Forget the 2024 autopsies. Democrats need to be bold — and ruthless

What Democrats have here is a failure to communicate and that failure may prove fatal not just for the party but for American democracy itself As the shock has worn off following former Vice President Kamala Harris loss to Donald Trump in November and Trump s inauguration in January disillusioned Democrats have been searching for someone or something anyone or anything to solve their entrenched messaging and branding failures Several have even called on former President Barack Obama to fill the void by speaking out forcefully and consistently against Trump For his part Obama has urged Democrats to stop navel-gazing and toughen up Their fruitless search for a cure has revealed a party not just in disarray but in denial A fresh poll by the Wall Street Journal detected only of voters hold a favorable view of Democrats with expressing an unfavorable view of the party the preponderance unpopular Democrats have been in years of WSJ polling This comes as the Democratic National Committee is conducting an autopsy of the race But the summary will not tackle hard questions such as former President Joe Biden s decision to seek reelection amid concerns about his age his decision to drop out and if Harris was the best Democrat to replace him The New York Times notes it will also avoid key decisions made by Harris campaign including the decision to not respond to an ad memorably attacking her on the issues of transgender rights and inclusive language Democrats seem to be swerving the hard questions altogether focusing instead on an effort by big money donors and the consultant class to develop a progressive alternative to MAGA s online recruitment machine of podcasters YouTube stars and other influencers Democrats seem to be swerving the hard questions altogether focusing instead on an effort by big money donors and the consultant class to develop a progressive alternative to MAGA s online recruitment machine of podcasters YouTube stars and other influencers which the New York Times aptly described as throw ing money at a matter They are desperate to discover or manufacture a political miracle weapon in the form of their own Joe Rogan and his millions of followers In a scene worthy of satire Democratic elites so-called limousine liberals are also holding meetings at luxury hotels to solve the riddle of how to speak authentically to working-class white men This new strategy even has an acronym SAM short for Speaking with American Men A Strategic Plan The summary recommends buying advertisements in video games among other things and a bove all shift ing from a moralizing tone All that may be too little too late Since Democratic help among working-class white men has dropped by percent And in the polling Trump was able to make inroads with working-class Black and Latino men Part of the issue according to Reece Peck a communications scholar and author of Fox Populism Branding Conservatism as Working Class comes down to divergent social identities and language He described Democrats as being centered on upper middle-class hyper-educationed Americans who place immense value on language The fatal flaw is that Democrats often assume this class-specific cultural fixation is widely shared across the broader electorate Peck mentioned In contrast working-class Americans tend to approach language more contextually They often interpret statements in good faith and prioritize the intention behind a message more than the exact wording unlike various in the professional class who insist that intention is irrelevant Because of this focus Peck announced it s no surprise that numerous of the party s figures are wary of unscripted freewheeling formats like podcasts platforms that are almost antithetical to their communication norms But after two losses to a tabloid-style president like Trump who sees all publicity as good publicity Democrats and their allies are beginning to abandon this rigid standard Related Greed vs integrity in Trump s Gilded Age The Washington Post in the past few days shared the growing consensus among a few party leaders is that shifting away from a cautious and attentively scripted image is crucial Their plan to project a raw authenticity seems to be to follow in Trump s footsteps by lobbing more insults toward Republicans and cursing more going on more podcasts and recording videos to be broadcast on their social media channels But while the Democrats keep conducting autopsies and churning out plans to be authentic curse more and find the next Joe Rogan Trump and his MAGA supporters are rapidly destroying the country s democratic life In the face of these threats and autocratic actions Democrats need to return to fundamentals in their messaging Aesthetic improvement is welcome Peck commented but it must be followed by deeper more resonant political storytelling specifically strong moral narratives that clearly identify villains and articulate the root causes of working-class oppression Who are the heroes and villains What is the story What are the moral implications of the story How can we highlight voters lived experiences How is the Big Vile Bill affecting people s lives including those of Medicaid recipients family members and people living below the poverty line What are the day-to-day stakes for the winners and the losers and for the nation as a whole A brand is a form of emotional identification between a person and a product In modern marketing and advertising it is also an extension of a person s identity At its core a brand can provide a type of crew that stands to make people feel less isolated and lonely In politics this means distilling a complex message into something emotional that has a direct connection to a person or group This is especially critical given how political scientists and other experts have consistently shown that the average American is imagistic easily distracted and manipulated lacks an in-depth understanding of community program and history and has a hard time distinguishing between facts and mistruths Want more sharp takes on politics Sign up for our free newsletter Standing Room Only written by Amanda Marcotte now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts In this model political parties function as a type decision-making shortcut where a person does not need to know the specifics of a given general approach but that like a favorite fast-food restaurant they know they can usually find something they like on the menu Trump and his MAGA supporters have spent years and in certain cases decades refining their brand and telling a consistent and superior if untrue and offensive story about it The MAGA movement sees their battle as existential with Trump as their Christ-figure a hero and savior and Democrats as the enemy This has left Democrats at a serious disadvantage While the average person may not have expert-level knowledge about politics and society guidelines they know who Donald Trump is and what he stands for and means to them either positively or negatively By comparison the average American cannot as of now explain what Democrats really believe Polling shows the Democratic brand is toxic and increasingly irrelevant Ultimately the party has no single unifying character leader story or slogan to rally around During a new speech former Democratic Rep Beto O Rourke of Texas diagnosed the predicament Democrats care more about being right than being in power We have to change that We have to be ruthlessly focused on winning power O Rourke s message is one Democrats need to absorb Steven Fish a political scientist and author of Comeback Routing Trumpism Reclaiming the Nation and Restoring Democracy s Edge highlights another example of a leader who is modeling the type of strong branding Democrats need California Governor Gavin Newsom is accepting every invitation from right-leaning manosphere podcasters telling their audiences that the majority of what Trump tells them is nonsense and showing them that at least one liberal has the guts to say it to their faces he announced His social media operation has become a wicked MAGA-trolling machine and he hits back at every attack with exuberant aggression rather than cries of umbrage and pain When Trump threatened to arrest him during the anti-deportation demonstrations in Los Angeles Newsom replied Come after me arrest me Just get it over with tough guy you know where to find me By constantly sound ing the alarm Fish declared Newsom is scoring points against the Republicans re-moralizing Democrats and showing Americans a liberal leader who is inevitably on the offensive and is having the time of his political life We need your help to stay independent Subscribe this day to assistance Chauncey DeVega s journalism Any rebranding no matter how bold must be backed up by substance In my conversation with Peck he called for a bold material guidelines package that credibly addresses working-class misery unaffordability and the collapse of upward mobility Strong working-class procedures he explained follows strong confrontational moral storytelling and that in turn depends on embracing the linguistic aesthetics and values of working-class communication Democrats must understand this full sequence of rhetorical and cultural alignment if they want to win Democrats and other pro-democracy Americans are swiftly running out of time to develop a winning message to communicate a coherent vision of a better future for the country s embattled middle and working classes Trump and his forces have the U S in the grip of autocracy and they will not let go Instead of being so obsessed with political autopsies Democrats should behave like visionary political leaders Now is the time for boldness Read more about this topic American democracy is crashing out and it will be hard to reverse international rights group warns As the Tariff Man Trump is creating the Second Gilded Age Buttigieg Democrats need to learn from Mamdani to beat 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