Why isn’t our messaging getting out NOW???
February 11, 2023
I’m glad that the pre-election barrage of nonstop political ads ended shortly after the polls closed. I really am. Like everyone else, I was sick of them. But I’m afraid that if Democrats don’t start getting our overall message out to the public now, before individual candidates are identified for specific races in 2024, and before people get completely sick of political ads, then we’re dooming ourselves to fight an uphill battle in the next major election. Even if Republicans nominate the most obviously stupid, racist, criminal candidates (as they’re wont to do), too many “moderate” Republican voters will still enthusiastically pull the R lever if they’re convinced that Democratic policies pose an existential threat to their way of life. If your average Republican suburbanite is convinced that Democrats are baby murderers who want to move MS-13 gang members into the house next door and make gay porn part of the kindergarten curriculum while making eggs $20 per dozen, they’re not going to care how horrible/sketchy/criminal the Republican candidate is.
Obviously, hardcore Republican white nationalists are never going to change their minds and vote for Democrats, but if we can at least convince some more sane registered Republicans that Democrats are not, in fact, the antichrist, then maybe even if they don’t vote D, they won’t have incentive to go out and vote R. I know, I know…the “swing voter” is pretty rare…but there are some Republicans who don’t actually agree with a big chunk of Republican policies, but who consistently pull the R lever anyway because they identify Republicans as being the party of hardworking Americans and old-fashioned American values. Those people need to be exposed to messaging that highlights the disconnect between what they believe Republican values are, and what today’s Republicans actually do. And this needs to happen now—by September 2024, it will be too late.
And the mainstream media isn’t going to help us. By wanting to seem “neutral” and adopting Republican language and normalizing Republican extremism and extremists, they continue to facilitate the rightward lurch of the Overton window. We need messaging to counter this.
I would happily smash the Act Blue donate button for any organization that could put commercials on mainstream media channels dispelling Fox lies and highlighting how Democratic policies are helping people. Again, I would want to see this political campaign NOW—not right before the election…not when I’m being inundated with texts and emails from specific candidates who need donations. The ads probably shouldn’t run so often to be really annoying, but just enough to force some “conservative leaning” viewers to have to grapple with their cognitive dissonance. But as far as I can tell, no organization seems to be rising to the occasion.
For example, here are just a few ideas for non-specific political ads I have off the top of my head:
Some ads can point to the comparison between red states and blue states by nearly every important quality-of-life metric. Those of us in our blue bubbles know that, in general, in red states, crime is worse, gun deaths are more frequent, there’s higher infant mortality, there’s more poverty, shorter life spans, worse education, worse healthcare, etc. But this message needs to get out via mainstream media. Otherwise, when 2024 comes around, the Republican ads that equate Democratic leadership with violent crime will land with half the population. In Red States, ads could ask voters if they want to continue to live at the bottom, and note that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In purple states, the ads could ask voters which states they’d rather emulate, the blue states on the good side of these lists, or the red states that rank as the worst.
Those of us in blue bubbles also know that Democratic administrations consistently reduce the deficit while Republican administrations blow it up with tax giveaways to wealthy people and monopolistic corporations. This message needs to get out to the general public, or by 2024 Republicans will AGAIN be successful at painting themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility.
Ads should equate Republican policies with mass shootings. Because it’s true. We should show the faces of the children from Sandy Hook, list the proposed gun control bills that NRA-funded Republicans shot down (no pun intended) since then, and then show the faces of the children from Uvalde, who most likely would still be alive if the common-sense gun reform proposals had gone through after Sandy Hook. The ads should also note that the majority of U.S. citizens don’t want non-military personnel to have access to weapons of war, but NRA-funded Republicans consistently vote against their constituents’ wishes and keep our public spaces more dangerous than in any peer nation in the world.
Ads should highlight the jobs created by Biden’s infrastructure act and the benefits those projects are bringing to their communities.
Ads should contrast what Democrats are actually doing to try to address the border crisis and how Republicans are thwarting those efforts. The ads should contrast Democratic problem-solving ideas with the performative cruelty of Republican stunts.
A commercial could start out as if it’s a Republican commercial…gauzily harkening back to an idyllic time when America was “great,” supposedly in the 1950s. And then it could describe how the middle-class prosperity of the 1950s was a direct result of taxing the rich appropriately, investing in infrastructure, investing in education, and regulating businesses so monopolies couldn’t price gouge and depress wages—the things today’s Republicans call “socialism.” Would Eisenhower-era “socialism” without the racism, sexism and homophobia of that era be so bad?
We could have a flashback scene of a high school classroom in the 1980s, where a 14-year-old white girl in a private school uniform is ending her presentation to the class about the benefits of democracy over the evils of communism. Following her presentation, the girl is confronted by a ghost-of-Christmas-future-type spirit who warns her that 30 – 40 years into the future, her whole worldview will be flipped, and she will think that things she now sees as the evils of communism are actually good—an autocratic government that violently clamps down on protests (cut to video of Trump’s militarized force gassing protesters so he can have a photo op with a bible), non-democratic elections in which the outcomes are preordained (cut to members of the sedition caucus voting NOT to certify Biden’s election, and cut to January 6 insurrectionists storming the capitol), censorship (cut to an image of Ron DeSantis and empty library shelves), and wealthy oligarchs monopolizing the means of production and controlling Republican government officials through mega-donations (cut to images of Betsey DeVos, Steve Mnuchen, whichever Koch brother is still alive). The high school girl is perplexed and asks how it could be that in the future, she will think that things like universal healthcare are the real evils of communism rather than autocracy, censorship, etc. The camera can then focus in on a poster of a fox in the classroom.
There could be commercials to preemptively deflate the inevitable Republican “woke mob” attack ads by pointing out exactly what “woke” means. A montage of Republican politicians (DeSantis, etc.) could be shown haughtily touting their “anti-woke” policies. Then the ad should break down the definition of the word “woke”—being against bigotry, especially racism. If Republicans are against anti-bigotry, then they are PRO-bigotry. I might even want to taunt these Republicans, who also lament “political correctness.” If they’re so against being “politically correct,” why do they bother to couch their own language in weasel-y dog whistles like “woke mob” instead of saying what they mean? The ad could then cut to tiki-torch wielding white nationalists, with a voiceover commenting that these neo-Nazis certainly know what the Republican politicians mean. And then the ad could possibly end by asking sensible potential voters something like, do you think the worst thing in this country right now is really that we might be too anti-racist…that we might be too kind to people who are different than us?
There could also be a commercial featuring Gen-X’ers and Boomers, mostly white (who could initially pass for MAGAts, looks-wise), proudly talking about how their mothers taught them right…taught them how to be kind, to be respectful of others, and try to create a welcoming environment, to not tolerate bullies picking on people who are different…in other words, their mothers raised them to be “woke.” And when confronted with the Republican claim that those not tolerating people bullying marginalized people are themselves the bullies, they can scoff at that like the foolishness it is.
Around Christmastime, I’d love to see an “It’s a Wonderful Life”—inspired commercial. I picture a black-and-white scene at the bar in Pottersville. There’s a rough crowd wearing hats (presumably red, but tough to tell in black-and-white) that read KPG—Keep Pottersille Great. Some of the bar patrons could even be wearing t-shirts with Old Man Potter’s face on a gun-wielding superhero warrior’s body, like the ridiculous Trump NFTs and other nonsensical images hardcore MAGAts love. In an old-timey Trans-Atlantic accent, the lead KPG bar patron could talk about how Old Man Potter is the real champion of the working class. If the old Building and Loan had still been around providing competition, sure, his financial security might be better, but then the Italian immigrant’s life would also be better—and that would be un-American! Sure, Old Man Potter may have become filthy rich by monopolizing property, stifling wages and making working-class people shoulder his tax burden for him, but Old Man Potter knows how to relate to the real townspeople! At that point, the poor, disheveled former drug store owner can walk in, and the lead KPG man can throw a drink in the now-homeless man’s face, sneer at him and kick him out. The KPG bully can then say how he never would’ve been able to get away with that in Bedford Falls without people looking at him like he was a bad guy—in other words, he would be “canceled.” If Bedford Falls was still around, he might have more financial security, but he wouldn’t be able to make fun of the town floozy and chase her out of town. Jokes about the darkies, dumb broads and twinkle-toes are frowned upon in Bedford Falls, but in Pottersville, he gets to be the king of comedy! The ad could close with the statement that working class people making a hero out of a wealthy miser who increased his inherited wealth by swindling and under-paying working-class people his whole life doesn’t make any sense in old-time Pottersville, and it doesn’t make sense in the U.S. now.
There could also be informative ads that highlight what Democratic policies REALLY are rather than the wild, evil fantasies Republicans insist they are. Abortion is one example. All Americans need to know that there is no policy advanced by Democrats or anyone else that would allow anyone 8-months pregnant with a viable, healthy baby to kill it in the womb at will. There is no such thing as a post-birth abortion. Late-term abortions are rare and are in heartbreaking circumstances. In contrast, the tragic result of abortion rights being denied IS true…10-year-old rape victims having to cross state lines to get an abortion…women with ectopic pregnancies bleeding out before doctors are allowed to treat them. These ads could ask what Republican politicians are trying to distract their constituents from if they’re constantly whipping up their base with imaginary scenarios. And why would anyone vote for a politician who respected them so little that they thought their constituents were dumb enough to believe these illogical gruesome fantasies? This kind of ad could also be done to call attention to the “Don’t Say Gay” and other censorship laws. The ads could show the benign cartoon characters Republicans want to ban, pointing out that a cartoon with two penguin dads is not the same thing as showing five-year-olds gay porn. Another ad could call out how ridiculous Republican’s anti-CRT paranoia is since CRT is a law-school level elective—it is not being taught in K-12 classrooms.
Another ad could feature non-threatening, everyday gay and trans people talking about how they just want to exist and live their lives and love and buy cake like everyone else. Again, some of the banned cartoon images could be shown—gay penguin cartoon dads…the benign drawings in “Everywhere Babies.” And the point could be made that these are not pornographic or grooming materials…they are simply showing that LGBTQ people exist and are good people who aren’t scary and should be acknowledged and just get to live their lives like everyone else.
There could be ads that serve as mini-history lessons highlighting notable and heroic people and moments in Black history. These ads can close by asking, is this information is really so triggering to white people that it should be banned in schools, like many Republicans want?
Every time the Republican cuckoo caucus tries to pass a harmful, extremist policy, ads should be ready to point out just how radical and un-American they are. Reminding the country that some of these people helped foment an insurrection and have been keynote speakers at white nationalist conventions wouldn’t be bad either.
For the Fourth of July, there could be an ad juxtaposing the Founding Fathers establishing democracy and the insurrectionists who tried to overthrow democracy to make their born-wealthy former reality-TV clown a king for life, despite the fact that he lost the 2020 election (and lost the popular vote in 2016).
Biden did a great job highlighting kitchen-table issues in his State of the Union address. But even though inflation is starting to go down, inflation is still a real hardship for most people (myself included). And, no matter what Biden does, inflation is probably not going to go down to 2019 levels by the time we get to the run-up to the 2024 election. Chances are, the corporate monopolies that control our grocery prices will jack up prices even more then to try to sabotage Democrats. And it’s easy to anticipate Republicans pouncing on this and claiming that it’s “Big Government Spending” that’s the cause of the exorbitant cost of eggs. They’ll then naturally try to frame Biden and Democrats as “out-of-touch elites” who just don’t care about the sticker shock that’s being felt by everyday, hardworking Americans. We need to be proactive about our messaging well before this happens. Maybe there could be Robert Reich-type explanations of how monopolies engaging in price gouging is a huge factor in what we pay. We need explanations on how stock buy-backs funnel the money generated from our work into the coffers of the top 1%. We need to expose just how much more excess profit food and gas companies have made as the rest of us have suffered. And then we need to show how Republicans block any measure to prevent these companies from being able to screw us over.
In conjunction with the straightforward price-gouging information, there could be a French Revolution-themed ad in which the hungry masses, instead of storming the Bastille in revolt against their aristocratic overlords, storm to the polls to vote out the Republicans who support the oligarchs who keep the people financially oppressed.
As the 2024 election gets closer and ads for specific candidates start to saturate the airwaves, the Democrats could run an ad mentioning the ways they wanted to take big money out of politics, which would cut back on all those annoying commercials.
Some may make the valid point that my ad ideas above focus too much on the semi-mythical “swing voter” or “moderate Republican.” I mostly agree. I mean, I obviously believe that there are some people who can be swung, or at least disincentivized to vote for Republicans, and that the sooner we move the Overton window away from the right and closer to the center, the more people we can convince. But I understand that my ads described above might fail to incentive the other swing voter—the registered Democrats who might sit out an election and not vote if they’re not enthused—young voters, minority voters, etc. I think that we should equally (or more) court this voter—we probably need some kind of re-imagined “Yes We Can!” slogan from the Obama era, with a positive vision of what life in the U.S. could be like if we fully embraced a multicultural liberal democracy. But as a middle-aged white woman, I’m just not the right person to attempt to craft these messages. I’m sure there are a lot of talented, creative people who would be better suited than I would be. These positive, inspiring ads could be alternated with the ones that highlight the Republican dystopia for a one-two punch.
I could go on and on with other ideas for messaging…but I’m just one person with a blog no one reads. I have no connections to filmmakers or advertising execs or big-money Democratic donors. Believe me, if I had been the winner of one of the recent billion-ish-dollar Mega-million or Powerball jackpots, this would be one of my top priorities, but alas, it was not to be. But I hope someone can spearhead this proactive messaging. With so many talented people in the entertainment industry who care about Democracy, I would think that someone would be able to make this—or something like it—a reality. If not, by the time 2024 gets here, it will be too late, and Republicans again will be able to fearmonger and whip up their base with the idea that a vote for Democrats is a vote for baby murder, open borders, blowing up the deficit, high grocery prices, and letting violent criminals terrorize our streets.
