party organized in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in 2020. The community meant to contrast its vision of itself with the frightening one sent during President Donald Trump’s visit in the wake of rioting there. When Joe Biden’ presidential campaign issued a video statement, he focused on a law-and-order message that appalled Shenker-Osorio. Burned-out cars, charred buildings, police firing tear gas, etc. Biden was reinforcing Trump’s “American carnage” message. And no mention of the police killings that sparked the violence.
Progressives always seem over-impressed with their own smarts. Slow learners, they believe facts will win the day. They don’t. Another of those misattributed quotes views the world differently: They may forget what you said or did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Republicans want you to feel fear. Democrats need to respond with hope, a message, you may recall, that the first black president rode to the White House. Paint the beautiful tomorrow.
A campaign spot released yesterday by Rep. Graig Meyer, a friend running for N.C. state Senate, gets it right. Start with a shared value. Call out the villains. Paint a picture of the future Democrats want to create.
“Our light should never go out,” says Meyer.
Giridharadas on Thursday invited more messages like that.
Shenker-Osorio replied with a couple.
Shenker-Osorio sat down next to me the first morning at Netroots-Detroit (2014). She was giddy. She’d arrived in town the night before and went out to eat. Sen. Elizabeth Warren walked into the restaurant and was seated a table or two away. Their eyes met. Warren mouthed, “I read your book.” Anat was still bouncing in her chair the next morning.
That was eight years ago. Maybe the lightbulbs are finally coming on.