Swimming with the sharks: What progressives can learn from Republicans Against Trump [View all]

[highplainsdem]

Found this article on a British site, Politics.co.uk, thanks to a tweet minutes ago from Rick Wlson:

Link to tweet

The article:

https://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2020/06/22/swimming-with-the-sharks-what-progressives-can-learn-from-re

The Never Trumpers might as well have written the phrase 'go big or go home'. For them there is no Plan B, so there is an intensity and relentlessness about their approach. They act quickly and opportunistically through their attack ads, frames and messages and react to and lead conversations in real time.

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There is no magic formula – they just keep it simple by using Trump's own words against himself. The attacks are often witty. Crucially they always go straight for the jugular. And part of the strategy is to wind Trump up so that he attacks them rather than Joe Biden. This means nothing is off limits, which a lot of the left ('we're better than this') finds distasteful. We do too. But you don't take a bar of soap when wrestling with pigs in mud.

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As Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson said in a recent podcast, the people the Democrats need to win over in these states "are not people who care about gender pronouns". Unlike a lot of progressives, the Never Trumpers understand what makes their target audiences tick. The left is good at talking to itself but not empathising with the views of people who think differently.

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Republicans Voters Against Trump is a master class in low budget values campaigning. The videos are shot on smart phones or computers. And they are effective because they are unpolished peer to peer testimonials that speak to core conservative morals, values and identity frames.

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Much more at the link.