I suppose I should not substitute my impressions for those of folks who spend their whole lives figuring out how best to present progressive political ideas to the public. But let's face it... it ain't working. Recently I was thinking about FDR and his fireside chats, and, unrelated, I happened to watch on YouTube some old auto commercials from the 50s and early 60s. In one, they had an ensemble of well dressed people on the grounds of Mt. Palomar at night gazing out into the heavens, whereupon meteors fell from the sky and out popped the all new, forward looking Fords for 1960! The well dressed mob then burst into song... I kid you not... about the wonderful exciting new models for the new decade! Whereupon an announcer presented in great detail all the new features and why they were better than the competition. I dunno, but Ford did sell a lot of Falcons that year.
What does this have to do with convincing voters to vote Democratic in 2022? Quite a lot, I think, What does the average voter hear from President Biden and other Democratic leaders on a daily basis? Pretty much diddly. OK, I get it, the media landscape is completely different. But a whole hell of a lot of people are contributing money all the time, and I have to wonder where are the big production ads on all media touting the things Democrats have done and are still poised to do,,, in detail... and how it benefits you, Facebook viewer, YouTube viewer, TV viewer, radio listener, etc. And, carefully, but definitively, make clear that the problem is that we don't have a majority in the Senate that can pass these things, and that our majority in the House needs to be built up... We need your help to overcome the pandemic, build back better, ensure that when the majority what the majority wants becomes law by focusing on voting rights.... etc. etc.
This isn't rocket science, but it sure seems to me that our party really, really sucks at this stuff that people have known how to do for a really, really long time. We need an overhaul. And we need to see and hear Biden, Harris, attractive and articulate senators like Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren and Alex Padilla and congresspeople like Katie Porter, Ted Lieu, Pramilla Jaypal, Joe Neguse, David Cicilline, and Sheila Jackson Lee, These folks are all more than capable of articulating the Democratic message in terms everyone can understand. But there needs to be much more of an effort to promote them and our message, everywhere, all the time, and to convey the point that voting for Democrats, on all levels, and especially in states where the margins aren't really that far apart... is the way to break the logjam in Washington and actually accomplish goals.
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