It's Messaging, Stupid. [View all]

[Drunken Irishman]

Elections are based on emotion. That's it. Emotion. Not ideology. Not party affiliation. Emotion.

Sure, you have your diehards. Us freaks here on DU who'll vote in every election ever and likely almost universally for the Democrats - just as you have those same, fun freaks on the right. But for the other half of the country? It comes down to emotion.

What drives their emotion so they get off their butts and vote?

In 2016, that emotion was anti-Hillary hate. It was real. It sucked. It was sexist and awful but it was real.

In 2020, that emotion had backfired on Trump. Americans were tired. They were tired of the scandals. The tweets. The rants. The death. So, Biden was emotionally welcoming. He was the anti-Trump. No tweet storm. No ranting and raving. No extremism. Just calm. They went for the calm over the chaos - not based on the fact Biden was proposing anything special or was delivering radical change but because Biden is a nice dude, with a calming voice and enough history in politics to know exactly what you're getting.

Emotion is also part of messaging - good and bad.

When McAuliffe, in the first debate said, and I quote, “...I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach," he created unneeded emotion. Whether you agree with his overall point or not, it was a combative comment that was used against him.

McAuliffe is a seasoned, smart guy and that makes his comment all the more perplexing.

You know who else was good at playing to emotion? His old boss, Bill. He was great at making Americans feel emotion and why, despite all his flaws, he was able to overcome so much and prevail.

But that's irrelevant. What happened in Virginia, and what will happen in 2022, is a direct result of emotion.

In 2010, emotion led the Republicans back from the brink - and we're going to see if it happens again in 2022.

What Democrats need to get smart about is understanding that emotion so they can use it to their benefit. But unfortunately, I can't tell you how to do that because I don't know what will be the emotional political issue in a year.

It could be CRT, which if it is, the Democrats need a better message.

it could be COVID. It could be a war. It could be right-wing terrorism - but we'll win or lose basically by who is creating that emotion. If Americans feel Democrats are creating a bureaucracy outlining exactly what the schools should teach, without any parental influence, we're probably going to lose. If we're stuck explaining CRT in ways that don't outright reject its practice, we may lose there too because it's an emotional reaction (and logic is rarely tied to emotion).

Biden hit it out of the park in 2020 because he used the emotion of Trump's craziness. But the thing is, that only worked because it was Trump. McAuliffe attempted that in Virginia but failed to understand that he wasn't running against Trump no matter how much he tried to tie Youngkin to him. In 2022, Trump won't be on t he ballot. So, just pointing to every GOP candidate as a Trump Republican is not going to be a winning message.

So, we've got a year to create some emotion - or we'll be right back here a year from now rehashing the same points we all are throwing out there today.