I remember seeing way too much of their videos here.
Right, but my point is that those kinds of speeches just don’t fly right now, when Republicans reflexively not only reject appeals to bi-partisanship, but actually act as if they’re attacks. Look at the Republican response to Biden’s speech, for example. Biden calls for Democrats and Republicans to come together to combat their common problems and the Republicans immediately started complaining that Biden called them a problem…
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Have you watched the Lincoln project ads? Have you noticed the types of emotions they lean on and the types of emotions that are effective with that crowd?
Fear, contempt, blame, scapegoating, and vague appeals to nationalism… not much else.
OTOH there have been plenty of emotional pleas for unity, kids in cages, gunned down school children… all met with apathy. The emotions that are effective are primarily the emotions that trigger a sense of self-preservation and that dehumanize others.
Hard pass for me and I’ll also leave it at that.
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I don’t disagree that we aren’t ready for “those” types of speeches. What I am saying is, IMHO, the Democrats forgot how to use emotion effectively as a tool to use along with rationality, in general, a while ago, especially when trying to “win people over.” What I see a lot of is arguing in rational terms to people who need the 1-2 punch of thinking AND feeling.
Well, once again, I will clarify that I didn’t say “exactly emulate Lincoln Project ads,” I said “take notes” that they realize using emotional language is the predominant mode of communication, when aimed at “their” audience, because – they know it is more likely to work.
If only there were some place a man could go to pick up other men… somewhere dark with alcohol to feel more comfortable. You could park a couple blocks away at some legit business like a landscaping company and walk there.
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I think they still have human sympathy. They just don’t view the enemy as “human”. They will mock Obama, but tear up over a kid with cancer or some similar thing.
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This was my first thought was that they were willing to call it what it was, and joined in the kicking this shitbag to the curb.
There was also a fair amount of “we’re also victims, don’t blame us” which came off as just gross, but I’ll take that over the usual repub “Hitler did nothing wrong, Lolz” troll type response.
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Not a kid who survived a mass shooting, apparently.
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The Democrats have not moved a centimeter (About half an inch) since the 50’s. They threw out the racist south and took in MLK and I will give them credit for that but then it were the Republicans who went off the deep end.
In a weird kind of political relativity it looked like the Democrats went up but observing from the outside I never saw them move.
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one inch = 2.54 cm; half an inch = 1.27 cm
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I imagine this is a little bit like those pre-written celebrity obituaries. Someone at the Lincoln Project was like “Better write a statement about what a shitbag Weaver for release if it ever hits the news.”
Oh well, there are some people in the world who will do the right thing because it’s the right thing, and there are some people who will do the right thing as a calculated move to maintain their social position or avoid consequences. The latter group are more dangerous, but since we’re stuck with them I guess I’m still happy they aren’t being awful at the moment.
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I’m extremely skeptical of the premise that the Lincoln Project moved the needle at all. Trump didn’t lose the election because Republicans abandoned him; he lost the election because Democrats turned out.
And convincing Republicans to turn against Trump was never the LP’s real goal. Their goal was to position themselves as the Reasonable Republians, the adults in the room, and put themselves in a position to advise an incoming Democratic president and Congress, you know, in the interests of unity and healing and all.
It doesn’t look like they succeeded in that goal, either; it looks like at this point, Democrats are standing back and letting Republicans fight amongst themselves. Good.
All that said: While I don’t agree that the Lincoln Project is an example anyone should want to emulate, I think you’ve got a fair point about the effectiveness of emotional appeals, and how much better Republicans are at them than Democrats.
I used to think this was because the Republican platform was simple and the Democratic platform was more abstract; it’s easy to speak to base instincts and get people riled up. “Lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king,” as Sideshow Bob once put it on The Simpsons.
But then I saw the debate over the Affordable Care Act, and that was an instance where the Democrats had a natural advantage with a simple gut-check message (big businesses are getting rich off letting people die of preventable diseases) and Republicans were arguing abstract economic theory (socialism!) – and the Republicans won that debate too, in the short term; the ACA passed but the Democrats lost Congress and it polled poorly for years, right up until about when Trump got into office.
I do think that the Democrats have gotten better at messaging in the years since; think of the debate over the ACA during the Obama Administration and the one during the Trump Administration. Part of that, of course, is that once people actually started getting better healthcare, they didn’t want to give it up, but I think part of it was effective messaging on the Democrats’ part and simple gut-check messages like “Republicans want to take away your healthcare.” (And, later, “Republicans are trying to take away your healthcare during a pandemic.”)
I think the Democrats are doing a pretty good job right now with a clear message: “Americans are hurting, they need help, and we’re going to give it to them. Republicans are welcome to help, but we’re not going to let them obstruct us on this.”
And I gotta say I’m pretty happy to see Sanders in charge of the budget.
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Something I just saw. I think Jan. 6th opened some eyes, and who knows, maybe they’re learning. I think they needed a few more gut-punches in this when it comes to the bizarreness and cultishness of QAnon, but it’s a start.
More importantly (at least in GA), Democrats organized and got the vote out to people who do not normally vote. They went after the vote of non-voters and got their votes. They also had a platform, unlike the GOP.
Ditto!
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