He’s fundamentally right, if your goal is to try to win elections. The actual content of what politicians say they’re going to do matters less than how they make voters feel. Case in point, voters favor Democratic policies over Republican by a wide margin when presented with specific issues, yet still continue to vote for Republicans.
The problem with that strategy, is that eventually people will stop showing up for you, if all you do is lie to them over and over again, just to get elected.
It may work with Republicans, who have been literally brainwashed for generations, into turning off their ability to think critically…but the rest of us aren’t that gullible. This is the entire reason Democrats are losing right now. These people need to wake up and realize, that “talk” is not enough to convince people to vote for them anymore. They need to see them actually do something to back up the rhetoric, or they’re not going to bother.
Unfortunately, I heard some Democratic news analysts on the FT Swamp Notes podcast say basically that. That you can’t really do what you say when you campaign. That you campaign in poetry and govern in prose (whatever that means). They were referring to Mamdani’s aggressive critique of billionaires and how he suggest silly things like free bussing.*
They will say that they didn’t lie. That they would love to do all this stuff. But we have to be realists here. And the things is if you critique them, they call you a child.
Whatever happens in progressive politics, we need to be careful. I don’t know if we can make it far with out the establishment, but if we do ride along side with them, we should make it clear that we have the will of people behind us and we should expect them to betray us the first chance they get.
* The more establishment person wrapped her critique in how free bussing doesn’t solve the issue with the subways. This reminded me of how Republicans criticized Biden’s work on student loan forgiveness because tuition was still high. Neither side is wrong, but let’s do something that makes a difference for the average person.
FDR won 4 consecutive elections not because he had “good messaging”, but because he actually delivered for the people. Republicans had to instill term limits because they didn’t want that happening again.
You think he would have won even a second term if he didn’t get the US out of the Great Depression with his policies? WWII economy also played a part here, but in modern times, the US has been in perpetual war with several different countries, and the only people getting rich off that are the wealthy few, again, due to policy.
FDR had fantastic messaging. FDR was the first president to use mass media to speak directly to the people through his fireside chats. He definitely connected with people on an emotional level.
Also the Great Depression didn’t end until well into his second term
Except not really, because look what’s happened in the last 20 years. A lot of people voted Republican because the Democrats didn’t actually deliver on anything good. And sometimes the situation is complicated, like if you’re trying to reform tax law or something like that, yet other times it’s incredibly simple, like if you’re trying to stop genocide. We cannot expect the majority of voters to be well informed on a complex issues but we can absolutely assume that they will be partly informed on the simple ones.
He’s fundamentally right, if your goal is to try to win elections. The actual content of what politicians say they’re going to do matters less than how they make voters feel. Case in point, voters favor Democratic policies over Republican by a wide margin when presented with specific issues, yet still continue to vote for Republicans.
The problem with that strategy, is that eventually people will stop showing up for you, if all you do is lie to them over and over again, just to get elected.
It may work with Republicans, who have been literally brainwashed for generations, into turning off their ability to think critically…but the rest of us aren’t that gullible. This is the entire reason Democrats are losing right now. These people need to wake up and realize, that “talk” is not enough to convince people to vote for them anymore. They need to see them actually do something to back up the rhetoric, or they’re not going to bother.
The neoliberal Democratic politicians won’t ever realize that because they’re paid not to realize that.
I didn’t say anything about lying. Lying to voters who can think critically is going to lose you elections.
My point about the importance of connecting on an emotional level still stands, and this is best accomplished authentically.
Unfortunately, I heard some Democratic news analysts on the FT Swamp Notes podcast say basically that. That you can’t really do what you say when you campaign. That you campaign in poetry and govern in prose (whatever that means). They were referring to Mamdani’s aggressive critique of billionaires and how he suggest silly things like free bussing.*
They will say that they didn’t lie. That they would love to do all this stuff. But we have to be realists here. And the things is if you critique them, they call you a child.
Whatever happens in progressive politics, we need to be careful. I don’t know if we can make it far with out the establishment, but if we do ride along side with them, we should make it clear that we have the will of people behind us and we should expect them to betray us the first chance they get.
* The more establishment person wrapped her critique in how free bussing doesn’t solve the issue with the subways. This reminded me of how Republicans criticized Biden’s work on student loan forgiveness because tuition was still high. Neither side is wrong, but let’s do something that makes a difference for the average person.
That works until you need to win re-election and everyone saw what you became when you took office.
FDR won 4 consecutive elections not because he had “good messaging”, but because he actually delivered for the people. Republicans had to instill term limits because they didn’t want that happening again.
You think he would have won even a second term if he didn’t get the US out of the Great Depression with his policies? WWII economy also played a part here, but in modern times, the US has been in perpetual war with several different countries, and the only people getting rich off that are the wealthy few, again, due to policy.
FDR had fantastic messaging. FDR was the first president to use mass media to speak directly to the people through his fireside chats. He definitely connected with people on an emotional level.
Also the Great Depression didn’t end until well into his second term
Except not really, because look what’s happened in the last 20 years. A lot of people voted Republican because the Democrats didn’t actually deliver on anything good. And sometimes the situation is complicated, like if you’re trying to reform tax law or something like that, yet other times it’s incredibly simple, like if you’re trying to stop genocide. We cannot expect the majority of voters to be well informed on a complex issues but we can absolutely assume that they will be partly informed on the simple ones.