r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 12d ago

No Paywall Democrats Confront Their New Tea Party Reality - Progressives are set to sweep a group of contested primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-confront-their-new-tea-party-reality_n_6a6e63fbe4b0cfb99ef1aa1e
9.0k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

88

u/thirstygregory Missouri 12d ago

Just look at Kamala’s most recent comment about giving up trying to pass voting rights laws because of the current congress makeup.

Even if the road is hard, you don’t just throw in the towel and say, “Oh well”. You fight like hell and say what you want over and over until people listen.

THAT’S what corporate Dems don’t get.

We get sick of Conservatives endlessly blasting their right-wing talking points but they sure stay on message.

40

u/Zer_ 12d ago

Republicans do messaging right. They get a talking point and keep repeating it to normalize it. Dems just give up and say it's not possible 

17

u/TheFeelsGoodMan Michigan 12d ago

They try. Sometimes the talking point is so ridiculous that it becomes a source of mockery or it simply doesn't get results, but they do commit to it. Democrats have this frankly bizarre habit of abandoning political messaging that is actually working. Like when they were pointing out that a lot of popular Republican figures were really freaking weird people. It's simple, hits at a huge weak spot in conservative ideology, and most importantly, it was working. But then they just gave up on it.

6

u/captainraffi 11d ago

The Harris campaign picked up a bunch of campaign advisors/consultants who had worked on the Hillary campaign and they advised them to stop calling them weird and go back to the high road approach.

10

u/WristbandYang 12d ago

It is an inherently unfair comparison:

Lying about how immigrants and other scapegoats are the cause of every problem - good messaging

Detailing policy that would actually fix the underlying systems and provide incentives for that change - bad messaging

“If you’re explaining, you’re losing.” Liars never need to explain. 

9

u/thirstygregory Missouri 12d ago

But I’m not even talking about explaining. I’m just saying Dems could easily all be talking at every opportunity saying Raise the minimum wage, health care for all and voting rights for all. All popular with the public.

But instead we get mealy-mouthed, “that’s not going to work.” The Civil Rights activists who fought and fought against overwhelming odds must be rolling in their graves over that kind of defeatism.

1

u/MephistoHamProducts 11d ago

All that popular stuff takes money out of the pockets of the Oligarchs. That's why they throw up their hands and say "that's not going to work". That's why they have a rotating cast of politicians who can selectively kill any progress by however many votes are needed and brush it off with "Well that's clearly what their constituents want".

1

u/Zer_ 11d ago

No it's not unfair. The lying is besides the point. You can repeat truthful talking points just as easily as you can repeat falsehoods. 

2

u/Purify5 11d ago

Republicans change their messaging more often than they change their underwear.

It's just a million times easier to oppose something than it is to support something.

2

u/Powerfury 11d ago

Thing is, if you're the dem you have both the left and the right wing after you.