Let’s get real…
Republicans are pretty bad at messaging. They think they can make Biden look soft by harping on how many people his administration has “apprehended” at the border? That’s dumb. Republican messaging pretty much sucks. They just have one thing that the Democrats don’t…and that one thing is an amplification machine.
Every time the Republicans say anything at all, right wing media and right wing pundits amplify it, dutifully, word for word, until voters in the middle hear it repeatedly and assume it must be true.
Not only do the Democrats not have that kind of amplification machine, they’re largely stuck with the opposite. Most liberal media and liberal pundits IGNORE the Democrats’ messaging, so they can make themselves feel superior by pretending the Democrats have no messaging.
Most of you think the Democrats have no messaging, because you spend all day listening to MSNBC, CNN, and liberal Twitter pundits, whose brands are all built around convincing you that you’re doomed because the Democrats (supposedly) have no messaging, and that you should just sit around listening to their defeatist hot takes all day instead.
But how many of you take the time on social media each day to regularly share and amplify the messaging coming from Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, or DNC Chair Jaime Harrison? How many of you even follow those folks on social media? Your job as a liberal activist is to amplify them, or whichever Democratic Party voices you like the most, whenever you agree with them on something.
Once you start doing your own part on Democratic Party messaging each day, then you’ll be in a position to critique the Democrats on their messaging. But if you’re not doing anything to help them get the word out, then don’t make things worse by falsely insisting that the Democrats have no messaging.
Seriously, this comes down to all of you. You can sit back and whine about the Democrats all day. You can make yourselves feel superior to the Democrats by hyperbolically bashing them all day. You can give yourself the illusion that you’re doing something by sharing posts from pundits who hyperbolically bash the Democrats. But none of that is of any value whatsoever. Liberal activism means working with the Democrats. Listen to them on messaging, instead of pretending they don’t have any messaging. This is all too important. We must win, and we must put in the work to win. No more complaining. No more lamenting. It’s time for us all to move beyond the self righteous pity parties, and start putting in the work required to win.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report