The election is over and so is Thanksgiving and I can thankfully say that pundits and pontificators stuck on the “Here’s what was wrong with the Democrat’s messaging” post-election gravy train should stuff it. No more second helpings and regurgitation of righteous ridiculousness, please. You’ve made your money and your point and it was lacking in both salient detail and appetizing rationale.
The best and most accurate piece written on the subject of campaign messaging happened on Nov 18 in The Beautiful Mess publication of author, pastor, and activist John Pavlovitz, whom I follow on Bluesky (and previously on Twitter). I didn’t see his post until Thanksgiving morning, but the headline spoke volumes to me:
“No, the Democratic Party Can’t ‘Message Better’ to Racism, Misogyny, and Ignorance.” Boy howdy.
Pavlovitz, a registered Independent with the social messaging banner of “Love is my religion,” might seem an unusual source for me to champion, but he’s right on the money and, unlike so many others blathering post-election analysis, isn’t all about money or his own ego. Pavlovitz said things far more eloquently and succinctly than I am apt to do, so this blog post will cover gratifying excerpts for which I am most grateful.
First and foremost, Pavlovitz stated unequivocally that the recent presidential election result was not about Democratic messaging, thank you very much. He said that folks carping about the “Democratic Party’s failure to reach those they were unable to persuade during the course of the campaign; rural and working class votes, especially,” was “largely nonsense.” Can I get another helping of boy howdy?
Pavlovitz said, “The election result isn’t about policy or platform, it’s about racism, misogyny, lack of education—and a Right-wing media machine that caters to those realities.”
I was practically howling upon reading that, because it has been disgustingly gobsmacking how many pundits blithely manage to leave out the role Fox News has played for years in brainwashing a huge portion of our populace with lies and hateful vitriol.
As Pavlovitz also further noted, “There is no messaging strategy that can overcome deeply held prejudice and rising ignorance….more people chose a mythological war against non-existent problems, instead of sound policies delivered by reasonable human beings, because at the end of the day, they took the politics of least resistance.”
It would be sad if it weren’t so infuriating. I mean, it’s not like our very democracy was in jeopardy (insert smirking emoji face here). And I know many think it’s over-simplifying to claim we have a nation that is half-filled with idiots, but what Pavlovitz said is, in fact, true: “They objected to the hours necessary to read platforms and understand the issues at stake, in favor of a cheap-and-easy high that told them life was simple: everything was bad, enemies were advancing, and their vote would eliminate bad people. How do you message against that?”
How, indeed, Democrats were appealing to both intellect and the very heart of basic human decency. Republicans appealed to racists or deliberately clueless dimwits with depraved divisiveness and outright lies.
“We need to stop pretending there is some perfect Democratic candidate or magic messaging,” Pavlovitz said, “to connect with people who have abandoned objective reality and complex evaluation, and chosen to embrace their false fears and uninformed phobias—while failing to do the slightest bit of work to know what candidates’ policies and plans are.”
After also acknowledging that our candidates weren’t perfect, Pavlovitz concluded with, “Kamala Harris and the Dems didn’t fail America, they just exist in a nation where far too many people don’t pay attention or care to understand what’s actually happening. Maybe more of them will now.”
Sadly, I have doubts. Because even those who might start to pay attention next year when fascist policies decimate their finances; their Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare; or when they or their relatives get brutally deported, they will never blame themselves. They’ll be told to blame the Democrats when the shit hits the fan for them and theirs along with those “libtards” they sought to “own” with their votes.
The worst part of all of this is those who once fled tyrannical threats in their own nations who turned around and voted to end the American dream they so fervently sought. If that isn’t nauseatingly stupid, careless, and craven, I don’t know what is. What message were they listening to? Because it wasn’t the Democrats.