@SallyAlbright 1/Gonna have to thread this one. Apologies. No Democrat should be sending them money. They don't need it. Plenty of country club Republican money behind them. All they need. And people are badly misunderstanding what they're doing. They are not running an ad campaign. ...
@SallyAlbright 2/ They are running a psychological warfare operation against Trump, making "ads" that push the limited number of buttons in the head of someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. They're causing him narcissistic injury and provoking bad campaign decisions. ...
@SallyAlbright 3/ Every ad is targeted at Trump's sick mind specifically, not at persuading voters. If he watches them, and he will because people with NPD are obsessed with enmity, they push him to demand ads that give him narcissistic supply rather than persuade voters.
@SallyAlbright 4/ ("Narcissistic supply" is a phrase you see a lot but it's rarely defined. It refers to adulation, admiration, praise, money, sex, celebrity-people with NPD live to gather these things to try to fill, but never can fill, the gigantic black hole that is their souls.)
@SallyAlbright 5/ (They live to satisfy three needs: narcissistic supply, avoidance of shame and humiliation and revenge on those who cause narcissistic injury by denying them narcissistic supply, by contradicting them, or merely being smarter, more attractive or more successful.)
@SallyAlbright 6/ (People with NPD experience even the slightest contradiction, disagreement, gainsaying, shaming, humiliation the way normal people experience the discovery of infidelity-a sudden gut punch of pain, rage, humiliation, jealousy, grief and then need both supply and revenge.)
@SallyAlbright 7/ And that's what LP is doing with these ads. Not trying to persuade undecided voters or Trump voters to vote for Biden, but push Trump to make bad campaign decisions, waste campaign money, energy and attention on attempting to fill that black hole right now, in the moment.
@SallyAlbright 8/ The ads don't need air time to work on him. All they need are a Twitter link and a lot of views. And so they don't need money to put them on the air.
But here's the trap for Democrats. There are only three legitimate objectives for a real campaign ad:
But here's the trap for Democrats. There are only three legitimate objectives for a real campaign ad:
@SallyAlbright 9/
1. Turning out your own sporadically-voting leaners.
2. Persuading undecideds and weak supporters of the other guy to vote for you.
3. Getting people to give you money.
If you're really running ahead, a fourth legit use is specifically helping the down-ballot races.
1. Turning out your own sporadically-voting leaners.
2. Persuading undecideds and weak supporters of the other guy to vote for you.
3. Getting people to give you money.
If you're really running ahead, a fourth legit use is specifically helping the down-ballot races.
@SallyAlbright 10/ Thing that is NOT a legit use of campaign donations:
Running ads that stimulate the lizard brains of committed supporters who are already giving you money and prepared to brave a zombie apocalypse to vote for you.
If you use donor money for that, you are wasting it.
Running ads that stimulate the lizard brains of committed supporters who are already giving you money and prepared to brave a zombie apocalypse to vote for you.
If you use donor money for that, you are wasting it.
@SallyAlbright 11/ And this is what way too many Democrats don't get. They *want* to see ads that confirm their beliefs, that gut the evil, awful cretins whose awfulness fires their commitment. They want that lizard brain rush. They're in a war and they want propaganda.
@SallyAlbright 12/ They rationalize this desire for ads that tend to their own feelings and emotional needs by believing that that's what persuades the undecideds and the weak leaners and weak supporters of the other guy. And they are just completely wrong. Or, at least mostly wrong.
@SallyAlbright 13/ If the leaners, weak supporters of the other guy and swingers were persuadable by the same stuff that gives committed supporters a rush *they would already be committed supporters.* They are where they are because they have different motives, priorities and perceptions.
@SallyAlbright 14/ The ads that make us go "fuck yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about!" are more likely to turn them off than move them into our column.
Now I'm not saying that the Democratic consultantocracy is always good at making the kinds of ads that move those people. They often aren't.
Now I'm not saying that the Democratic consultantocracy is always good at making the kinds of ads that move those people. They often aren't.
@SallyAlbright 15/ Many suffer from the twin handicaps of being committed supporters themselves and thus being as mystified by undecideds as we are, and of having the public sector disdain for marketing and PR that always kills us.
But some of them are quite good.
But some of them are quite good.
@SallyAlbright 16/ The real masters can produce commercials that both move swingers and please the commiteds. Some of Obama's attack ads against Romney as a PE job killer were like that. But mostly, if you make an ad that causes your base to go "Fuck yeah!" you're screwing up by the numbers.
@SallyAlbright 17/ And this is the trap. The Lincoln Project's psy-op ads, intended to shame, humiliate and enrage Trump, are "Fuck yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about!" ads for us. They're candy laced with opium for us.
But they are not going to move many votes.
But they are not going to move many votes.
@SallyAlbright 18/ I dream of a day when the opposition is the Lincoln Project Never Trumpers. That would be democracy again. But it ain't going to happen. After Trump loses, the GOP becomes the party of Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley and their ilk, and they will not be . . . forgiving.
@SallyAlbright 19/ I have no idea what happens to the Never Trumpers then. But I do know that the path back into a livelihood lies in immediately beginning to attack Biden and the Democrats for doing it wrong. And any cash they have left will go to that.
