How do we make ourselves heard in an era of dog whistles? How do we get our message out when the GOP have turned truth and facts upside down?
We trumpet our values and we put them first in every conversation. We believe in freedom, fairness, safety, working together, helping one another. So do many voters but they don’t know we do. We must repeat what we value over and over.
We call out the bullies, but we bury their business in the middle of our messages, so their nonsense loses its power. We are explicit about who the bullies are–greedy corporations, radical right politicians. We name them– DeSantis, Cord Byrd and more. We describe what they are doing and why they are doing it as briefly as we can.
Most importantly we save the best for the last. We end our message by celebrating what we have already accomplished together. We explain who is included in our “together”, “everyone” and “all”. Then we shout, shout, shout what our future will be when we work together and vote together. Hope motivates.
We avoid responding to the Republican message. We avoid saying “You are wrong.” We never, never repeat their words or argue with their ideas. That just makes their message stronger.
Republicans are talking values and devaluing facts. But many of their values are not values we share. We must stress what we value and repeat ad nauseum.
Values and vision are remembered in the voting booth. Facts and policies are not.
