Thread by @ClistonBrown

One of the most encouraging developments of this election is that Kamala Harris has clearly learned something that Democrats have traditionally refused to accept:

For purposes of winning an election, policy doesn’t matter. (1/)

Policy matters very much AFTER YOU GET ELECTED. But governing and campaigning are two different things. The voters who are interested in policy are 1) in the minority and 2) already know who they’re voting for. The people you have to convince won’t be convinced by policy. (2/)

Those of us who know and care about policy already know what either candidate is going to do. It doesn’t need to be said. We’ve already decided.

The undecideds are low-information voters who have to be won at a gut level. (3/)

Republicans have always understood this, which has been a necessity for them, because their policies have been unpopular for almost a century. They’ve learned to make elections about anything but policy, and as a result, they have won a lot more often than they should have. (4/)

Democrats too often have treated elections like a document dump, just throwing out position papers and trusting the voters to give a damn.

Spoiler alert—undecided voters don’t give a damn. If they cared about policy, THEY WOULDN’T BE UNDECIDED. (5/)

All Democrats do by focusing on policy during elections is allow themselves to be bled to death by a thousand cuts. Harris barely stepped into the policy box one time, and the entire media pounced. Why go there? It’s bad politics.

She seems to get it now. That’s good. (6/6)