"Winning back young men requires genuine engagement in their digital spaces, straightforward messaging on economic realities, and authentic leadership—not scripted appeals or superficial gestures." --- so....... in response to this..... the party has announced a project.... to generate scripted appeals and superficial gestures....?
Real gestures means doing stuff, like, forcing congress people to divest individual stock holdings and only hold money market, CD, ETF, or even put their funds in a blind trust. This isn't like, "Oh yeah, there's a few corrupt Democrats." Everyone, including party leadership, is trading individual equities on insider information. So, the Democrats announce now that they will ban all members of congress from trading stocks? And until the law passes, the party leadership will enforce this by withhold committee assignments, etc? Right? Because when they say, "well..." that's what makes trying to say "I feel your pain," fake as hell and inauthentic. You don't feel my pain if you are stealing from me using insider trading.
Real gestures means finding ways to defang citizen's united, instead of also cozzying up to the billionaire class that is eating the working and middle class members of society, men and women a like.
Real gestures is admitting that it was a nuclear disaster to tell voters that the "macro-economic indicators I learned to understand in college that you don't understand as an unwashed plebian are looking good, so you are just in a vibe-cession," when voters kept telling you honestly and openly that they were feeling increasingly squeezed by the economic stratification and inequality in our society.
Real gestures means you aren't scared to do a 3 hour podcast interview because you know you'll have trouble staying on your memorized talking points that work on the dying legacy media platforms, like the Sunday morning talking head circus. The reason someone seems authentic in a 3 hour podcast is because they can relax and shoot the shit. That's a lot easier, may I say *more authentic* if you are being honest about what you actually think and believe, instead of trying to hit all of the required talking points your consultants gave you.
Real gestures is admitting that a parasitic class of political consultants is responsible for giving the party losing advice in 2023-2024. Why didn't anyone stop Joe Biden from running? Why weren't there more calls for an open primary? Why didn't anyone push back on vibe session? There's a loop where consultant-parasites tell candidates what they want to hear, like how to appeal to economically vulnerable people while still engaging in insider trading and having lux dinners with the billionaire leisure class. And like many parasites, the host is dying.
Ukraine is showing Russia that a $500 hunk of plastic can destroy $7B in advance military equipment, changing the nature of warfare forever. The Republicans showed Democrats that a comfortable performance of authenticity in longform new media settings, like a podcast interview, and finding a concrete thing to point fingers at as responsible is how you win.
Russia will lose to Ukraine if they don't figure out how to stop $500 from setting $7B on fire.
The Democrats will lose to the Republicans if they can't figure out that it isn't a matter of messaging perfection, or finely spliced cross tabs of demographic data in polling that matters. It's having a policy, it's communicating the policy, it's defending the policy, it's defining the opposition, it's attacking their policies, it's being honest about what you really think. And it's about kicking out all the old codgers and corrupt self-dealing inside trading billionaire schmoozing folks from the party, and firing the consultants whispering in their ears like Gríma Wormtongue.
"Democrats Have a Serious Young-Men Problem: Young men increasingly view Democrats as weak, overly cautious, and disconnected from their struggles, contributing directly to significant electoral losses."
We all think this, for good reason. The Democrats are week, overly cautious, and disconnected from everyone's struggles.
It would be interesting to do a study of your subjects' fathers and even grandfathers because I'd bet that's where their outsized expectations and life-limiting aspects of masculinity came from first. I also bet a lot of voted for Reagan, who caused all this: the economic pain, the racial strike, the villainization of anyone with the audacity to "help."
"Winning back young men requires genuine engagement in their digital spaces, straightforward messaging on economic realities, and authentic leadership—not scripted appeals or superficial gestures." --- so....... in response to this..... the party has announced a project.... to generate scripted appeals and superficial gestures....?
Real gestures means doing stuff, like, forcing congress people to divest individual stock holdings and only hold money market, CD, ETF, or even put their funds in a blind trust. This isn't like, "Oh yeah, there's a few corrupt Democrats." Everyone, including party leadership, is trading individual equities on insider information. So, the Democrats announce now that they will ban all members of congress from trading stocks? And until the law passes, the party leadership will enforce this by withhold committee assignments, etc? Right? Because when they say, "well..." that's what makes trying to say "I feel your pain," fake as hell and inauthentic. You don't feel my pain if you are stealing from me using insider trading.
Real gestures means finding ways to defang citizen's united, instead of also cozzying up to the billionaire class that is eating the working and middle class members of society, men and women a like.
Real gestures is admitting that it was a nuclear disaster to tell voters that the "macro-economic indicators I learned to understand in college that you don't understand as an unwashed plebian are looking good, so you are just in a vibe-cession," when voters kept telling you honestly and openly that they were feeling increasingly squeezed by the economic stratification and inequality in our society.
Real gestures means you aren't scared to do a 3 hour podcast interview because you know you'll have trouble staying on your memorized talking points that work on the dying legacy media platforms, like the Sunday morning talking head circus. The reason someone seems authentic in a 3 hour podcast is because they can relax and shoot the shit. That's a lot easier, may I say *more authentic* if you are being honest about what you actually think and believe, instead of trying to hit all of the required talking points your consultants gave you.
Real gestures is admitting that a parasitic class of political consultants is responsible for giving the party losing advice in 2023-2024. Why didn't anyone stop Joe Biden from running? Why weren't there more calls for an open primary? Why didn't anyone push back on vibe session? There's a loop where consultant-parasites tell candidates what they want to hear, like how to appeal to economically vulnerable people while still engaging in insider trading and having lux dinners with the billionaire leisure class. And like many parasites, the host is dying.
Ukraine is showing Russia that a $500 hunk of plastic can destroy $7B in advance military equipment, changing the nature of warfare forever. The Republicans showed Democrats that a comfortable performance of authenticity in longform new media settings, like a podcast interview, and finding a concrete thing to point fingers at as responsible is how you win.
Russia will lose to Ukraine if they don't figure out how to stop $500 from setting $7B on fire.
The Democrats will lose to the Republicans if they can't figure out that it isn't a matter of messaging perfection, or finely spliced cross tabs of demographic data in polling that matters. It's having a policy, it's communicating the policy, it's defending the policy, it's defining the opposition, it's attacking their policies, it's being honest about what you really think. And it's about kicking out all the old codgers and corrupt self-dealing inside trading billionaire schmoozing folks from the party, and firing the consultants whispering in their ears like Gríma Wormtongue.
"Democrats Have a Serious Young-Men Problem: Young men increasingly view Democrats as weak, overly cautious, and disconnected from their struggles, contributing directly to significant electoral losses."
We all think this, for good reason. The Democrats are week, overly cautious, and disconnected from everyone's struggles.
We have taken so much for granted too long. We’re now paying the price. Work to do.
It would be interesting to do a study of your subjects' fathers and even grandfathers because I'd bet that's where their outsized expectations and life-limiting aspects of masculinity came from first. I also bet a lot of voted for Reagan, who caused all this: the economic pain, the racial strike, the villainization of anyone with the audacity to "help."