Been saying this for months. Messaging is not a buffet. Every time Dem leadership gets gulled into trotting out happy-clappy bipartisan talk because consultants said it polled well, people very reasonably conclude all that talk about Trump threatening democracy must just be disingenuous rhetoric.
We need more badass people in the Democratic Party that follows the law of the Constitution. Stop being weak as your aides.
Also see 4 years of contradictory messaging from Biden, no real attempt to enact reforms in 2021, followed by silence & inaction after the election, failing to prepare the nation for a hostile authoritarian takeover. Appalling abdication of leadership & misread of what’s happening.
Bingo
Yeah, I kept saying that back in the blog days, during the first Trump regime, pretty regularly -- engaging in heavily mixed messaging that consistently just makes people hear "wolf!" after a while. If the rhetoric is always dire, then actions need to align and convey that sense of urgency.
The single most important aim in American politics right now should be convincing the broad public that Trump is—absolutely literally, without hype or hyperbole—seeking to be a dictator. That’s never going to happen with Dem electeds constantly acting like even they don’t really believe it.
@normative.bsky.social Wouldn't it be easier to show them that Pres. Trump's trade policies will make them poorer, or that he's personally corrupt? Maybe D politicians act they way they do because even they are not sure he really seeks to be a dictator.
I wish I believed that voters can be persuaded by Democrats setting their hair on fire, but Democrats spent four years doing that 2016-2020, in concert with most of the professional class and ... he's president again, after denying the results of a legitimate election and inciting a riot.
I think maybe Democrats are just bowing to the reality that a large number of voters just do not care about process norms and never have, cannot be made to care about them, and will find you somewhere between boring and infuriating if you try to make them care.
Anybody who doesn't know by now, is never going to know.