Dan Pfeiffer says this is the speech every Democrat should watch and think about. It will work everywhere:
The speech does a few things that every Democrat can emulate, even if they are not as young or as charismatic. It offers a model for a party that is still struggling to find a compelling story about what Trump and Republicans are doing to the country.
Be Fearless
Throughout the speech, Ossoff shows no fear and no caution. He is not worried about who he might offend or how centrist pundits will react.
He just lets it rip.
When talking about Trump’s racist social media post about the Obamas, Ossoff says:
You’re seeing what I’m seeing, right? The president posting about the Obamas like a Klansman.
The context matters here. Ossoff is not a Democrat in a deep-blue seat taking viral shots at Trump to raise money and earn praise online.
[…]
The standard consultant-class advice in that situation would be to sand down the edges—and in a Southern state, to stay far away from race and racial politics. Comparing the president of the United States to a “Klansman” is, to put it mildly, bold.
I am not arguing that every Democrat should throw all caution to the wind. But there is real value in boldness—not just with the base, but with persuadable voters. Fearlessness communicates strength. It distinguishes a candidate from the familiar, mealy-mouthed politicians who try to please everyone and offend no one.
I couldn’t agree more. There is just no margin in trying to be “moderate” when it comes to describing what’s going on in our country. It is what it is and the only way to deal with it is by being brutally honest. MAGA voters will never believe it but it’s clear that Independents and even some Republicans around the margins are seeing it. You will get nowhere with those people by failing to acknowledge reality.
He says that Ossof’s corruption message works because he artfully presents it in a way that shows how it hurts the American people:
Now you remember we were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. You remember that? But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It is the wealthiest cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class ruling our country. They are the elites they pretend to hate.
So prices are up. Jobs are going away. Medicaid and school lunches are slashed. Nursing homes are getting defunded. If you’re Steve Bannon, and your pitch was Trump for the forgotten man and woman, how do you sell any of this? Trump was supposed to fight for the working class. Instead, he’s literally closing rural clinics and hospitals to cut taxes for George Soros and Elon Musk. He was supposed to end the globalist, world-police foreign policy. Instead, we’re doing war for oil and nation-building again—and threatening to conquer Greenland. He was supposed to drain the swamp. Instead, this is the most corrupt administration of all time. And everybody knows it.
Pfeiffer:
Democrats need an anti-corruption message not only to damage Republicans, but to show voters that we share their anger at a rigged political system—and that we can be trusted to take it on. That only works, of course, if we also have credible messengers and real proposals to fix it.
He likes the reference to the “Epstein class” which is catching on among Democrats.
And then there’s this which I think is very good
A Patriotic Appeal to Unity
Somewhere along the way, hope for a better future started to sound like nostalgia for a long-gone past. Anyone who suggests that we are not hopelessly and permanently divided is now treated as naïve.
I don’t buy that.
To paraphrase my old friend David Axelrod, voters are looking for a remedy to Trump’s hate and division, not a replica of it. Democrats have to find a way to paint a picture of a better, more hopeful, and less hateful future.
Here is Jon Ossoff’s attempt to do exactly that:
I listened to a speech a few months ago by a senator from Missouri aligned with the president, and what I think I heard him say was that the only real Americans are those descended from the original European settlers. Now, maybe he forgot that the Mayflower itself was full of religious exiles fleeing persecution. But our heritage is not limited to the pilgrims or those who settled the West.
America’s heritage includes the descendants of enslaved people who won liberation from slavery and Jim Crow. It includes the Creek people who lived in middle Georgia for eleven centuries. And it includes immigrants from every region and every continent who came here fleeing persecution or seeking opportunity.
Americans are not a race. We are a people—united not by ethnicity, but by shared convictions. That is what makes us exceptional, and that is what makes America a beacon to the world.
I think people are craving this sort of thing. You can see it in the resistance in Minneapolis and the appeals to love not hate among young people that the country is reeling from all this horror and they are inspired by those who still believe what Ossoff is saying in that speech.
Pfeiffer explains that it’s important to put this in the specific context that Ossoff puts it:
This appeal works precisely because it comes after tough, unvarnished, and fearless criticism of Trump. Aspiring to unity is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength.
I think that’s important. Courage combined with empathy is powerful.
If you get the chance watch the whole thing. It’s very good. I hope that Trump hasn’t succeeded in rigging Georgia so that Ossoff can’t win. In any case, his message is the one that resonates in this moment.