How not to communicate
Senate Democrats get everything wrong
Senate Democrats posted a video on the socials this morning. I hope you haven’t seen it. It will only deepen your despair about the next four years.
The message is fine—We are united and we are here to fight for you. They list some initiatives they favor: affordable housing, lower costs of childcare, prescription drugs, and groceries. And then they list Republican threats they will oppose: restricting reproductive rights, tax cuts for the wealthy, cutting Social Security and Medicare, removing environmental protections.
I have no quarrel with any of that.
Except for its complete lack of credibility.
Unity? To begin with, Sen. John Fetterman is a no-show. Based on his Trump-friendly statements over the last few weeks, and his visit to Mar-a-Lago, Fetterman is not united with his caucus. He is the new Manchin-Sinema except in shorts and a hoodie. But that’s a minor point
What makes this video so depressingly awful is not the message but the method.
The shop-worn cliché of filming a bunch of talking heads in a limbo set trading off isolated words and phrases as they feign emotional commitment to a committee-honed script was cringeworthy when it was invented—decades ago. Today, it’s inexcusable. What works today is authenticity, individuality, and humor. What the video delivers instead is artificiality, conformity, and bland platitudes.
There’s a lot of talent and dedication in the Democratic caucus. None of it is on display here.
The worthy senators assembled offer not a hint of any tactical or strategic plan for advancing their agenda or thwarting Trump’s. The word “fight,” repeated seven times throughout the video, rings hollow—especially after offering to work with “anyone, anyone, anyone, if they want to make life better for you.”
Who is the “you” they imagine they are talking to? Who is target audience for this video? I have no clue.
Whatever consultant or agency the Senate Democrats have employed might well be a sleeper agent for MAGA.
It’s going to be a long four years. The Senate Democrats are, apparently, united to make it feel even longer.
Both parties are participants in continuing our form of feudalism. Democracy is dying in empty words under the onslaught of billionaire elites on either side of the aisle. Perhaps it has always been an illusion.
However, the indentured wage slaves were better off in the '60s after the FDR reforms and GI benefits granted for their bloody sacrifice for rich corporations.
We have been living an illusion bolstered by our propaganda.
That everyone wears suits adds to my, "I'm so tired of this". Thank you for posting, MM.