Podcasts, media, and messaging (or How the Democrats can win again)

Politics & Elections
1

I want to keep this simple. I think it needs to be simple - simple messaging, and simple strategy, wins. I think there are really only two major changes in strategy and messaging that Democrats need to do - go on uncomfortable right-wing media, and hammer the rich as the enemy.

First - go on right wing media. Right wing media dominates. Not just Fox, but podcasts like Rogan and many more. There’s no real equivalent to these on the left, and I don’t think they can be conjured up. Newsom’s new podcast is good in theory but bad in practice - yes, we need to try and reach out to young people who get their news and views from podcasts and influencers, but making new podcasts isn’t the answer (who’s going to tune in unless they already like Newsom?). Pretending to adopt Republican messaging doesn’t convince anyone and just angers allies.

But we’ve seen for years that our best personalities argue way, way better than their personalities. Newsom, Buttigieg, Pritzker, AOC, and others, routinely and easily demolish Fox and other media personalities on the right. This needs to become a regular occurrence - every day a skilled Democratic messenger should be going on Fox, Rogan, etc., and dismantling Republican talking points, and laying out the Democratic message.

This brings us to that message - “Democrats are competent and normal and not crazy”… This isn’t enough, quite obviously. It barely worked in ‘20 and failed in’ 24. And we shouldn’t be falling over ourselves to meet conservatives in the middle - it’s not believable. We need a message that fits with party traditions and could resonate with people who don’t pay a lot of attention to politics (and the latter are the biggest group of voters we lost in the latest election). I think the message is clear - eat the rich. The billionaires are the enemy. Corporations are the enemy. This fits with the traditional view of the party as the party of working people. Everything else is sideshow, and make this explicit. Trans issues? “This is just a distraction. There are all of a dozen [or whatever] actual trans athletes in all of college sports. They just want you to worry about trans issues while they raid the treasury, lower taxes for themselves, and destroy the services you rely on. Don’t fall for it.”

Hammer this again and again, on Rogan and Fox and everywhere else. Every single day. The rich are your enemy. They are raiding the treasury. They are destroying the services you rely on. They want to lower their own taxes at your expense.

If Rogan or Fox or whoever refuses to have these Democrats on, call them out as cowards. Use vulgar language. Mock them as weak little babies afraid of real arguments, and afraid to anger their wealthy funders. Get into the mud with them, if necessary. Brawl on their turf. Most of these assholes are insecure dweebs - Call them out as such.

The election was close. We’re not way, way behind. A little shift would be enough to change the next election.

My two cents, anyway.

2

Sounds like a plan. A good plan.

3

Historically a LOT of working class people believed they’d be rich soon. So they supported pro-rich policies. They also admire hustle and think the rich demonstrate that.

So your propaganda needs to somehow split out the idle predatory rich from the “small town boy does good” rich.

Good luck w that.

4

I realize that it won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight, but to compete with the Right we need to create our own media ecosystem. And since we can’t rely on billionaires to fund it, those of us on the left should actually be willing to fork over a little bit of money to support Left Wing content creators.

As far as going on Joe Rogan: There used to be a time that he had guests from both the Right and Left, but I believe he’s largely stopped engaging with the Left and just has people on that tells him what he wants to hear.

5

More to the point, you have to come across like you dislike it when rich people abuse their wealth to enrich themselves further at the expense of others; not like you hate success. And Republicans are very effective at twisting Democratic messaging into “they hate success”.

I think Newsom has been striking a good balance on his podcast, though.

I don’t think the problem is funding - there’s plenty of money to be made by left wing commentators.

It’s just that left wing commentators get their “street cred” by… Shitting on Democrats.

6

Podcasts are very often reciprocal. I very much hope that Newsom’s plan isn’t limited to hosting these people on his own show, but that he also plans to go on theirs.

7

I think this is how you come across as anti success rather than anti abuse of wealth, unfortunately.

I think Bernie is usually pretty careful not to talk about the rich but instead to attack the billionaire class.

Personally I think even Bernie’s messaging comes across as anti success to a lot of people, but ISTM that he is definitely aware of that risk and acts accordingly.

8

Is a double sided problem in fact. The centrist commentators get their cred by shitting on Democrats they consider “woke”. So you end up with messaging created by people terrified of getting labeled “elitist” and also terrified of getting labeled “woke”. And in both cases it’s the Republicans who get to control what gets labeled what, so you just get reactive pablum from Democrats.

9

I agree with the OP. Economic populism is the way forward for the Democrats. We need to do to billionaires as the GOP did to trans people, portray them as evil incarnate.

10

I don’t think this is that hard - “we’re not talking about about the local hardwood furniture magnate. We’re not talking about the tire king. We’re not talking about crazy lou’s used car lot. We’re talking about the billionaires. The ones with enough to buy and sell a dozen congress members, with room leftover for a senator and a governor too. The ones who own media conglomerates that spread lies for their own benefits. And the corporations who lobby for your services to be reduced, and the regulations that keep you safe to be eliminated. These are the enemy. And they always have been.”

Of course Republicans will try and twist this to be anti-hustle, but they would do that no matter what Democrats say.

11

Newsom’s plan seems to be to invite right wing assholes to his podcast so he can agree with them on their disgusting views with the goal of pivoting more to the right. I’m pretty sure many Dems would end up the same way, not challenging right wing bullshit but agreeing with them instead.

12

Just curious, which podcast episode did you get that sense from? I’ve listened to all of them and felt he did pretty good at pushing back against odious ideas from right wingers.

I haven’t heard the latest episode, but I’m sure we are all disgusted by the right wing fascist he’s speaking to.

13

Seems like he has been agreeing with them more than not. He is showing his true colors that he has no principles and will bend whichever way the wind takes him.

14

So you’re not basing this on any podcast you listened to, then? Good to know, I will weigh your opinion accordingly.

That’s not what I’ve seen; I’ve seen someone who isn’t shitting his pants at the thought of talking to a big scawy wepublican, who has been strongly arguing for the liberal position on issue after issue.

By the way, since you didn’t click the link in my last post, the “disgusting fascist” he talked to on today’s podcast is Tim Walz. Unfortunately you must have missed out on my sarcasm, since Discourse shows me no one has clicked the link yet :frowning:

15

No way would I listen to any podcast with any of these right wing assholes on it.

Really? Like when he threw trans athletes under the bus by agreeing with Charlie Kirk? He showed what he really thinks.

And you are just going to dismiss a legitimate news source just because I personally didn’t listen to the podcast? You are just trying to find any way you can to justify your stance.

16

Would this be in addition to or instead of all the specific behaviors and positions that have made large blocks of voters dislike Democrats?

17

That’s not a very nice way to talk about Tim Walz :frowning:

Even among Democrats, the idea that trans people should play sports based on their gender identity instead of their sex assigned at birth is only supported by a minority. So yes, he showed what he thinks, and it is in line with the majority of what Democrats think. It’s kinda crazy that the majority position among Democratic voters is completely verboten among Democratic politicians.

And as you’d know if you listened to the podcast rather than reading panicky articles about it, Newsom also recommitted his support for Trans people having access to gender affirming care and being treated as the gender they identify with in contexts where gender separation happens along social rather than physical lines. So I hardly think that Newsom threw trans people under the bus.

It’s an opinion piece, not a “legitimate news source”. And the author’s opinion is clearly trash; they either didn’t listen to the podcast themselves, or are lying about what they heard.

18

I don’t believe a word he says when it comes to trans rights at this point, and I don’t care if there are plenty of other bigots among Democrats who agree with him. He has shown us Californians where he stands and hopefully someone more progressive will challenge him for office when the time comes.

19

I guess his staunchly pro trans record doesn’t mean anything in face of the heinous crime of (checks notes) not thinking that self ID is enough to play sports as the other gender. Wow, how horrible, he’s probably warming up the gas chambers as we speak.

Thinking that sports should be based off sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity doesn’t make one a bigot, since sports are separated based on physical, not social, differences. One can be fully on board with the idea that trans women are women, deserve access to gender affirming care, and so on; while opposing the idea that self ID should determine what sports team you play on.

God, I hope not. Liberals need to take back our party, or we will be losing by even wider margins. As a Californian myself, I’ll be voting accordingly.

20

By “liberals” you mean centrists who will inevitably turn to the right as soon as they can. Such as capitulating to the right like Newsom, Schumer, and Jefferies have been doing. Banning us from competing athletically is absolutely bigotry and it just shows that you don’t really support us.