Thread by @jonathansmucker

What depresses the hell out of me when listening to Democratic politicians, liberal advocacy groups, and unapologetic leftists alike, is how rarely I hear people even try to speak in popular/majoritarian language.

And I'm primarily talking about spokespeople here—folks who are presumably trained or prepared to be connecting with popular or particular social bases in order to activate them or win their sympathy.

A Matt Karp interview earlier this year hits on some of this and is really worth reading: niskanencenter.org/how-democrats-… @karpmj

The incentive structures of elitist social circles (of many varieties) discourage the use of popular language.

It's more advantageous to use specialized vocabulary that signals to other members of the in-group that you are among the few who 'get it.'

These elitist dynamics tend to bleed into the purportedly public-facing messages of political organizations and 'activist' groups.

There's more to this than the group dynamic aspect, especially concerning the Dem Party, where the bigger problem is the politically insane choice to prize a thin slice of affluent suburban crossover voters while letting an active bleed of working-class voters worsen unmitigated.

These problems of class interest, class disposition, class insularity, and elitist group dynamics all get wrapped up with each other inextricably.

If we allow this long historic trend to continue—where Democrats, liberals, and leftists alike are effectively branded as elitists (because of an objective insularity from working-class people)—without effective interruption, the authoritarian populists may become unstoppable.

Don't just love Bernie Sanders.

Study how he talks, what he says, how he connects with people.

(Not suggesting that Bernie or his campaign did everything right all the time with messaging; nonetheless, there's some gold to mine here.)

To be clear, while most Democrats and leftists alike do indeed suffer from a seriously damaging "message problem," the underlying sources—and the much bigger problem—is all about class interest and class insularity.

*class INTEREST, less so in the case of leftist organizations (compared to Dem Party politicians and operatives), but class INSULARITY is a huge problem across the 'broad left spectrum'

Apparently I have to clarify:

I'm not arguing against fighting for big, bold, transformational, even revolutionary changes.

Indeed, I believe that's precisely what this moment calls for.

But no matter the content of our program, we have to articulate it in popular language.