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The ATU’s Current Media Campaign...
And Defeating Trump And
The Republicans In 2020

Poll data for several decades continues to demonstrate clearly that the three messaging frames with the greatest ability to regain the critical swing Independents whose votes we lost -- and who defeated us in 2016 -- involve:

 

  • Workplace and worksite issues

 

  • Healthcare (framed correctly) and

 

  • Evoking the right historic Democratic "working people" messages, frames and memories

 

 

Recent evidence indicates that while Trump and the Republicans have made inroads over and above their successful performance in 2016, these GOP gains are reversible (with the right messaging) – not in their entirety – but enough to defeat Trump in 2020.

 

However, this won’t happen on its own.

 

Our messaging must be smart and aimed at triggering the powerful and enduring perceptions and loyalties that work for our side that are contained in these messaging frames.

 

And it must start soon.  It won’t work overnight.

                       

Overlooked or largely ignored, as in 2016, we will probably lose again.

 

The Democrats’ performance to-date is not encouraging.

 

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Below are two brief, 60-second radio spots illustrating how we can incorporate these enduring pro-Democratic perceptions into our messaging.  

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First, Warming Up Our Target Audiences With The Right Symbols, Issues And Memories

 

This first radio spot evokes just one particular framing of the Democratic “tradition.”

 

The biggest single reason that voters still give for why they support the Democrats is that the Democratic party cares about regular working people – and the Republicans primarily represent the very wealthy and the large corporate interests.

 

And while the Democrats’ massive historic 30-point margin as the “party of working people” is now long gone (including our historic margin on the trade issue), if we start right now with the right messaging, we can regain enough of our margin to defeat Trump and the Republicans in 2020 in the critical areas, such as the swing industrial states of the Upper Midwest.

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Note:  When pro-Democratic working people feelings are triggered, all Democrats in your area benefit…not just one.

 

This spot is DONATED for your free use in your own community, state or region…and can be easily localized by simply inserting any new tag you want to use.

 

 

 

The ATU Messaging Campaign:  Linking Their Workplace Issues With the Broader Political Positioning And Message

 

This second spot -- by the Amalgamated Transit Union which is currently running in the Washington, D.C. area – illustrates how ATU is able to generalize its fight against destructive, anti-worker privatization policies of the regional transit entity, Metro, into a fight for American workers in general.

 

Importantly, the ATU messaging also gently (but firmly) pushes our Democratic allies toward a more active supporting role by underlining how doing so can help restore the party’s greatly weakened overall perception among swing voters as the party of American working people.

 

This is underlined – is no longer just an option, but after the experience of 2016 – an absolute necessity!

 

If we get this process -- and messaging frame -- in motion now, it has the capability to move enough swing voters to defeat Trump and the Republicans in November…and, in the process, importantly help not only ATU -- but countless other unions facing similar kinds of hostile actions by employers...both public and private.

 

We kill the Republicans among swing voters on these kinds of issues and issue frames…but if they are not used, they are useless!!!

The good news is that we are still the majority party (albeit by only a few points now), and whether or not we defeat Trump and the Republicans in 2020 will depend upon the clarity and symbolic effectiveness of our messages.

 

If we lose, we have no one else to blame but ourselves. 

 

Feel free to use these ideas – as well as the spots themselves -- in shaping your own progressive political efforts. 

 

Good luck...

 

Vic

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