From TPM Reader RL …
Good morning, my name is R(***) L(***) and I’ve been a long time reader going back probably 15+ years. I really enjoy reading your content, and lately I’ve been listening to your podcast as well. I’m listening to Episode 348 and just wanted to offer Miss Riga support on her analysis – at around 19:00 – that while we should be mindful of the message and how we shape it and who we target as Democrats, whether you are a progressive Democrat or (like myself) a pro-labor Democrat. I’m really aware of the fact that as a firefighter, we have firehouse kitchen table talks daily. I am constantly finding myself saying “Where are you getting your information from?” And the reality is that people are in their own bubble because of social media and the way people consume media now.
When I was a kid I read newspapers or magazines, you watched the news. I’m 54 years old. Today people get a custom built news feed delivered to their hands. I pay attention to my sons and how they get and consume information. They’re what I would call peripherally interested, in that they’re not active daily consumers like myself. So as long as it comes to them easily easily acceptable presentation, they will consume it and it will influence them. So today’s modern communication strategy has to include podcasts, YouTube channels, TikTok. I think the long form podcasts that week after week after week are building to a concept. They are extremely influential and powerful. I think as a Democratic party we’re at a huge disadvantage because we do not have anything comparable to the conservative media ecosystem – especially now that Musk owns Twitter and controls it and uses it the way he does.
So your analysis that this isn’t any more complicated than going back to the spring of 2021, conservatives have been pounding Biden as the worst President ever.Even though he had only been in office for a few months and really hadn’t done anything at that point other than trying to roll out a vaccine and stop a pandemic. For three years, a receptive audience has been hearing a constant drum beat, combined with the aggressive messaging of the Republicans that are always in attack mode. They’re never in “explain mode”, they’re always in “attack mode”.Their audiences are being kept scared, and being told it’s awful andwho to blame for it. The combination of the message and the intimate, custom way it’s presented is very powerful and the Democrats don’t have anything to counter.
So, you were right and I fully agree that I think your observation that I don’t know that it’s any more complicated than that they’re being basted in this conservative media constantly and we don’t break into that environment. We’re not reaching out to them on Joe Rogan. We’re certainly not on True America’s Voice or whatever the fuck they call it now. And that’s ok with conservatives. Once C’s got frustrated with going on mainstream media and created their own media organ, there has been a tactical choice to isolate and amplfy their own message. They’re not asking Harris to come speak to their viewers, and unless we curate a generation of politicians who are good when in attack mode – like Buttigeig, Shapiro Newsome – who can dance in that environment, we will be bringing a knife to a gunfight.
Sidenote – my own observation on this was that in 2008 Obama won by figuring out how micro-target voters with his message, using older phone and mail technology. In 2016 Trump figured out how to use Facebook advertising to target and customize messaging at scale and that’s why he won especially with a populist outsider message. I believe Biden won in 2020 because Twitter was used by people who are really paying attention during the pandemic and using Twitter in that time frame. Now in 2024, Trump has control of Twitter. They’ve expanded their influence with social media and the influencers, and they really do browbeat the traditional media to not take a side. They’re always working the refs. I don’t know how the Democratic Party builds a messaging system that can compete or break into the silo that this middle class worker constituency has bought into and trusts.This is the modern AM Radio Rush Limbaugh audience. This constituency that’s voting for Trump is only gonna hear Pro Trump stuff. They will hear no complaints. They will hear propaganda and there will be no room for someone to elbow their way into that space.
I don’t have a solution for it and that’s probably the cause for the despair that I feel, I just can’t see how the path changes for the time being it’s not clear to me yet. That and I know that until there is change, a lot of people are going to get hurt.
I would love to hear your thoughts on why 15 million people didn’t vote this time around. Biden got 81 million votes, last time. We’ll be lucky if Harris gets to 70 million. That doesn’t make any sense to me because there were more Republicans willing to vote for her than ever before, and I assumed that every Democrat that voted for Biden was still on board… and the idea that the Democratic Party did not have a clear plan to stay in touch with, connect and cultivate the 80 million people that voted for him last time is where the failure began. We lost this election by November 2021 because the conservatives had regrouped and were back in attack mode while Democrats were busy governing.
Keep up the good work.
Don’t lose faith.
You’re needed now, more than ever.
