shaunnathomas.bsky.social

One thing we’re all getting wrong?
Aisha: we’re not taking enough risks. The playbook burned down; we need a new one.
Keith: need more entertaining content. Our stuff is liberal-brained. Too much “information”
Qasim: $ isn’t going to the right places for the new playbook. Put it in content creators

Vs Keith: Believes independence from campaigns is important for credibility and more powerful audience-building

One point of disagreement:
Aisha wants to be a part of and build long term infrastructure to ensure that as the last and maybe only line of defense for public engagement, we need investment for the long term.
You need to deliver content 12-13 times and that requires a real relationship w/ campaigns

To take your audience further… At Feminist, beyond a headline there is a call to action.

Build trust and consistently mobilize people.

Bring content creators into campaigns early. Can’t do much by the end.

People aren’t in the middle. A majority wants fighters.

Last panel: content creators- Haley Lickstein moderating,
@qasimrashid.com of @justwinstuff.bsky.social @keithedwards.bsky.social (currently beating Tucker Carlson)
Aisha Becker-Burrowes of @Feminist

Advice: listen, be trust-worthy and authentic, be responsive and have a standard of justice

Solution?
1. Treat all money equally
2. A “cost of living” exemption
3. A “cost of living” wage
4. Antitrust for oligarchs

Treat Elon musk like a monopolies corporation and break him up.

Simple and powerful @patrioticmillionaires.org platform

“The book ends of our economy are taxes and wages”. Poor people make too little money and pay too much in taxes. Rich people make too much and don’t pay enough taxes.

Inequality leads to authoritarianism.
When people don’t get what they need out of the economy, they reject political systems.”

“The Patriotic Millionaires North Star is Money”
Billionaires are funding culture wars to keep your eye off the ball.
MAGA is misdirecting to
84% of people in the U.S. are worried about the price of groceries.
We’ve been playing economic jenga and what happened is what you’d expect.”

@ericapayne.bsky.social starts: these political leaders are not confused, they are complicit.
The big tent can only be as big as the people who want to fix the money problem at the hear of every other problem we have.
The people who aren’t fixing it, don’t want to.

“Know what you want to say and use optimizations to figure out how to say it as effectively as possible”- Slezak

The median voter approach doesn’t work b/c it doesn’t exist.

Communicating effectively is most important.
Successful parties are successful coalitions and Public opinion isn’t fixed

@jamesslezak.bsky.social up to describe how Swayable runs experiments to measure persuasion.
Persuasion is the #1 use of funds by a lot on campaigns. But there’s no agreement about the Dem brand (what we’re persuading people to agree on)

Don’t ask data guys about what story to tell. Not their job

Terrance Woodbury:
We can not convince people to restore institutions that never worked for them. We have to mobilize to build the next world to level the playing field. Present an agenda and a vision for a world we live in together.”

Billionaires and corporations are rigging the system. Over 70% of Americans already believe that.

Once we’ve communicated about the problem, then we can get to policy and, finally, articulate a plan to get it done.

People don’t care about or believe in policy without a plan.

“Stop focusing on the policy until we have more thoroughly defined the problem, communicate it with outrage… If you don’t understand why my life sucks, why will I trust you to unsuck it.”
What’s the reason we are Working twice as hard and getting half as hard require? They don’t buy it’s Trump

He worked for the Harris campaign and knows the majority of spending went to white people. Both Harris and Obama got 42% of white voters. We lost because we haven’t prioritized people of color for years.
But they don’t trust our policies or promises b/c they’ve lost too much.

@hitstrat.bsky.social polling showing the clear trends:
There is a political realignment among men of color
90% of black men voted for Hilary.
15% fewer for Harris.
Identity is not a message and it’s not b/c Kamala was a woman. We’ve been losing Black men 2-3 points every election since Obama.

“Only 25% of vote skippers would have voted for Trump.”
They had a surprisingly positive overall view of the Dem party. They are “more for the people and would fight for all Americans”
1/4 think Dems are too weak and won’t stand up to attacks on democracy

Trump support is cratering on every issue. opportunity to invest in organizing, turnout AND persuasion.
Positioning, brand and actions: deploy, research, create, evaluate
Where their program was in play voter turnout was 4% higher. “Had the program been larger the outcome could have been different”

@jenancona.bsky.social up now speaking to @waytowinus.bsky.social take on the problem: 63% of Dems don’t approve of the party.
“People are broke and the media is broke”
The affordability crisis is the economy crisis.
Trump is telling people to punch down.

Kat: when I was at the DNC they told me I was so authentic and asked how they could replicate that.
<room LOLs>

Bhavik: Swing voters, like so many Americans, are anti-war. Democrats are foolish not to embrace an anti-war agenda.
Kat: when everyone is allowed to see what happened in Gaza, every Dem will say they were against the genocide. But they’ve shown their hand and their hand is they didn’t care.

“Leadership of the campaign was sure they were right b/c of an internal analytics program that they gate-kept. Turns out it was a top issue for swing voters and campaign leadership gas lit them”. Bhavik is sure they lost MI and WI because of Gaza

Bhavik, 1st gen immigrant and MI resident, says trying to convince the Harris campaign to address Gaza was the most traumatic experience of his career.

Kat: “it Should be a political necessity to condemn atrocities. We need leaders who don’t want to kill children.”

Now: @mehdirhasan.bsky.social @katmabu.bsky.social running for Congress and @bhavik.bsky.social ran battleground digital for Harris

Kat, a Palestinian woman, believes culture has changed to support their humanity.

@gregcasar.bsky.social from TX who chairs the @progressivecaucus.bsky.social
His advice: Be willing to pick villains and pick fights so people know who we are.

Sarah: We lost the culture on immigration. They might not like excess but they want safe borders.
Anat: yes, people want safety. And we have to address their desire to be safe and healthy. But no they don’t need or want xenophobia and when we engage it we’re helping Rs and feeding their story line.

Mehdi: What should Dems be running on?
Anat: yes, someone took your job and healthcare. The super wealthy took it. Thats the enemy and no one else.
Sarah: Trump is cutting your healthcare in order to give it to his billionaire buddies
Just like he’s covering for his Epstein buddies.

Side note: every progressive conference should have these debates ie Anat v Sarah. Important

Sarah’s begging the room: Stop talking about democracy, talk about America

Don’t fight about centrism vs progressives. People don’t care.

*Every single focus group just want Dems to be aggressive*

Anat: The Dems doing it badly are calling the situation a fire and refusing to go into the building to put it out.
“No payouts for pedophiles”
“I will not fund your war against Americans”
Sarah reminds us the thing popping with Republicans is pedophiles/Epstein and little else.