The Many Faces of US Politics...

[sid waddell]

In the Democratic primary, even as progressive candidates lost, polling showed that their issues remained popular among Democrats. Even things like single-payer health insurance or things like the Green New Deal. What's your response to that?

This is the most important line in that piece - I presume it was a question by the interviewer despite the lack of bold type

Progressive policies are popular, and Republican policies aren't

But there is a branding issue and it is extremely important

Winning elections is basically advertising

Democrats have a far more attractive product, but terrible branding

Republicans have been extremely savvy at branding over the last 50 years despite having a rotten product to sell

So Democrats need to advertise themselves better, they need better branding

This is a matter of strategy

Its much easier to scream and demogogue and scare the bejesus out of people about "freedom" and socialists and immigrants and lazy welfare recipients. At least in the US.

The book "Democracy In Chains" by Nancy McLean explains how Republicans have strategised over the last 60 years in order to sell a product that is actually extremely unpopular when it is stripped of its branding

But the positive branding ensures the inferior product sells very easily, while the negative branding of the much superior Democratic product ensures a harder sell

Reminds me of the bit in the Simpsons:

Lisa: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
Bart: "Not if you called them stench blossoms"
Homer: "Or crapweeds"

Yesterday I said that the Democrats should adopt the positive Republican trigger words - reclaim them to sell progressive policies that these positive trigger words actually apply to

There is also an opportunity to reclaim the negative trigger words the Republicans use and throw them back at Republicans

For example, "political correctness"

Political correctness has a negative connotation - if you ask people what they think of political correctness, most people will reflexively have a negative reaction towards it

But Republicans demand a stifling conformity and censorship in public debate - and this is exactly what the popular imagination of political correctness is

So these are the words the Democrats, and left-wing parties in general, need to be throwing at the right, and they need to constantly repeat them, so they stick

"Conformity", "censorship", "cancel culture", "political correctness", "elite"

Simple messaging

And they need to abandon use of words like "intersectionality"

Intersectionality is a very sensible thing in reality - it comes from endless sociological and other academic research into the root causes of problems in society and how they are linked

But if you asked 100 people on the street to explain intersectionality, how many would be able to do so?

I'd wager it would be under 10%, probably under 5%

And therefore the term becomes meaningless, and actually a burden

So you need to come up with a better, simple way of explaining intersectionality - you call it something else - so that Joe the plumber in Ohio can understand it

This is purely a branding issue and does not necessitate abandoning principles or policies

[sid waddell]

According to New York Times exit polling, this is the fifth successive time the Democratic presidential candidate has won the majority of voters who earn under $50k a year

Polling for this criteria only goes back to the 2004 election, so the Democrats have a 100% record of winning the working class in every election that this has been polled for

The working class delivered for Biden, and Republicans have a problem with them

[five points]

According to New York Times exit polling, this is the fifth successive time the Democratic presidential candidate has won the majority of voters who earn under $50k a year

Polling for this criteria only goes back to the 2004 election, so the Democrats have a 100% record of winning the working class in every election that this has been polled for

The working class delivered for Biden, and Republicans have a problem with them

Does that include students and trust-fund slackers?

[whitey]

According to New York Times exit polling, this is the fifth successive time the Democratic presidential candidate has won the majority of voters who earn under $50k a year

Polling for this criteria only goes back to the 2004 election, so the Democrats have a 100% record of winning the working class in every election that this has been polled for

The working class delivered for Biden, and Republicans have a problem with them

Does that include students and trust-fund slackers?

And other types of slackers too

[sid waddell]

According to New York Times exit polling, this is the fifth successive time the Democratic presidential candidate has won the majority of voters who earn under $50k a year

Polling for this criteria only goes back to the 2004 election, so the Democrats have a 100% record of winning the working class in every election that this has been polled for

The working class delivered for Biden, and Republicans have a problem with them

Does that include students and trust-fund slackers?

I think you mean sovereign individuals

The elite Republicans are the slackers and spongers

[five points]

According to New York Times exit polling, this is the fifth successive time the Democratic presidential candidate has won the majority of voters who earn under $50k a year

Polling for this criteria only goes back to the 2004 election, so the Democrats have a 100% record of winning the working class in every election that this has been polled for

The working class delivered for Biden, and Republicans have a problem with them

Does that include students and trust-fund slackers?

I think you mean sovereign individuals

The elite Republicans are the slackers and spongers

There are very few elite Republicans on under $50k a year.

[sid waddell]

According to New York Times exit polling, this is the fifth successive time the Democratic presidential candidate has won the majority of voters who earn under $50k a year

Polling for this criteria only goes back to the 2004 election, so the Democrats have a 100% record of winning the working class in every election that this has been polled for

The working class delivered for Biden, and Republicans have a problem with them

Does that include students and trust-fund slackers?

I think you mean sovereign individuals

The elite Republicans are the slackers and spongers

There are very few elite Republicans on under $50k a year.

Yes, there are very few elite Republicans on under $50k a year

So few that there are none, I would say

Strange that you thought there were some

Rich, elitist Republicans like Donald Trump are the biggest slackers and spongers in all of American society

Parasites sucking the blood of ordinary American people

Trump has been knocked flat on his fat ass by Scranton Joe

[five points]

According to New York Times exit polling, this is the fifth successive time the Democratic presidential candidate has won the majority of voters who earn under $50k a year

Polling for this criteria only goes back to the 2004 election, so the Democrats have a 100% record of winning the working class in every election that this has been polled for

The working class delivered for Biden, and Republicans have a problem with them

Does that include students and trust-fund slackers?

I think you mean sovereign individuals

The elite Republicans are the slackers and spongers

There are very few elite Republicans on under $50k a year.

Yes, there are very few elite Republicans on under $50k a year

So few that there are none, I would say

Strange that you thought there were some

Rich, elitist Republicans like Donald Trump are the biggest slackers and spongers in all of American society

Parasites sucking the blood of ordinary American people

Trump has been knocked flat on his fat ass by Scranton Joe

You're right, there are probably none.

I was going to add that there are probably thousands of them earning nothing but collecting sums that would make a banker blush.

No answer to my question?

[sid waddell]

Seems like there may well have been a load of fraud going on in the election - in Trump's favour

Many counties using voting machines showed suspiciously big increases in turnout - all for Trump and none for Biden

No recount is possible in these counties because the only paper trail produced by voting machines is a barcode which only a machine can read

This pattern is much different to counties which used paper ballots in which the turnout increases tended to be much more even

And still Trump couldn't win

[five points]

I don't buy the fraud stuff myself. Hillary was at the same craic this day four years ago. Time wounds all heels.

[sid waddell]

According to New York Times exit polling, this is the fifth successive time the Democratic presidential candidate has won the majority of voters who earn under $50k a year

Polling for this criteria only goes back to the 2004 election, so the Democrats have a 100% record of winning the working class in every election that this has been polled for

The working class delivered for Biden, and Republicans have a problem with them

Does that include students and trust-fund slackers?

I think you mean sovereign individuals

The elite Republicans are the slackers and spongers

There are very few elite Republicans on under $50k a year.

Yes, there are very few elite Republicans on under $50k a year

So few that there are none, I would say

Strange that you thought there were some

Rich, elitist Republicans like Donald Trump are the biggest slackers and spongers in all of American society

Parasites sucking the blood of ordinary American people

Trump has been knocked flat on his fat ass by Scranton Joe

You're right, there are probably none.

I was going to add that there are probably thousands of them earning nothing but collecting sums that would make a banker blush.

No answer to my question?

You didn't ask any question worthy of reply - but we have established your sneering contempt for the working class and students

Ordinary people and education are two things right-wingers generally despise, so your views are not at all surprising

[LCohen]

First things first. Biden needs to issue a few executive orders to reverse some of Trump's earlier efforts but most importantly COVID is going to be the focus for the first 6 months. Not only is that a difficult challenge in itself it has been made more difficult because of the balls Trump has made of it to date and the fact that Trump and the Republican Party have politicised basic public health messages and made them less effective tools for Biden to use.

For this reason I reckon the short term will be one for deals with the Republican Party. Biden and America needs the cooperation of Republican politicians and private citizens influenced to date by republican messages in order to address COVID. Get that done and then get cracking on the wider agenda.

[five points]

You didn't ask any question worthy of reply - but we have established your sneering contempt for the working class and students

Ordinary people and education are two things right-wingers generally despise, so your views are not at all surprising

Your idea of the working class includes rich brats paying for their crystal meth from their daddies' trust funds. And smelly "students" who wouldn't know a working class person if they bit them on the ass.


Education? LMAO.

[whitey]

You didn't ask any question worthy of reply - but we have established your sneering contempt for the working class and students

Ordinary people and education are two things right-wingers generally despise, so your views are not at all surprising

Your idea of the working class includes rich brats paying for their crystal meth from their daddies' trust funds. And smelly "students" who wouldn't know a working class person if they bit them on the ass.


Education? LMAO.

I actually follow some socialists and marxists on Twitter....you know, the types who firebomb police cruisers and spit it cops faces

Anyway there's  one girl who's father is a doctor in Boston and she grew up in a $2-3M house in Brookline, MA

She was a theater major, so I'm sure she's earning <$50K per year. I wonder if her "Brooklyn lifestyle" is being heavily subsidized by mammy and daddy

[seafoid]

You didn't ask any question worthy of reply - but we have established your sneering contempt for the working class and students

Ordinary people and education are two things right-wingers generally despise, so your views are not at all surprising

Your idea of the working class includes rich brats paying for their crystal meth from their daddies' trust funds. And smelly "students" who wouldn't know a working class person if they bit them on the ass.


Education? LMAO.

I actually follow some socialists and marxists on Twitter....you know, the types who firebomb police cruisers and spit it cops faces

Anyway there's  one girl who's father is a doctor in Boston and she grew up in a $2-3M house in Brookline, MA

She was a theater major, so I'm sure she's earning <$50K per year. I wonder if her "Brooklyn lifestyle" is being heavily subsidized by mammy and daddy

The plural of anecdote is not data.
The bottom 90% of Americans own 7% of the wealth. That's why socialism is making a comeback,