Democrats did better than expected in the past election, but they could have done better.
On Wednesday, November 9, the day after the elections, I listened to many post-mortem commentaries and analyses. I was struck by the comments of a Black caller from Georgia who had volunteered for Senator Warnock’s campaign.
He had volunteered to knock on doors in predominantly Black working-class neighborhoods. While he and others had some successes, he thought they had too many failures, with recalcitrant potential voters failing to see the utility of their vote. This volunteer would contribute to and work on Warnock’s Runoff campaign; however, he was adamant that the Democrats needed to communicate better.
The Georgia volunteer’s observation mirrored other discussions which focused on messaging. Back in January 2022, a report from an NPR panel made the following observation, “From infrastructure spending to subsidized childcare, the Biden administration has agenda items with mass appeal.” And then asked, “So why do so many Americans believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction?”
The answer provided by the NPR panel was Democratic messaging in comparison to the Republican message discipline. For example, they argued, who knew what Build Back Better is–a chain of chiropractors. They suggested the Democrats needed to retreat to simple concepts, win one or two, and then fight over the rest during the election year. I agree with their observation that President Biden had retreated to this better, time-honored strategy. But, unfortunately, it did not appear that most other Democratic politicians did this very effectively.
This volunteer who called the radio program said Democrats need to make a better case, which he saw as simple. In his view, Democrats need to say what they have done that would help these disinterested potential voters. As he put it, “say we did A and B, and this would help you as follows.” And he went on, “Democrats need to say simply why some things they tried to do did not get done, for example, Republicans blocked C by repeatedly voting against it, a reason they should be elected out of office.”
My two cents: Perennially, it has appeared that Democrats are confused about what people know and how they came to know it. Many polling organizations, pundits, and politicians act as if people responding to survey questions are reporting information and ideas from some deep wells of knowledge. Instead, it is from their experiences, which include ongoing media exposure where often Republicans are telling them, in simple terms, what they should know. Unfortunately, some Democrats take this as unprovoked opinions and begin to orient their work toward that view.
Con men and conservatives in Congress know something that Democrats and progressives do not. They know that if you want someone to know something, you tell them and tell them—over and over.
Democrats need desperately to understand that many political matters involve a battle over public opinion—in other words, whose ideas and philosophies dominate. Unfortunately, going on two generations, if not longer, Democrats have often been missing in this fight.