When it comes to the Democratic Party, “messaging” isn’t the problem
Each election cycle, or at least each month of any given election cycle, the mainstream media tends to allow precisely one Democratic candidate’s messaging to get through, while ignoring the messaging coming from every other Democratic candidate, so it can say “Why are all the Democrats bad at messaging except for such and such candidate?”
In reality, most Democratic candidates are good to great at messaging. But the media (left, right, or center) can’t get any ratings by admitting that. So it has to lie, and claim the Democrats are terrible at messaging, and then bury that messaging so audiences don’t see it. Then it praises ONE Democrat on messaging, just to give itself cover. It’s always just an excuse to dishonestly bash the Democrats on messaging. And the media only pushes this lie, because it thinks it’s what you want to hear.
And it is what some of you want to hear. It makes you feel smarter than your own party, which makes you feel special. It gives you yet another thing to feel outrage over. And it gives you an excuse to not have to do your part on messaging, because you can just blame the party.
The media’s “Democrats are bad at messaging” narrative also allows the wannabe political strategists on Twitter, who are so inept and clueless that no campaign would ever hire them, the opportunity to pretend to be the rescuing heroes the hapless Democratic Party so desperately needs.
It is your job as an activist not to fall for any of this crap. It’s designed to goad you into spending each election cycle staring transfixed at your screen, and giving the media and pundits the ratings and retweets they crave, instead of putting the work in to win the election.
Any time you catch yourself saying “The Democrats need to learn how to do messaging from Democratic candidate X,” you need to be aware that you’ve fallen into precisely the trap the media has set for you. They play up that one candidate, while ignoring the messaging coming from the rest of the party. As always, it’s your job not to fall for it.
Put another way: even if you do believe that the Democratic Party is bad at messaging – and you’re wrong, but even if you do believe that – how are you helping the situation by bashing the Democratic Party’s messaging to anyone who will listen? All you’re doing is telling people that the Democrats suck, which they’re going to take as a sign not to vote for the Democrats.
If you truly think the Democratic Party is bad at messaging, then it’s your job to help the Democrats with their messaging. If all you do is sit around and critique the Democrats on their messaging, then you’re doing nothing to help them with their messaging, and you’re costing them votes by badmouthing them to potential voters. The media is dishonestly doing enough damage to the Democrats’ reputation. You’re the only line of defense when it comes to helping the Democrats overcome what the media spends each day trying to do to the Democrats.
