Like:
People should be allowed to exist
Social programs aren’t communism
The system isn’t working for the people
Edit:
I’ve changed my mind on this.
Let the DNC go full MAGA and when they lose, because they will lose, they get the heat and we can eject them forever. At least sit them in a corner.
Progressives, you fight if you want but I don’t believe the elections will be fair so it’s a win win for you.
Trying to shift further right won’t work. You can’t do “what the other party does” because they already do it and they do it better.
Find original messaging, take back the narrative. Then you get to tell the story you’re good at.
Trump does this exceptionally well. By spouting all kinds of shocking horseshit, the media doesn’t stop talking about him. This lets him dominate the narrative. You could see them panic when Kamala was nominated, because suddenly the DNC controlled the narrative for a bit, and polling showed Kamala taking the lead. That advantage evaporated as Trump seized control of the front pages again.
This doesn’t just happen in the US. Here in the Netherlands, the campaign was not initially but later on dominated by talk on migration from the PVV. Of course other parties tried to respond by talking about migration, which only helped to legitimise the PVVs talking points.
And don’t forget the Dems panicking at the sudden signs of success and muzzling their best talking points, tying up Tim Walz and trying to appeal to moderates by parading Liz Cheney around instead of sticking to a really strong narrative, like how republicans are weird and what’s in Project 2025.
Dems do NOT understand populism, or if they do they have a twisted perception of what drives common people and how to engage with people burned out with voting. Seeing the tone of the “rallies” being led by Schumer and Pelosi after the election to try to restore some amount of moral and drive told me clearly that the dem party is utterly cooked. They are out-of-touch, elitist, naive and stuck in some era of civility that never existed.
Whoever has been in the punching bag category thus far has got a steep hill to climb. I think the opposition needs to come from within the republican party, and will need to pursue headlines with a similar format in response to Trump actions that genuinely piss everyone off.
EDIT: if anyone wants inspiration/brain rot for a grass roots campaign, the gateway pundit is good template. I think that’s more of a strategy to use on old people on Facebook.
I think we’re at a point where most people in the US are right leaning (maybe even arbitrarily so). The democrats have pissed off and alienated enough people where that’s the situation. The important thing now is to reinforce the idea that right wing beliefs and American freedom, civil liberties, democracy, etc are not mutually exclusive. That’s the issue with Trump’s strategy right now, as people are willing to follow him into an authoritarian future because they’re focused on the “own the libs” aspect of it.
I agree with everything you said.
They forgot how. We’re going to have to make a new party, I’m afraid.