If the stars align as they should, Mallory McMorrow, according to recent polling five points ahead of rivals Abdul El- Sayed and Haley Stevens, will win the primary. I expect she will. Voters everywhere seem to understand how this is an existential moment for our democracy. Michigan voters were enraged at the way Harris declined to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis taking place in Gaza. Disaster.
That tone deaf stance cost Dems dearly in MI in 2024. But moving productively forward to 2026, McMorrow is exactly the kind of fighter Dems everywhere are looking for, in the anti-democratic reign of Donald Trump. Nor do I accept that the bagful of on-the-take "influencers" will be the decisive weight in this race, or anywhere else FTM, in 2026 or 2028. Now that Dems are understanding the Influencer threat, as one they must address, starting yesterday.
After 54 years of voting you'd think I'd be used to it by now. Yet every day I have to remind myself that the type of voter that needs to be reached - to change their mind or to vote in the first place - is very different than I am. They are not persuaded by facts and reason, but through emotion. As are committed MAGAs, and yes, many (most?) on the other side. Don't get me wrong. If it's AOC vs. Vance in '28 she has my vote already, even though I'd much prefer to vote for someone very different than both. I don't listen to "influencers" and never in 54 years was I persuaded by a campaign speech (aka "sales pitch"). I pay attention to actions, not words. The GOP's reaction to the 20 election and the following insurrection is all I need to know.
I remember the last election there were a bunch of online influencers paid by Biden attacking Bulwark staff in the time post debate. Some really vile stuff that they just moved on from once he finally bowed out.
"Infestation". Look Egan is not a reporter but a typist for very particular segments of the Dem party -- Schumer and other moderates, dated, smug, always scared, and more likely to work with Reps than to support younger and more progressive Dems. So, she is just a shame and it's a shame that The Bulwark, usually much better, has her covering the party most of their audience comes from. Just a shame. But "infestation"? Infestation? What the heck is wrong with you?
The Dems' cluelessness on how to grab attention and slay on the internet can be placed squarely on Schumer, Jeffries and Martin. They should be raising their brains out and allocating big chunks to pay influencers to counter the Reps' onslaughts sure to come. I have no problem with paying for eyeballs. Dems need to stop being so afraid, cautious, correct and right and start focusing with laser accuracy on winning. Nothing else matters, not the intraparty squabbles, not the "right" focus-grouped positions, not even the polls. They should put their heads down across the entire Dem politicalsphere, fill their coffers and concentrate on being ruthless.
You're telling me the Texas Dem Senate Primary turning into a pissing match online of whether James Talarico secretly has a Klan hoodie hidden in a priest's robe based on ONE influencer on TikTok is a prelude to the influencer insanity coming for us all?
I feel like Paul Atredies having to stick his hand in the Bene Gesserit's box while having a instant death poison needle pointed at his neck.
We need to keep ahold of our sanity and our wits, and not listen to these cretins.
Instead we need to defeat the Trump part of the Trump/Netanyahu duo. We can get out there on Saturday and show them. Here are No Kings, No Tyrants, No Dictators, NO WAR protests from around the world that you can sign up for. Please share with family and friends inside and outside the US
Thank you for your piece today. Very interesting stuff. It seems that these influencers will become much more important in future elections. Of course you and independent media are talking about this while traditional media is silent.
And you thought that Politics Twitter was an unmatched hellscape. I am worried that the balance between professionals/people who would be political junkies even if it was not for social media and people for whom politics is just another manifestation of culture is completely out of whack here.
Sadly the only thing about this article that I find difficult to believe is Lauren's belief that ANYBODY is going to be genuinely looking forward to/excited about the 2028 presidential election.
More like hiding under the bedsheets in pure terror...
lol just when the Dems were getting a little more comfy working with social media now they need to figure out how to deal with content creators with varying levels of good faith. Very very interesting piece!
Just another way for the opposition/resistance to eat its own. It's not important enough to resist or oppose the fascists; the most important thing is unequivocal commitment to a single purpose or line of opposition.
These people are determined to screw all of us at the same time.
Yikes! Just imagine when what we see of candidates are their AI AVATARS perfectly coiffed and cued, or even them the same hijacked by culture-poli InFluencers! Max Headroom!
I enjoy the professionalism of your pieces and appreciate your bringing to light some of the nonsense going on with some of the “ political influencers”
who seem to be flooding social media. I do not see all of them as having intentions other than furthering their own trajectory at almost any cost.
I have granddaughter who is a freshman at Cornell and just started writing for the Cornell Daily Sun. Is there any advice you might have for a freshman just starting out? Is there a
My comment is only tangentially related to this article, but I am very worried about the Democrats messaging in general. Republicans were able to tar Biden with issues about his son’s laptop very effectively. I heard about it all the time from my MAGA friends. Yet I hear only brief and incomplete snippets about Trump’s crypto scandals and the grift associated with ‘prediction’ markets. For some reason, Democrats are not very effective at hammering these things home to the public.
Yeah I'm with you, I worry the Dems often seem to have a hard time getting their voice to break thru. And I don't know what to do.
My hope is, once Democrats find the way to take a moral stand on issues authentically it will be harder to stop the force of their messaging, and will give easier cues for all the smaller content creators to follow. Also as more Republicans get burned by false promises from Trump hopefully it gives the Dems more inroads to be heard by a wider swathe of regular voters who had tuned them out previously.
I think Republican content creators have learned to take cues from Trump, and he's learned to give them cues, which keeps their messaging aligned. Dems could hopefully recreate that dynamic, except with the cues adhering to truth and not falsehood.
For now, Trump does so much corruption constantly - it's hard to keep the focus on a topic long enough for the Dem's message to sink in with the public, before the next news cycle. Like a wheel spinning in the mud and no traction.
Maybe hitting a pause button every now and then and doing recaps of everything Trump did in the past month, to show the consequences, would make the Dem's message resonate more? I think Chris Murphy does things like this and it seems effective. Trump bounces around a lot in the moment but if you look over time his overall trajectory is invariably a decline. Maybe that's why historians are really popular right now too, since they offer the wider perspective.
Also there's a double standard that exists I believe, that makes the Dems' messaging a tough hill climb and the Republicans' messaging an easy glide path. I don't know how that arose or what to do about it.
With the Dem politicians they hold themselves to a high moral standard and only make the news when they fall short - the Dem presidents have to be the responsible adults that clean up since they always seem to be left with messes at the start of their term. They also then get punished for investing in the future at the same time as the cleanup.
Whereas with Trump and the Republican politicians, they are held to a rock bottom moral standard and only make the news when they manage to fall short of that - then everyone resets to that new lower standard. Like grade inflation.
Their ability to do so much open-faced lying and corruption with little penalty gives them a lot of advantages - for one, extra money. They also face little push back for being hypocrites and blowing up the deficit - everyone is too concerned by all the messes they're creating to worry about longer term problems.
I think there are a lot of regular Republican voters who must hide their heads in the sand about all of this, plug their ears, close their eyes, go lalala and just pretend their side is morally superior. Otherwise how could the gap in standards have grown so wide?
I'm grateful to the Bulwark in large part because they help make the double standard more apparent - it affects politics in so many ways big and small. I think if their perspective could make it out into the wider public more it would help tip the scales towards everyone settling on a balanced set of weights, so voters could evaluate politicians' messaging on a single standard across both parties.
I found this a vindication of my stone-age- anti Social Media, horrified by directed algorithm, bias. Never used S/M or a news feed and never will. Like crack, S/M is an addiction I have never embraced. My snottiness knows no bounds. The whole thing appears to resemble a thieves market. I will admit, in this paywall era my reading has become slightly less eclectic-small price to pay. Addicted millions, cast off your chains! Thanks, Lauren
If the stars align as they should, Mallory McMorrow, according to recent polling five points ahead of rivals Abdul El- Sayed and Haley Stevens, will win the primary. I expect she will. Voters everywhere seem to understand how this is an existential moment for our democracy. Michigan voters were enraged at the way Harris declined to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis taking place in Gaza. Disaster.
That tone deaf stance cost Dems dearly in MI in 2024. But moving productively forward to 2026, McMorrow is exactly the kind of fighter Dems everywhere are looking for, in the anti-democratic reign of Donald Trump. Nor do I accept that the bagful of on-the-take "influencers" will be the decisive weight in this race, or anywhere else FTM, in 2026 or 2028. Now that Dems are understanding the Influencer threat, as one they must address, starting yesterday.
After 54 years of voting you'd think I'd be used to it by now. Yet every day I have to remind myself that the type of voter that needs to be reached - to change their mind or to vote in the first place - is very different than I am. They are not persuaded by facts and reason, but through emotion. As are committed MAGAs, and yes, many (most?) on the other side. Don't get me wrong. If it's AOC vs. Vance in '28 she has my vote already, even though I'd much prefer to vote for someone very different than both. I don't listen to "influencers" and never in 54 years was I persuaded by a campaign speech (aka "sales pitch"). I pay attention to actions, not words. The GOP's reaction to the 20 election and the following insurrection is all I need to know.
I remember the last election there were a bunch of online influencers paid by Biden attacking Bulwark staff in the time post debate. Some really vile stuff that they just moved on from once he finally bowed out.
"Infestation". Look Egan is not a reporter but a typist for very particular segments of the Dem party -- Schumer and other moderates, dated, smug, always scared, and more likely to work with Reps than to support younger and more progressive Dems. So, she is just a shame and it's a shame that The Bulwark, usually much better, has her covering the party most of their audience comes from. Just a shame. But "infestation"? Infestation? What the heck is wrong with you?
The Dems' cluelessness on how to grab attention and slay on the internet can be placed squarely on Schumer, Jeffries and Martin. They should be raising their brains out and allocating big chunks to pay influencers to counter the Reps' onslaughts sure to come. I have no problem with paying for eyeballs. Dems need to stop being so afraid, cautious, correct and right and start focusing with laser accuracy on winning. Nothing else matters, not the intraparty squabbles, not the "right" focus-grouped positions, not even the polls. They should put their heads down across the entire Dem politicalsphere, fill their coffers and concentrate on being ruthless.
You're telling me the Texas Dem Senate Primary turning into a pissing match online of whether James Talarico secretly has a Klan hoodie hidden in a priest's robe based on ONE influencer on TikTok is a prelude to the influencer insanity coming for us all?
I feel like Paul Atredies having to stick his hand in the Bene Gesserit's box while having a instant death poison needle pointed at his neck.
We need to keep ahold of our sanity and our wits, and not listen to these cretins.
Instead we need to defeat the Trump part of the Trump/Netanyahu duo. We can get out there on Saturday and show them. Here are No Kings, No Tyrants, No Dictators, NO WAR protests from around the world that you can sign up for. Please share with family and friends inside and outside the US
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/no-kings-no-tyrants-no-dictators?r=f0qfn
Here is a new song that we can all be singing at our rallies on Saturday. Bette Midler's All You Fascists Bound to Lose.
https://youtu.be/U5VXwncNvTo?si=nqEITYquqPah1kh5
We can stand with this military wife too against what this regime is doing.
https://substack.com/@parislychee/note/c-221726913?r=f0qfn&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
Thank you for your piece today. Very interesting stuff. It seems that these influencers will become much more important in future elections. Of course you and independent media are talking about this while traditional media is silent.
And you thought that Politics Twitter was an unmatched hellscape. I am worried that the balance between professionals/people who would be political junkies even if it was not for social media and people for whom politics is just another manifestation of culture is completely out of whack here.
I had cause to write some words about the manosphere yesterday and most of them seem to fall into the second category.
Sadly the only thing about this article that I find difficult to believe is Lauren's belief that ANYBODY is going to be genuinely looking forward to/excited about the 2028 presidential election.
More like hiding under the bedsheets in pure terror...
lol just when the Dems were getting a little more comfy working with social media now they need to figure out how to deal with content creators with varying levels of good faith. Very very interesting piece!
Just another way for the opposition/resistance to eat its own. It's not important enough to resist or oppose the fascists; the most important thing is unequivocal commitment to a single purpose or line of opposition.
These people are determined to screw all of us at the same time.
Yikes! Just imagine when what we see of candidates are their AI AVATARS perfectly coiffed and cued, or even them the same hijacked by culture-poli InFluencers! Max Headroom!
Hi Lauren!
I enjoy the professionalism of your pieces and appreciate your bringing to light some of the nonsense going on with some of the “ political influencers”
who seem to be flooding social media. I do not see all of them as having intentions other than furthering their own trajectory at almost any cost.
I have granddaughter who is a freshman at Cornell and just started writing for the Cornell Daily Sun. Is there any advice you might have for a freshman just starting out? Is there a
website that would allow her to connect to you?
My comment is only tangentially related to this article, but I am very worried about the Democrats messaging in general. Republicans were able to tar Biden with issues about his son’s laptop very effectively. I heard about it all the time from my MAGA friends. Yet I hear only brief and incomplete snippets about Trump’s crypto scandals and the grift associated with ‘prediction’ markets. For some reason, Democrats are not very effective at hammering these things home to the public.
There’s no liberal Fox “News.”
The Rs insist that mainstream news, like the NYT, is “an arm of the DNC.” This is a ridiculous accusation.
Yeah I'm with you, I worry the Dems often seem to have a hard time getting their voice to break thru. And I don't know what to do.
My hope is, once Democrats find the way to take a moral stand on issues authentically it will be harder to stop the force of their messaging, and will give easier cues for all the smaller content creators to follow. Also as more Republicans get burned by false promises from Trump hopefully it gives the Dems more inroads to be heard by a wider swathe of regular voters who had tuned them out previously.
I think Republican content creators have learned to take cues from Trump, and he's learned to give them cues, which keeps their messaging aligned. Dems could hopefully recreate that dynamic, except with the cues adhering to truth and not falsehood.
For now, Trump does so much corruption constantly - it's hard to keep the focus on a topic long enough for the Dem's message to sink in with the public, before the next news cycle. Like a wheel spinning in the mud and no traction.
Maybe hitting a pause button every now and then and doing recaps of everything Trump did in the past month, to show the consequences, would make the Dem's message resonate more? I think Chris Murphy does things like this and it seems effective. Trump bounces around a lot in the moment but if you look over time his overall trajectory is invariably a decline. Maybe that's why historians are really popular right now too, since they offer the wider perspective.
Also there's a double standard that exists I believe, that makes the Dems' messaging a tough hill climb and the Republicans' messaging an easy glide path. I don't know how that arose or what to do about it.
With the Dem politicians they hold themselves to a high moral standard and only make the news when they fall short - the Dem presidents have to be the responsible adults that clean up since they always seem to be left with messes at the start of their term. They also then get punished for investing in the future at the same time as the cleanup.
Whereas with Trump and the Republican politicians, they are held to a rock bottom moral standard and only make the news when they manage to fall short of that - then everyone resets to that new lower standard. Like grade inflation.
Their ability to do so much open-faced lying and corruption with little penalty gives them a lot of advantages - for one, extra money. They also face little push back for being hypocrites and blowing up the deficit - everyone is too concerned by all the messes they're creating to worry about longer term problems.
I think there are a lot of regular Republican voters who must hide their heads in the sand about all of this, plug their ears, close their eyes, go lalala and just pretend their side is morally superior. Otherwise how could the gap in standards have grown so wide?
I'm grateful to the Bulwark in large part because they help make the double standard more apparent - it affects politics in so many ways big and small. I think if their perspective could make it out into the wider public more it would help tip the scales towards everyone settling on a balanced set of weights, so voters could evaluate politicians' messaging on a single standard across both parties.
Republican tend to back their best chances for winning a seat. Democrats love to trash anyone not meeting their odd 100 favorite issues. Stupid.
I found this a vindication of my stone-age- anti Social Media, horrified by directed algorithm, bias. Never used S/M or a news feed and never will. Like crack, S/M is an addiction I have never embraced. My snottiness knows no bounds. The whole thing appears to resemble a thieves market. I will admit, in this paywall era my reading has become slightly less eclectic-small price to pay. Addicted millions, cast off your chains! Thanks, Lauren