Keep it simple
Even as President Biden was busy meeting with the top people in his administration on Monday in order to deal with the ongoing crisis in Israel and the Middle East, Republicans and right wingers were busy making up one outright lie after another. They claimed Biden was eating barbecue instead of working on the crisis. They claimed Biden’s full press lid meant that he’d gone home for the day.
The political activists and enthusiasts on our side were quick to try to push back against these lies, but largely got bogged down in the details. And that is, frankly, how we lose the argument.
We can’t allow ourselves to be dragged into debates about an imaginary barbecue, or the meaning of the word lid. Even if we “win” these debates, we’re still stuck on the wrong topics. If the people closer to the middle are trying to figure out if Biden is doing a good job with the Israel crisis, and all they’re hearing is bickering about a barbecue, they’re going to use that as an excuse to not take a side.
In that regard, especially at a time like this, our messaging should be straightforward and simple: President Biden is handling the Israel crisis perfectly. That’s it. That should be our only messaging. Let the other side get lost in the muck by pushing conspiracy theories about barbecues. Our message should simply be “Biden is handling the Israel thing perfectly.” It’s the kind of simple, easy messaging that the people in the middle can feel comfortable getting on board with.
Right wing political enthusiasts are pieces of crap, but there are times when we can learn things from them strategically. In a time of crisis, right wingers always insist their side’s leaders are handling things perfectly. They take this to an extreme, where they claim it’s true even when it’s obviously not true. They said this about Bush and 9/11. They said it about Trump and COVID. It didn’t matter that the opposite was true; they managed to distract from this by insisting that their side’s leaders were handling it perfectly.
Of course we don’t want, or need, to take it that far. We don’t ever want to be dishonest in our messaging. But we don’t need to pretend that President Biden is handling the Israel crisis perfectly, because he is handling it perfectly. So that should be our messaging. Let the other side waste its time trying to sell people on conspiracy theories about barbecues. Don’t get dragged into that kind of thing yourself. Keep your messaging simple and clear and effective: Biden is nailing the Israel thing.
