WHERE is the Democratic messaging?

[CousinIT]

[Celerity]

1. here?

Democrat John Fetterman says he's a 'hell yes' on a top Trump Cabinet pick, Elise Stefanik

[CousinIT]

2. Yea that ain't it. Pfft.

Fetterman.

[Bettie]

3. Except for a few exceptions

it seems to be either "YAY TRUMP!" (as pictured above) or silence.

[CousinIT]

4. Exactly why the silence and refusal to counter-message is so EXASPERATING!

They're 20 years behind on this. They need to get with it or kiss everything, including the party, goodbye. We ARE in the fight of our lives here. They need to get on it.

[Dee0909]

33. Agree

AGREE IT IS INFURIATING

[PortTack]

10. Fetterman has flipped. He thinks t-rump should get a pardon. Has made other comments supportive of him

[ShazzieB]

30. I was extremely disappointed to hear that from him. 😔

Horrified, actually. Like, wtaf horrified. Not at all what I would have expected from him.

[cadoman]

5. billionaire robber barons...Billionaire Robber Barons...BILLIONAIRE ROBBER BARONS!!!

[jalan48]

6. Maybe they are messaging with their silence.

[Bettie]

14. And that message would be....

what?

"We surrender?"

"Well, it was a good run?"

"Ah well, I'm rich enough to be okay and that's what matters?"

[jalan48]

15. Maybe. Also, we don't know what to do in this new environment.

We want to go back to the old days before our country became an oligarchy.

[DronePilot]

22. Winning answer.

[wnylib]

26. The silence of their message is loud and clear.

They fear defamation lawsuits for any criticism of Trump and his circle of criminals.

They fear death threats from MAGAs.

They do not have to remain silent. They can give strong positive counter messaging on how programs should be without criticizing how programs are being run now.

If any of them are being threatened, they could stand together and reveal the threats publicly through recorded phone calls, text messages or letters that they receive. Even if they receive threats to reveal private information, once victims make the threats and what they contain public, the people making the threats lose power over them.

Republicans should have done that long ago. Come clean publicly and reveal how threats were being used against lawmakers in order to manipulate laws to favor the robber barons at the public's expense. Turn the tables and release information about the people making the threats.

The Salem witch trials began to lose steam when accused people started suing the accusers for defamation.

[Irish_Dem]

29. Excellent comment Wynlib, I agree 100%.

It is called leadership and we need some from our party right now.

Not talk about pardoning Trump, a traitor and rapist.

[wnylib]

35. If we don't get party leadership, then we, the rank and file,

will need to provide leadership through our own commitments to our values and refuse to kiss the ring.

[Irish_Dem]

36. Some have been trying to do that here.

Express their values as human beings, Americans, Democrats and have gotten pushback for it.

I think it is time for the grass roots to be frank with our leaders.

Yes there needs to be some real leadership right now.
I cannot understand the reasons for ring kissing on our part.
I can make some guesses however.

[lame54]

7. So far I've heard Pardon Trump and Sit Down AOC

[usonian]

8. There is no fairly permanent "Democratic Policy Institute" like the GOP has with its Hoover Institute (which sucks)

So it varies and has gaps between elections.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19819790

Leadership changes constantly. It's happening right now
Our past presidents and leaders have not maintained a "permanent" presence guiding and coordinating the battle, no doubt because they don't want to seem "partisan" in primaries.



Many days, my commute to work was past the Lexington Green.
The Red, White and Blue owe a lot to the rag-tag rebels who repelled the well-equipped and well-organized permanent army of redcoats.

The red hats aim to replace the Red, White and Blue with one of their own.


So here's the challenge for Democrats.

The GOP represents a tiny minority, 10% or even 1%, with all the money and a permanent interest group.

Democrats represent all the people, and that permanent interest group varies.

Unlike claims by the "every accusation is a confession" party, no permanent group controls the party.

And the populace is affected by the great lie machine. That's why the oligarchs bought almost all of it.

So there's the problem and question. Democracies are fragile.

What are you and I going to do about it?

There are some organizations that have steadfastly supported Democracy and Justice.
SPLC is one. And there are others, but nothing like the Oligarch Army of media, institutions (like Hoover, which sucks), and other groups that are a constant presence.

Republican party leadership since roughly the breakup of the USSR has remained mostly unchanged in its goal and "capo".


But who leads our way, above the usual primary fray?

Is there a new Dr. Martin Luther King?
An American Gandhi, Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu?
Howard Zinn, Benjamin Spock, Daniel Berrigan, and others outside the political races are gone.

These were all visionaries more than organizers. (it varies, of course)
The party of Putin has more or less permanent organizers and propagandists and a "rotating racist" as a candidate.
How convenient!

Who has the skill with people and organizing/managing?
We have several. Look at the enormous skills of the Clintons, Barack Obama and Joe Biden
"but the primaries".

We need a more or less "permanent" leadership not swayed nor blown up by primary battles.
Change all you want. There is no solid foundation to keep the pressure on.

Think about it.
And .................

[Blue_Tires]

16. Exactly...

When I first read about Project 2025, my burning question was why don't liberals have an equivalent of Heritage or AEI or any of those other longtime think tanks with bottomless budgets? Every time I stop on C-SPAN some far right group is having a major conference in a major city with high profile speakers. Dems don't seem to want to realize that overturning Roe was a process MORE THAN FORTY YEARS in the making, and it would have taken even longer without Trump falling into their laps and giving them a shortcut... Meanwhile, Dems tend to just see four years in the future and only know how to put all our eggs in the basket of the presidential election with no backup plan...

Yes I know we've got PFAW, CAP, DCCC, the New Dem coalition, etc. but they might as well be backyard kiddie treehouse clubs in comparison to the conservative ideological empire... Where is our connection with the liberal wing of the church? Where are our publishing companies, our legions of bloggers and pundits? Where are our liberal-only cable news channels? Where are our purveyors of the dark arts? Where are our ratfuckers? We are massively outgunned in this war...

[lame54]

9. I think it's...

Thank you sir. May I have another?

[durablend]

12. Either that or

*silence*

*whispers* "Maybe if we hide he won't kill us"

[Seeking Serenity]

11. Maybe we ain't got one yet. Maybe our party betters are working on it for us.

[Blue_Tires]

13. We had plenty of targeted messaging

But the media and pundits would much rather cover Donnie talking about Haitians eating pets in Ohio, Venezuelans gangs taking over the entire city of Aurora, Colorado and Arnold Palmer's huge white peener...

It's all a sick joke

[Jit423]

17. There is nothing we could say or do for that matter that would change a racist, misogynist, anti-other mind.

Every economic and social and health issue was addressed by the Democrats, especially VP Harris during her short campaign and Joe has messaged on the economy and environment issues taking actions to benefit working men and women lead by Dems in the House and Senate who passed historic legislation without any help from the GOP. Actually nothing was left out except voting rights. It made no difference. The price of eggs and gas went down and it made no difference. Historic infrastructure and jobs legislation passed thanks to the Democrats and it made no difference. Trump got record support from immigrants that he threatened to deport as soon as he is sworn it. It made no difference. People were actually feeling better off economically and it made no difference.

Stop the BS. It is still all about race and gender with an economic covering cloth. Remember, under Bill Clinton he left office with a surplus AND IT MADE NO DIFFERENCE because he was too nice to blacks and Hillary was his spouse.

Like a fellow DUer posted the other day, stop overthinking it all. It boils down to the simplest explanation with an huge inconvenient truth. The people with the most money and power and the mindless they control are still racist and sexist. EOS

[CousinIT]

18. Maybe so. But Dem messaging is still vital and yet nonexistent.

They only invest in it in election years. That doesn't work anymore. MAGAtGOP has kicked Dem's asses on this for decades. Time to make some changes.

[Blue_Tires]

19. Co-signed

[flamingdem]

20. Luigi?

I'm not serious but note how quickly people spoke out about injustice.

We need a good communicator stat.

[ForgedCrank]

21. Many have

ceased because it hurt us, badly. But some continue. People are looking for results, not talk. If we look beyond our own circles of influence, the opinion of voters is pretty obvious.
What hurts us? A lot of things. One example that happens to be in the news right now is regarding border security. The Biden administration (somewhere in the cogs) is auctioning off materials for border wall constructions. Most Americans will see this as sabotage of sorts, and it doesn't look good at all. I just heard two people talking about this one today, and it is exactly how it is viewed... a finger in the eye of the American voters. Regardless of the intent, that is the sort of crap we need to start discouraging, it only fuels the divide. There are quite a few topics like that, and we need to find ways to smooth over these edges if we are to ever have a hope of dominating elections.

[doubleplusgood]

23. Where is the Democratic media?

Instead of spending BIlLIONS of dollars on once-every-four-years radio and TV ads, how about spending some of that money on trying to replicate what the GOP has built over 40+ years: our own national network of radio, TV, podcast, and other “influencers”. Right now, by the time anyone hears one of our messages, they’ve been exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of right-wing media.

[CousinIT]

41. Exactly. Dem media & messaging

has been lacking for over a decade. Now, we can not afford it. We're in the fight of our lives and we have almost utter silence.

[dalton99a]

24. "You're on your own. But don't forget to donate"

[betsuni]

25. Ah, a couple of stern speeches about "standing up to" "millionaire robber barons" will change everything! Hilarious.

Maybe actually listening to Democrats and not pretending they've had large majorities for the past ten years but are a bunch of old centrist geezers sitting around eating crackers doing nothing and clinging to power ... oh never mind. People are very gullible about propaganda.

Enjoy the fantasy! Doesn't it feel good scolding Democrats and chanting "millionaire robber barons" like a parrot? (Whoever did this video is ridiculously behind the times since everyone knows it used to be "millionaires and billionaires" until 2020 when it became too uncomfortable ("If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too!" ) and only billionaires can be evil.

[Beartracks]

32. Well, the "B" on Billionaires and Barons provides better alliteration.

================

[Initech]

31. Right wing billionaires own all the media. And blame the other side when no one likes their ideas.

That's exactly how Fuckface got elected.

[CousinIT]

37. Anybody can make & post youtube videos. Even me. nt

[JI7]

34. Complaints about messaging are meaningless

There was a clear difference in message between the candidates.

[CousinIT]

38. Sure. So messasing only in election years

works?

I dont think so. It's a sad fact that counter- MAGA messaging is needed 24x7x365. Every year.

[Bluetus]

40. Not every year. Every $%#$#$%# DAY !!!

[Bluetus]

39. Absolutely true. Somewhere between abysmal and non-existent.

And the shame of it is that if we would get our heads out of our asses and just pay a little bit of attention, we would understand that Americans have been really angry with the consequences of this gathering fascism for 20+ years. Go look at the Gallup "Right course/Wrong course" numbers.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/1669/general-mood-country.aspx

EVERYTHING changed the minute that the SCOTUS installed W as President. That was the beginning of the "sprint to the fascist finish line", so to speak. Republicans have been trying to return to the Robber Baron days since the end of WWII, but it wasn't until the 2000 election that they decided they had enough of their pieces in place to go full fascist, beginning with the overturning of the election. And Democrats barely resisted at all. That's when the fascists knew they would be able to make it to the end. Everything that has happened since then follows directly from that decision to overturn the Gore victory. The Heller decision. The Citizen's United decision. These things passed with almost no notice or resistance. All the bribery of Alito, Roberts, Thomas and who knows what else?

Then Trump jumped on the Birther thing and the Christian radicals jumped in with their abortion stuff -- and still no resistance.

The Jan6 insurrection. No resistance. We couldn't even get our Republican AG or our Republican FBI Director to investigate anything for 2 years. Why the F do we appoint a Republican as AG and why has there never been a single Democrat confirmed as FBI Director? No resistance. Just capitulation.

If not for COVID, Biden would not have beaten Trump. That was a setback to the fascists, but it gave Trump the opportunity to consolidate the 75% of Americans who tell Gallup that America is on the wrong track.

In so many ways, Biden did set us back onto the right track, but it isn't enough to do it. You have to SELL IT. Messaging. Biden has done the fewest press briefings (or occasions when he takes questions from the press) of any modern President. That does not work. You can't win by just behaving. You must have a compelling message, and the WHOLE PARTY has to be out there selling that on a daily basis. Otherwise, we have the case where the anger of the 75% "wrong trackers" is pinned to the incumbent, and everybody else is hurt by that.

As the OP says, the answer is right in front of us. While many of the 70% "wrong-trackers" can't say exactly why they are angry, most of it is because of the basic economic unfairness that is a direct result of the massive transfer of wealth from middle class to top 1% since the Reagan years. With a cabinet full of billionaires, and especially Elon Musk out front, our messaging should be "eat the rich". This resonates if the message is developed and repeated daily. It will win us the future elections if we are not already too beholden to the richest interests. More importantly, by coming strong with an "eat the rich" attack TODAY, that will put all the Trump efforts on the defensive. Make those MFers explain why everything they try to do is not just a way of sending more and more of the wealth from the middle class to the richest 1%.

[angrychair]

42. There is none

As best as I can tell one half of the Democratic Party is tripping over themselves to kiss Trump's...ring...and the other half are shit talking the the VP and infighting with each other.
https://www.axios.com/2024/12/12/aoc-pelosi-oversight-committee-connolly-raskin
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/12/politics/john-fetterman-pete-hegseth-meeting/index.html

This isn't flaming or meant to attack Democrats but unless we talk about this what are we supposed to do? Trump has changed everything with this election win and blind fealty is more harmful than helpful.