Charlie, this is the first time I've said this, but I'm disappointed in you. Not because you've written a piece that I dislike, but because you've written a piece without a conclusion. The question of 'why can't you beat these guys' has an answer, and it's not the answer anyone else seems to be offering, so I'll put it forth based on my …
Charlie, this is the first time I've said this, but I'm disappointed in you. Not because you've written a piece that I dislike, but because you've written a piece without a conclusion. The question of 'why can't you beat these guys' has an answer, and it's not the answer anyone else seems to be offering, so I'll put it forth based on my best estimates.
The reason that Dems can't beat the GOP is because of messaging, pure and simple. No, this is not a 'if the dems could just tell the voters about their grand plans better, they'd rush to join them' explanation. What I mean is that the GOP has message discipline, pure and simple. They possess the ability to create issues from nothing, and then have everyone from the grassroots to the people on Fox to the people in congress hammer it home every possible moment of every possible day, over and over and over again. This is not a new thing either. The GOP did this with Obama's birth certificate. They've done it with anti-trans issues, they've done it with CRT, they've done it with caravans of migrants and a dozen other issues.
Our core problem is that the Democratic party acts like it's a coalition of parliamentary parties, like the Black caucus is distinct from the LGBTQ caucus, or they're different parties entirely. As a result, what we end up with is no message at all. This is not a liberal vs. moderate issue. Manchin et all possess no more message discipline than the Squad or Bernie. Part of this is liberal hubris. Part of this is because they can't understand why people fall for the basic messages of the GOP.
Turn the clock back to 2016 for a moment. Remember 'lock her up?' as a policy message, it's garbage. But as a message itself, it's brilliant. It's clear, memorable, and direct. It's a brand. It worked. Same with 'build the wall.' These are messages that are quick, easy, and memorable. In a world where most people do not pay attention to politics at all, easy to remember messages will always trump detailed policy explanations.
The truth is this: liberals always believe that what people want is facts. They want to know things. This is not true in the slightest. Most voters can't name all three branches of government. They don't care about politics at all, and have been raised on the idea that all politicians are the same. They are not ideologically attached to things as much as they personally attached through the various bonds that they've developed in their lives. And because of this, trying to explain that hey, we're making your life better is a pointless exercise.
Voters do not want facts. They want emotions. They want slogans and messages that fit into nice easy soundbites. That's always been the case, but it's moreso now.
Look, Youngkin is a guy who ran a campaign entirely on anti-CRT nonsense. He's going to take the position, he's going to start wanting to ban words and books and probably put a bunch of covid deniers in his cabinet. And the people aren't going to care. Because for the most part, the public has moved on from thinking about Covid the same way they've moved on from Afghanistan. They're not interested in this storyline anymore.
The biggest mistake that Biden has made thus far is not a policy one. It's that his wager was that what people hated was Trump's constant presence in our lives. This was false. What people hated, it turns out, was Trump himself, a character they didn't want to see any more of. He was Poochie, and no one wanted him around anymore. But that didn't mean they didn't want more of the show.
The truth of the matter is that Dems are trapped in 1998. This isn't surprising, because their leadership are all over the age of 70. Biden, Schumer, Pelosi are all extremely old. That's a problem. Because it's not 1998 anymore. And the biggest problem is that they're afraid to fight the culture war. They're afraid to develop a message and hammer it home at every possible opportunity.
In Virginia? A former governor who was a centrist and ran on kitchen table issues lost to a Trump endorsed figure who winks and nods at insurrectionists. In other parts of the country, liberals were soundly defeated. Again, it's not a liberal vs. centrist issue. It's a 'democrats don't have a message at all' issue.
Because lots of dems are foolishly thinking that what they need to do is stay above the culture war, pass legislation, and then go to voters and be like 'see how we made your life better?' and those same voters are going to come back with 'But CRT!' Because voters do not care about legislation and never have. The beltway media cares. But the actual voters do not.
What Dems need to do is fight the culture war. They need to build a messaging apparatus and they need to be hammering it home every single day on every single program. They need to make it clear the issue of something like CRT is that the GOP wants to control what your kid learns. They need to make clear that something like overturning Roe isn't about saving babies but about governing by bounty hunters.
Because, and this is important, if you don't fight the culture war, that doesn't mean there's not a war going on. To quote Avengers, 'we're not at war, captain. They are.'
One last thing. There's a real problem in the electorate right now. By which I mean that by and large, an uninterested electorate doesn't really care about the differences between the GOP and Dems. It only really thinks that both are incompetent, so just keep voting for whoever isn't in power. But one thing that was curious to me is that in places where there were voting things on the ballot, they almost all lost. Which means that the right to vote isn't actually as important to voters as you might imagine.
So I ask you to ponder something. What happens if the next insurrection comes, it succeeds, and most voters shrug and don't care? Because I am fairly certain that is going to be the outcome. It turns out that most voters do not particularly care about who is in charge, nor do they particularly care about how our government works or it's history. I suspect that by and large, our biggest challenge is not GOP versus Democrat, but the people versus their own disinterest.
I believe you are spot on. Hate on AOC and the rest of the Squad all you want but their generation is willing to fight and bring the culture war to the GQP, see any of AOC's draggings of Ted Cruz.
This also reminds me of the Class War. The billionaires and capital class have been successful at getting the 99% to not engage in class warfare all the while they are fully engaged and carrying out class warfare against us.
Charlie, this is the first time I've said this, but I'm disappointed in you. Not because you've written a piece that I dislike, but because you've written a piece without a conclusion. The question of 'why can't you beat these guys' has an answer, and it's not the answer anyone else seems to be offering, so I'll put it forth based on my best estimates.
The reason that Dems can't beat the GOP is because of messaging, pure and simple. No, this is not a 'if the dems could just tell the voters about their grand plans better, they'd rush to join them' explanation. What I mean is that the GOP has message discipline, pure and simple. They possess the ability to create issues from nothing, and then have everyone from the grassroots to the people on Fox to the people in congress hammer it home every possible moment of every possible day, over and over and over again. This is not a new thing either. The GOP did this with Obama's birth certificate. They've done it with anti-trans issues, they've done it with CRT, they've done it with caravans of migrants and a dozen other issues.
Our core problem is that the Democratic party acts like it's a coalition of parliamentary parties, like the Black caucus is distinct from the LGBTQ caucus, or they're different parties entirely. As a result, what we end up with is no message at all. This is not a liberal vs. moderate issue. Manchin et all possess no more message discipline than the Squad or Bernie. Part of this is liberal hubris. Part of this is because they can't understand why people fall for the basic messages of the GOP.
Turn the clock back to 2016 for a moment. Remember 'lock her up?' as a policy message, it's garbage. But as a message itself, it's brilliant. It's clear, memorable, and direct. It's a brand. It worked. Same with 'build the wall.' These are messages that are quick, easy, and memorable. In a world where most people do not pay attention to politics at all, easy to remember messages will always trump detailed policy explanations.
The truth is this: liberals always believe that what people want is facts. They want to know things. This is not true in the slightest. Most voters can't name all three branches of government. They don't care about politics at all, and have been raised on the idea that all politicians are the same. They are not ideologically attached to things as much as they personally attached through the various bonds that they've developed in their lives. And because of this, trying to explain that hey, we're making your life better is a pointless exercise.
Voters do not want facts. They want emotions. They want slogans and messages that fit into nice easy soundbites. That's always been the case, but it's moreso now.
Look, Youngkin is a guy who ran a campaign entirely on anti-CRT nonsense. He's going to take the position, he's going to start wanting to ban words and books and probably put a bunch of covid deniers in his cabinet. And the people aren't going to care. Because for the most part, the public has moved on from thinking about Covid the same way they've moved on from Afghanistan. They're not interested in this storyline anymore.
The biggest mistake that Biden has made thus far is not a policy one. It's that his wager was that what people hated was Trump's constant presence in our lives. This was false. What people hated, it turns out, was Trump himself, a character they didn't want to see any more of. He was Poochie, and no one wanted him around anymore. But that didn't mean they didn't want more of the show.
The truth of the matter is that Dems are trapped in 1998. This isn't surprising, because their leadership are all over the age of 70. Biden, Schumer, Pelosi are all extremely old. That's a problem. Because it's not 1998 anymore. And the biggest problem is that they're afraid to fight the culture war. They're afraid to develop a message and hammer it home at every possible opportunity.
In Virginia? A former governor who was a centrist and ran on kitchen table issues lost to a Trump endorsed figure who winks and nods at insurrectionists. In other parts of the country, liberals were soundly defeated. Again, it's not a liberal vs. centrist issue. It's a 'democrats don't have a message at all' issue.
Because lots of dems are foolishly thinking that what they need to do is stay above the culture war, pass legislation, and then go to voters and be like 'see how we made your life better?' and those same voters are going to come back with 'But CRT!' Because voters do not care about legislation and never have. The beltway media cares. But the actual voters do not.
What Dems need to do is fight the culture war. They need to build a messaging apparatus and they need to be hammering it home every single day on every single program. They need to make it clear the issue of something like CRT is that the GOP wants to control what your kid learns. They need to make clear that something like overturning Roe isn't about saving babies but about governing by bounty hunters.
Because, and this is important, if you don't fight the culture war, that doesn't mean there's not a war going on. To quote Avengers, 'we're not at war, captain. They are.'
One last thing. There's a real problem in the electorate right now. By which I mean that by and large, an uninterested electorate doesn't really care about the differences between the GOP and Dems. It only really thinks that both are incompetent, so just keep voting for whoever isn't in power. But one thing that was curious to me is that in places where there were voting things on the ballot, they almost all lost. Which means that the right to vote isn't actually as important to voters as you might imagine.
So I ask you to ponder something. What happens if the next insurrection comes, it succeeds, and most voters shrug and don't care? Because I am fairly certain that is going to be the outcome. It turns out that most voters do not particularly care about who is in charge, nor do they particularly care about how our government works or it's history. I suspect that by and large, our biggest challenge is not GOP versus Democrat, but the people versus their own disinterest.
I believe you are spot on. Hate on AOC and the rest of the Squad all you want but their generation is willing to fight and bring the culture war to the GQP, see any of AOC's draggings of Ted Cruz.
This also reminds me of the Class War. The billionaires and capital class have been successful at getting the 99% to not engage in class warfare all the while they are fully engaged and carrying out class warfare against us.