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1/ I would like to posit a modest hypothesis that explains observed data and makes testable experimental predictions. It is a hypothesis that will be deeply, deeply upsetting to establishment Democrats, mainstream democratic voters and the progressive left alike.
2/ Take a deep breath. This will be very upsetting to all of you. Ready? Here it is in condensed, topline, form. I'll take it slow.
Voters. Don't. Give. A. Runny. Goddamn. Shit. About. Policy.
Voters. Don't. Give. A. Runny. Goddamn. Shit. About. Policy.
3/ Stated more precisely, the only voters who give a shit about policy are the ones who who are going to vote Democratic regardless.
If you've managed to get this far without fainting or rage denying, bear with me as I go into the weeds of this hypothesis.
If you've managed to get this far without fainting or rage denying, bear with me as I go into the weeds of this hypothesis.
4/ Democrats being basically public-sector oriented understand and care about policy and are emotionally committed to the idea that policy wins elections.
And thus they have a tendency to implement beneficial policy, dust off their hands and wait to be rewarded by voters.
And thus they have a tendency to implement beneficial policy, dust off their hands and wait to be rewarded by voters.
5/ Likewise, when the expected reward fails to materialize, the left insists it's because the Democrats were shitty and imperfect, unlike the policies the left advocated.
Both fail to grasp that only mainstream Democrats and those to their left give a shit about policy.
Both fail to grasp that only mainstream Democrats and those to their left give a shit about policy.
6/ Republicans, by contrast, being private sector oriented, believe policy is collaboration with evil, "free stuff," taxation, regulation, equality of opportunity, but they understand (brace yourselves, I'm about to use an offensive word) marketing.
7/ Republicans understand that candidates are product, that selling them requires a lot of empty "you wanna have a beer with him, he's got your back" nutfluffing. For Republicans, policy proposals are just a marketing resource to be mined for illogical fearmongering material.
8/ This is why they win. It's also why they lose, because when they get power, being malevolent policy idiots, they set the whole goddamn world on fire and people briefly, and often narrowly, turn to Democrats to set it to rights. Then Democrats fix stuff with good policy and...
9/...wait for their reward. And boy do they get it because, of course, they believe good policy just sells itself and fail to grasp that all that policy is, to Republicans, just a resource to be mined for things to lie about in the next election.
10/ And this is why I cringe when Democrats say they need to talk about "pocket book issues" and "kitchen table economics" and the eft talks about great M4A and the Green New Deal poll.
Because they don't see that no one who doesn't already agree with them gives a shit.
Because they don't see that no one who doesn't already agree with them gives a shit.
11/ Also why I cringed when people on the left decided to call policy proposals for reallocating resources from policing to social services "Defund the Police!" Because it's shit marketing. It's marketing to people WHO ALREADY FUCKING AGREE WITH YOU who don't need to be sold.
12/ It's marketing that was like it was made for mining by Republicans for fearmongering. Don't think for a goddamn minute it didn't hurt us. The evidence is right before our eyes.
It's a steep curve. Liberals and progressives by nature find marketing repulsive and icky.
It's a steep curve. Liberals and progressives by nature find marketing repulsive and icky.
13/ And what's all the more laughable about their purity of soul is how much of what they do actually do is about marketing the shit they want *to themselves* rather than the people they need to vote for them.
14/ M4A, Green New Deal, Obamacare, Defund the Police, Raise the Minimum Wage, "Every billionaire is a policy failure," DACA. What are any of those but marketing slogans that appeal to people who already agree with the underlying policies?
15/ We are never going to get the Fox-toxxed racist mouth-breathers back. Accept that now. But unless and until we are ready and willing to fight fire with fire, use the most soullessly, content-free marketing types *from outside the Democratic consultantocracy* ...
16/...to shape messaging, fight the Republican fearmongering bullshit with bullshit, package our policies in a way that seem safe and happy to people who don't pay attention to politics, this shit will keep happening to us.
17/ Think, for example on the CW that said any money spent trying to counteract the firehose of sewage sprayed on Hillary was a waste time because her negatives were baked in. As a result of it, no one even tried to repackage her, frame her as someone with a good heart.
18/ Think what a difference changing the perceptions of just 5% could have made, a meta-narrative campaign attacking Republicans for cynically making shit up about her.
19/ Think what ads doing what Republicans do-attacking their strengths-could have done for us this year. And this year, they had just one: the idiot belief that Republicans are better for the economy than Democrats.
Just rattling 5% loose from that mindset could be decisive.
Just rattling 5% loose from that mindset could be decisive.
20/ And yes, think what we could have done with some ads flat out attacking Republicans for being crazy, toxifying Fox and QAnon as beyond the pale rather than being afraid of offending and shaming.
21/ Forget fucking policy. Policy is for governing, not running. Sell Democrats like they're a box of cereal or a dietary supplement and BFF's. Attack Republican strengths, the lies and deceit and insanity, the idiot belief that tax cuts for rich people are good.
22/ And for fuck's sake, give some goddamn thought to how what we name shit we're for will play with the numbnut voters who pay scant attention to politics and vote their preconceptions and make them fit into their preconceptions.
23/ And accept that we're so in love with our own ideas, so sure of their innate and undeniable goodness and wholesomeness, that we-including our own political consultants-literally have no fucking clue how to sell them to people who don't already agree with us.
24/ We need help. We need the help of the soulless commercial sector advertising, marketing and PR people who sell products and we need to not get our panties into a purity and honesty twist.
