Friday, October 15, 2021

Is "democracy is on the ballot " a good slogan for Democrats in 2022 and 2024?

 I heard a Democratic candidate for governor in another state roll out his announcement using the slogan: "Democracy is on the ballot".  Not a bad slogan at all, but it is not one that has any meaning without an explanation.  It also has no relevance to how it would affect public policy either without connecting it to the results that affect people's lives.  The Democrats have some really messaging problems. If that is to be used as the slogan for state races, there needs to be a more direct connection to how it hurts  "you the voter". as the end result because as a slogan it needs some further explanation and fleshing out..

  Examples of explanations: " The GOP wants to rig future elections so that even if they do not represent what the majority wants, they can rule as the minority party anyway.  They want to make sure every vote does not count  They want to put their party hacks in charge of deciding which votes will be counted and how; and if they still lose, they want the legislatures they control to ignore how what the majority in their state want and overturn or throw into chaos the election results by failing to certify the election results.    That is not how democracy is supposed to work/ The will of the majority determines what policies will be/ Ir is not rigging the system so that the minority. rules.".What this means for public policy that affects people's lives is not hard to explain,.     For example, the majority, per polls, want preK ed and childcare and the GOP is against it. Should the majority's voice be heard and determine the direction of their state on these popular issues? There are. other issues in the reconciliation bill that also have large public support to which the GOP opposes as well.  

  Democrats need to focus on plain language and avoid relying solely on what has become jargon:  "voter suppression" or even "autocracy".  and" the big lie".  and put it in terms of how it would hurt voters themselves.  Those are terms that describe GOP strategy to get you to agree to let them sabotage democracy .but using them does not tell the ordinary voter how this affects them and their ability to cope with everyday matters.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/gop-grave-threat-american-democracy/618693/

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