How Do Democrats Message Success?

 

One of the daily newsletters that appears in my inbox is from Politico.  I can’t recall reading anything there that wasn’t already on Ricochet, but that could be just a poor memory.  On the other hand, they definitely don’t see things the same way I do.

This morning I read something that made me chuckle, because after a very long time they came to this:

…Democrats [are] desperate to turn the page on impeachment and finally start messaging on pocketbook issues like health care and the economy.

But there’s a catch: Democrats are still figuring out the best way to talk about positive numbers like low unemployment, wage hikes and a record Dow during Trump’s tenure — while arguing that it’s only helped the 1 percent.

Recent internal polling shows that a blame-game between the two parties actually loses in a head-to-head against Trump’s economic message.

Well, duh!

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  1. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Reality is a cruel mistress.

    • #1
  2. Freeven Member
    Freeven
    @Freeven

    … all of which means they are going to have to lie and steal and cheat even more than usual. It’s going to be wild ride.

    • #2
  3. Slow on the uptake Coolidge
    Slow on the uptake
    @Chuckles

    Fascinating that they had to have a poll before they could understand this was a problem.

    • #3
  4. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    Trump did not leave them many avenues in the SOTU.

    • #4
  5. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    I don’t see how the author of the newsletter from which you quote could support the first phrase in your quotation. On the contrary, everything I see in the media suggests that the Democrats remain obsessed with impeachment, looking for new bases for new rounds of impeachment.  

    • #5
  6. Slow on the uptake Coolidge
    Slow on the uptake
    @Chuckles

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    I don’t see how the author of the newsletter from which you quote could support the first phrase in your quotation. On the contrary, everything I see in the media suggests that the Democrats remain obsessed with impeachment, looking for new bases for new rounds of impeachment.

    Good observation.  I think they are looking at party leadership, the equivalent of GOPe.

    • #6
  7. MichaelKennedy Inactive
    MichaelKennedy
    @MichaelKennedy

    Slow on the uptake (View Comment):

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    I don’t see how the author of the newsletter from which you quote could support the first phrase in your quotation. On the contrary, everything I see in the media suggests that the Democrats remain obsessed with impeachment, looking for new bases for new rounds of impeachment.

    Good observation. I think they are looking at party leadership, the equivalent of GOPe.

    Yes, the Twitter base is still as crazy as ever.  That is a problem for them as the Bernie Bros are mostly the same people.

    • #7
  8. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Oh, they have a narrative for everything, doncha know. Trump didn’t build that! Obama did!!

    https://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2020/02/13/dems-new-talking-point-on-the-trump-economy-obama-built-it-n2561241

     

    • #8
  9. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Oh, they have a narrative for everything, doncha know. Trump didn’t build that! Obama did!!

    https://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2020/02/13/dems-new-talking-point-on-the-trump-economy-obama-built-it-n2561241

     

    The media have been gleefully reporting every little dip in the stock market, every factory closure, and every little upward bump in unemployment for months. The talking point above is a last-ditch effort.

    • #9
  10. JamesSalerno Inactive
    JamesSalerno
    @JamesSalerno

    It’s a fundamental difference between right and left. The left only believes in ideas, not outcomes. That’s why talking to these people is so hard. They don’t understand economics, outcomes or even basic math. The Michigan Governor who gave a rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union speech is a perfect encapsulation on how these people think:

    Affordable health care for everyone!

    Affordable housing!

    Clean water!

    Better education!

    This all sounds great but doesn’t mean anything. No numbers. No plan. Just rhetoric.

    • #10
  11. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    The irony here is in a normal Republican administration, the Democrats would have spent the past three years priming the pump, in taking 1-2 issues and getting the media to harp on them endlessly, so it’s already a part of the public conversation by the time the next election cycle comes around. They haven’t really done that in this cycle, because they’ve been so obsessed with taking Trump out before the 2020 election arrives.

    In a normal election year, all of the West Coast homeless problems would already have been laid at the feet of the guy in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, so that even though the problems are the result of policies created by West Coast progressive pols, the talking points would already be there that this is due to the president’s poor job managing the economy. Now it’s too late to use that gambit, because it’s already established that the problem is the result of pols in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

    Even the 1 percent thing doesn’t work as well against Trump because it was pretty clear in 2016 and beyond that the 1 percenters loathed Trump’s crassness, which was part of the ongoing battle between Trump and the rich, Manhattan elites since the mid-1970s.  If anything, the 1 percenters are hanging with the Democrats right now — they might recoil at Bernie or Liz getting the nomination, but they would have been fine with wacky-but-lovable Uncle Joe, and would be perfectly happy with the crony capitalism of President Bloomberg, because he’s one of them.

    So it’s harder for the Dems to talk down the economy with Trump, because they failed to establish the normal narrative and the last-ditch hopes of the Stop Bernie crowd may be a guy who’s in the top 1 percent of the 1 percenters. 

    • #11
  12. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    A large part of their strategy is to energize the dead vote. 

    • #12
  13. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Rightfromthestart (View Comment):

    A large part of their strategy is to energize the dead vote.

    The majority of the governments in the country are loyal to the Democrats.  These governments count votes.  Accidents and mistakes happen all the time.  Votes get lost.  Math gets miscalculated.  

    • #13
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