Texas Congressman on 2020 campaign messaging

[brooklynite]

Link to tweet

[Indykatie]

1. That Whole "Defund the Police" Mantra Was a Gift to the GOP and They Used It as a Weapon

Messaging matters and Dems manage to f**k it up from time to time. Our far left faction of the party don't seem to be willing to accept that their messaging and actions during elections can have a negative impact on other races in red and purple. Because they are usually in deep blue districts they don't have to worry about messaging. They also don't seem to recognize that they only win in deep blue districts where any Dem could win.

[Turin_C3PO]

3. But here's the thing.

Even in dark blue districts, most Dems running weren’t for any of those things listed above. It was a complete lie propagated by Republicans.

[Historic NY]

4. Trump the master of branding...

and that's what happens when people don't listen to exactly what they are saying... The DNC seemed relative disengaged.

[Deacon Blue]

7. DTP Probably Started by the Right

And picked up by more visible folks on this side. That’s Mrs. Deacon Blue’s take. Saw the NYT article, couldn’t agree more.

How about ‘De-MILITARIZE the police?’ Visual image of AFVs and GWOT surplus on the Streets of America instantly pops into your consciousness. We had an incident in Austin where the APD deployed the SWAT team, 2 drones and a sniper for overwatch (and many other expensive and oppressive law enforcement ‘assets’) for one woman who was afraid to get out if her car, in broad daylight at a busy intersection. There may have been a tracked robot deployed to approach the car. Bystanders were being photographed and video’d by Texas DPS troopers. The woman drew attention due to a retracted report that the car she was in was stolen, and no doubt the cop-bait FTP-type slogans plastered all over it did what cop-bait does, after all. She worked at a local head shop (are they still called that?), and she had her Chihuahua with her. There’s a script there: ‘Little Dog Day Afternoon’?

We got saddled with ‘the Left’ by a French political thinker long ago, I think. I know a former nun who was broken of the problem of being left-handed by Catholic nuns. ‘Sinister’ is from the Latin for left-handed. It’s only gotten worse since. We shoot ourselves in both feet over and over in the messaging game, because many of us value nuance, and in the Age of the Shortening Attention Span, who’s got time for that?

Challenging (to some, anyway) ideas have to be distilled into short, appealing three or four word phrases, even acronyms, which cannot be purposed against progress by the people we beat overseas in WWII, and turned loose at home to stop Commies, pinkos, and (wait for it) socialists (never mind that lotsa those WWII heroes draw Social Security) and the non-vets LOVE their Medicare (St. Ron and his AuH2O/Randite fellow travelers fought that tooth and nail as the end of medicine, now it’s very popular). ACA (if you like it) Obamacare (if you don’t) is tracing a similar arc toward acceptance.

But we MUST start making our goals, which generally poll well across the largest area under the opinion bell curve, more user-friendly. Just sayin’.

[Turin_C3PO]

2. Very few Democrats

are for open borders, defunding the police, or socialism. I don’t doubt that the perception of us was twisted. Repubs were able to paint us that way due to their skills at messaging and propaganda. That’s what we need to figure out. A way to combat their lies.

[JHB]

5. It's pretty simple how they do it. Sheer volume.

Explicitly partisan RW media is everywhere. Even for people not seeking it out, hate radio blares on AM for anyone just turning the dial to see what's on, FOX plays in waiting rooms, scare-em stories from wingnut sites are promoted on social media. They push their stories and their language, and they've been doing this for decades.

[essaynnc]

6. It's all messaging....

And THEY are so much better at it. The examples are endless... baby killers, tax and spend, socialists, open borders, swiftboat, weak on crime, the list is endless.

Americans don't want a scientific analysis with charts and numbers and tests of how nice the tp will feel on their butts, they remember "squeezably soft" and "Please don't squeeze the charmin" !!

have we ever been successful at a slogan or messaging that paints them in a box??? Hire somebody to do it with us if we can't, there are lots of ad agencies for hire...

[Gothmog]

8. Defund the police, the Green New Deal and the cost of MFA were all used

In my congressional district, the only real ad from the GOP candidate who won was on MFA where he claimed that taxes would have to double to pay for this program with a mention of the Green New Deal and Defund the Police. We lost this district