Democratic (Party) Direction

"And what about locking Clinton up? Empty promise!"

"Trump is incompetent at being a full-blown fascist" is not a morally compelling argument imo https://t.co/ZAKrr1GDsD

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) August 22, 2017

.@TheDemocrats proving how disconnected from the working class they truly are: sending out donation pleas that look like collection letters. pic.twitter.com/cx929v9nKl

— Andrew Saturn (@andsat) August 21, 2017

One thing that old-fashioned political machines did right was having deep roots at the precinct/ward level. Focus groups are poor substitute for knowing your constituents inside and out.

too bad about all that corruption, ballot-stuffing, stolen elections, etc.

idk why anyone cares about DNC mailers tbh

like does anyone actually think the DNC is mailing these to working class swing voters cuz um no

2018 cycle's inter-squabbling is going to be so dysfunctional. every criticism from the left, every "What about single payer?" or "What about minimum wage?", will be met with "What, are you a Nazi?"

they are mailing them to people with the time, money and inclination to donate to the DNC - which is not working class swing voters.

xp

Ah, "working class voters" -- a synonym for "white voters"

idk maybe that's how the DNC sees it

It's not only people that receive those mailers that see them.

i mean whoever they're going to it's pretty obviously bad optics and something that would have gotten killed at the concept stage if there were decision-makers at the DNC who were attuned to how this would read to non-rich people, and how easy it would be for republicans to turn this into a meme about democrats and their big-city elitism, joking about working stiffs struggling to pay their bills etc. it's dumb and bad.

you mean people like me lol

xp

it's dumb and bad and also really inconsequential

like Clinton's management of her server

Even rich people know what bills look like.

A lot of direct-mail stuff is scattershot "throw everything out there and see what sticks." Not to defend that particular mailer or organization. Just sayin.

How many car insurance ad campaigns are you aware of? Geico and Progressive seem to have at least 10 separate silos of messaging between them, and I'd be hard-pressed to sort out which is which. Which one had the cavemen? Does it even matter?

like Clinton's management of her server

p much. the kind of thing that only matters when the interests of irresponsible media + political opportunists intersect.

Sort of futile after all of the usual suspects get the epic retweets but fwiw

DNC had a press conference in AZ & continues to make clear that the border wall is dangerous & divisive. This is research on Trump's lies.

— Xochitl Hinojosa (@XochitlHinojosa) August 22, 2017

that a tax on income over $5 million is associated with steve fucking bannon these dog days of august more than the DNC = serious roffles

xps yeah it does seem like something that probably grew out of discovering something like, "oh people respond to us pointing out that trump campaigned on how your health care would get better and cheaper, but the republican bill is the opposite of that! let's find other examples of that and build a narrative!" going totally on autopilot.

.@tomperez on the wall earlier this month: it's ludicrous immigration policy & a massive waste of taxpayer money. https://t.co/0v4D1LBrUL

— Xochitl Hinojosa (@XochitlHinojosa) August 22, 2017

right, obviously the democrats are against the wall, but pointing out his hypocrisy about it will only appeal to the Coulters of the world.

this is how that strategy goes:

Dems: "Trump lied about building a wall!"
Voter who cares about such things: "Ok. Are you gonna build a wall?"
Dems: "Uh, no."
Voter: "brb going to vote for the GOP"

^ sadly otm

Also, that's a foolproof recipe for giving your vote in exchange for being lied to and cynically manipulated, but that blunt fact will not penetrate the carapace of hope that the GOP will finally do what it promises to do. Instead, the GOP voters get more tax breaks for the rich and a handful of magic beans.

There is definitely a problem with one email getting way more attention then a press conference, op-ed, etc. The party might need to quality control messaging with an awareness of how things get funneled through the "democrats bad" (but from the left) echo chamber/cottage industry.

The party might need to quality control messaging with an awareness of how things get funneled through the "democrats bad" (but from the left) echo chamber/cottage industry at all, ever

but yeah the problem is with the critics, riiiiiight

I don't think it's arguable that there are certain factions on the left who will jump on any clumsy old thing Dem organizations do as examples of the party's larger bad faith

that being said yes duh the Dems have organizational and messaging problems, they just got sonned in a catastrophic election beef that p much no one saw coming, disorganized in-fighting is what happens to parties after that kind of loss.

Maybe you really disliked that Tom Perez op-ed idk but yeah while I do have problems with Dem messaging sometimes the fact that people like Adam Johnson and Eve Peyser are read/shared is way more objectionable.

Xpost

they have no leader, there are internal conflicts about messaging and goals, strategies are uncoordinated, and party is worried about maintaining and strengthening it's financial and organizational assets

in the face of all that it's p remarkable how well the congressional caucuses have hung together, and how well Dems are performing in special elections

iirc "America is already great" and the like indicated that they had pre-election messaging issues as well

how did Eve Peyser hurt you NP

she works for VICE she can fuck right off imo

talk about ethically compromised organizations...

oh shit are Vice fielding candidates now?

I have no love for Vice but that's a dumb fucking comparison and you know it

well, that's why I don't like her.

maybe NP has different issues idk

She's bad.

Last chance Dems have to redeem themselves is to pull a Merrick Garland on Neil Gorsuch

— eve ⚔️ peyser (@evepeyser) February 1, 2017

I do not understand that tweet

I see no problem with the concept of obstructing the hell out of Trump's appointments tbh, even the "competent" ones. especially them, actually

a) they did
b) that tweet recommends a course of action (blocking Gorsuch from ever coming up for a vote on the floor) that was literally not possible

peyser is a really terrible writer and thinker afaict

ie that tweet just demonstrates a shitty understanding of how the Senate works

xp

Exactly and people read her believing it is possible but the bad Dems just chose not to because they are bad.

xps apparently the dems redeemed themselves, then

I'm def not seeing the kind of full throated blanket opposition I'd prefer. I've seen a lot of this "let's wait for details" approach now and seem to recall a lot of it back during the appointments. Fuck that. There's no good version of, for instance, authorizing a Trump military adventure.

The American public deserves more details from POTUS on Afghanistan. Congress should ask for the specifics and then debate & vote on an AUMF

— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) August 22, 2017