FUCKING FRUSTRATING!!!!!
Okay Democrats, let’s have a talk.
I am sure you think this is another pie fight about Democrats vs. Biden, which, believe me, is PLENTY frustrating on its own…
But nope, that is NOT what this diary is about. No, this diary is about Project 2025, or more specifically, how to message about Project 2025 because currently, we are playing their game instead of playing ours!
How do fascists get their message out? They flood the zone with shit. Do not take my word on that, take it directly from Steve Bannon himself.
While watching the news coverage of Steve Bannon’s initial appearance in federal court on Monday, I kept thinking about his 2018 confession to the acclaimed writer Michael Lewis. His quote is like a compass that orients this crazy era of American politics. “The Democrats don’t matter,” Bannon told Lewis. “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
That is the whole ballgame with Project 2025, it’s such a stinking pile of shit no one can get their head around it…. and when we can’t get our head around it we can’t message about it. Please stop and take a minute to get the right message out about Project 2025.
The marketing world would say the way to build a messaging campaign is to understand your target audience. So, who is our target audience here?
This is my take, feel free to add your own ideas but we need to get serious about how we communicate and we need to do it damn quickly.
Seniors / Woman
Seniors and women voters are critical because seniors tend to vote at much higher rates than the rest of the county, and women are a huge part of the Democratic base (and they are already incensed by Dobbs).
The message about Project 2025 is “they are looking to cut Social Security” and/or “they are going to institute a national abortion ban.” Period, that’s our message and then we need to stay on that message like white on rice.
I will also point out that both of these items, Social Security and abortion rights were considered a 3rd rail by many for a long time (Social Security more so) so that’s another reason they are so high on my list. I don’t think they STOPPED being a 3rd rail, it’s just that the public doesn’t know as much about the GOP’s plans for either yet.
POC
This is the backbone of our party so I am not saying this group is any less important because they are THE MOST IMPORTANT part of our big tent! Because this group also includes seniors and women from above they are partly covered with the messages above as well…. However, I am breaking this group out here specifically because POC are so important there should be a message specifically tailored to them even though the senior and women voters' messages above target the heart of this group also (meaning they are not an afterthought, they are actually getting covered more than once).
The message to this group is that “Project 2025 aims to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion from our whole society.”
Youth
Younger voters are a little down on the list, mainly because they vote at lower rates.
The message to this demographic is “they want to make climate change much much worse with giveaways to big business, and they want to take away all contraceptives” (although I could be persuaded into adding a message about “they want to force our LGBTQ friends back into the closet like it’s 1950” as well).
That’s it, that’s the 4 messages about Project 2025 that we should be sticking to in my eyes.
YES, the rest of Project 2025 is scary as fuck to this atheist, just like I am sure it is scary to the rest of you for your own personal reasons. But we can’t have a million messages going around because that’s the point Bannon is making, the media gets confused because the GOP are unloading so much on us. We can’t fight every fire, we need to pick the right battles, and I believe the above messages are the best way to combat the shit-flooded zone they are presenting us with.
Oh, and one last thought. The average voter is just starting to wake up to Project 2025 and they do NOT like what they see. We need to keep the pressure up on this until the election. Tie the messages above and Project 2025 to Trump in every discussion and conversation because THIS is the albatross that will take him down.