Thread by @DanAncona

In the summer of 2016 a friend of mine who works for a big advertising firm (and is a 9/11 survivor, so maybe this is a good day for this) asked me why the Dems ads suck so much. I said, good question.

I had no idea what kind of Mr Toad's Wild Ride I was signing up for. 1/11

What I found pretty quickly was that the problem was *not* that Dems weren't using enough AI or psychographics or advanced stuff. Those tactics help on the margins and campaigns should absolutely be looking into them, but their absence wasn't the big problem. 2/11

The much bigger problem was this strong, overwhelming tendency to avoid making an effective argument. Basic blocking and tackling stuff, in terms of marketing: defining and positioning your product/worldview and explaining the benefits in a clear, emotionally compelling way. 3/11

The GOP doesn't have this problem. Brad @parscale might be a dick (in the sense of having no compunction about weaponizing the great diversity of Americans to pit us against each other), and he's not a genius, but he ran circles around Hillary's team on these fundamentals. 4/11

Since he was new, he had zero attachment to How It's Always Been Done. Hell, he didn't even KNOW how it'd always been done. Wasn't Parscale's work, but another example - their closing ad was racially divisive and anti-Semitic, but a powerful argument. Fundamentals. 5/11

Fast-forward to #NC09. @McCreadyForNC seems like a genuinely nice, intelligent guy and someone who would be an excellent Rep. Part of R message against him was "My opponent's allies are clowns." His response? "I'll work with the people calling my allies clowns."

See the problem?

Everyone's going to say "But he closed the gap in a R+12 district." Great, but we have to look at WHY that place is R+12. There's a lot of reasons (like straight up cheating, aka gerrymandering) but also? Voters in that district haven't heard an alternative argument. 7/

And today, $10M later, they still haven't heard that argument. That's a lost opportunity. Next everyone is going to say "he couldn't have run hard left." I'm not suggesting he needed to. There's a TON of maneuvering room between AOC/Bernie and "indistinguishable from the GOP." 8/

Put yourselves in the shoes of a rural or small town NC voter (and remember: lots of rural folks aren't white!) whose community has gotten the shaft from decades of crappy trade deals, big box stores, opioids, and disinvestment. Which story is more appealing to you? 9/11

Persuading the middle vs mobilizing the base is a false dichotomy. Good messages do both. (Truly great messages demoralize the opponent's base, too.) The beginning of this @chrislhayes podcast makes this argument as well as I've seen it made - nbcnews.com/think/opinion/… 10/11

Probably enough ranting for now. We're still losing the Imagination Battle. Not the first time an institution failed a veteran who deserved better, and won't be the last. I hope some learning comes out of it. And as always, much appreciation for @McCreadyForNC's service. 11/11

This kinda blew up and that’s cool, I really appreciate it! I didnt get into it but the past two years have been at times pretty frustrating. BUT nevermind all that. You should listen to this exceptional new podcast by @anatosaurus bravenewwordspod.com It’ll make ya smarter!