The Harris campaign is doing a great job of reintroducing her to the electorate thus far. I’m actually surprised given that I was extremely frustrated with the same team working for Biden. They are quicker and sharper now. Impressive. But I am not yet seeing enough nuts and bolts defense of the Biden administration’s record (and her record in the Senate and as Atty General) and critique of Trump’s term. Now, it’s clear that to succeed a campaign needs clear broad strokes. Grandly framed vision. Optics and vibe-boosting soundbites and ads. The campaign is doing that. And it must. But we are now in an age where one need not prioritize this over policy substance. With all the levels of and access to media of all sorts, the campaign can and must work more multidimensionally.
Republicans are hammering away at Biden/Harris’ and Harris’ prior records. But they are doing so without specifics. They just want to use pejoratives like “failed” and “dangerous” and the like to make their lies stick. One classic example is the “border crisis”. This issue is so exaggerated that it’s largely invented. (See John Oliver’s virtuoso debunking below). Mike Johnson’s failed rebuke (along with others) of the identity attacks asserted that there’s enough to talk about regarding her record. Really? All they are offering are accusations with little to no, and certainly no honest substantiation.
Likewise, we are hearing and reading lots about how historically consequential Biden’s record is. The campaign needs to pick a list of 3-5 major accomplishments to repeat over and over and over. And then call out Republicans for slandering a record that is demonstrable. And then hold them W accountable for torpedoing the bipartisan border bill.
This is something we can help with online. But it has to be outside the cozy confines of DKos. There’s so much dubious and damning material about Trump that we are baffled it doesn’t seem to turn off more of his supporters. The lies. The crimes. The sedition. The degradation of any civility or possibility of cooperation with democrats on the hill. The lack of outreach or even respect for those who voted against him. The racist and misogynist slurs. And now, his irresponsible quip about making elections obsolete. But we know they’ll simply use the “just kidding” and “everyone knows what he meant” excuses. None of this matters at this point. Or matters enough. I mean, Trump, to our incredible dismay, is fully normalized to much of the country. And our righteous indignation is dismissed. We cannot rely on it.
It’s time for a systematic refutation of Trump’s policy record. Too many people aren’t moved by January 6th or the felony convictions or anything else. And it should include boring material like data and facts. Maybe there should be a “Facts Matter” website addressing both Harris’ record and Trump’s. Take down their assertions one by one. Get these refutations into the sphere of “common knowledge” that is almost always more common than knowledge that influences swing voters and independents who so often claim to be issue based and informed and so often are...not.
I'm hoping the comments here can help us gather data and formulate responses to put out there on issues of record. What do you tell people about inflation?
What do you tell people about employment?
What do you tell people about the stock market?
What do you tell people about immigration/border issues?
What do you tell people about crime?
What do you tell people about the response to Ukraine?
What do you tell people about...any other major issue that swings elections?
Give us what you’ve got.
Pick a topic. Give us data and a framing. Then take it all and get those facts out there. Repeat repeat repeat. Every time someone around you or on social media or in comments’ sections of major media outlets mentions a topic and a general pejorative that hurts us, give them concise and specific reality based facts. Maybe have a link on each subject that grounds your response in a source. Let’s try to commit some important stats to memory, right there in our cognitive back pockets. Both about Biden and Harris’ record and about Trump’s.
The campaign needs to do this. And I hope it will. But this is precisely where the grass roots can make a real difference. And we can be a resource for one another. Create a shared and organized portfolio data-based talking points. I’ll collate them. And we can litter the interspheres with them.