🕷Dante Atkins🕷 Profile picture
Jul 17, 2022 11 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Whether you supported Fetterman in the primary or not, you have to acknowledge that he understands how to message and campaign in a way that resonates and has an impact, and that's something most Dems haven't figured out. Here's what I mean: 1/x
2/x he has taken one issue--the issue of Mehmet Oz' residency--and crushed him with it across every possible communications channel. From flyovers to trolling with Snooki, to more traditional communications, he has taken one particular point and hammered it.
3/x and that issue isn't a kitchen table issue, social issue, or a legal issue. It's not a policy issue at all! But it is an issue that speaks to authenticity and character that serves as a direct contrast to Fetterman himself.
4/x Oz is a multimillionaire Hollywood celebrity from New Jersey who parachuted across the river to run for Senate, and Fetterman is an authentic blue-collar Pennsylvanian. That's something voters understand.
5/x What Fetterman understands, and something that Republicans figured out a long time ago, is that policy is DOWNSTREAM from values and character. Policy is complex and can be obfuscated in most cases. Character is much harder.
6/x A lot of people used to (still do!) make fun of young people who supported Bernie in such large numbers without knowing the specifics of his policy platform. What those people don't understand is a political fundamental:
7/x people are not policy experts, and they know they are not policy experts. But if they trust your character and your values, they will be paying much less attention to your policy specifics because they trust you are on their side and will do the right thing.
8/x and how you present your character and values is a question of not just what you say in terms of your values, but your tone, your presentation, and the image you project. That's what resonates, that's what goes viral, that's what gets attention. Things that show you're human.
9/x If Lamb were the nominee, he would probably be running a traditional suit-and-tie campaign messaging around gas prices because that's what polls show the "voters care about." Fetterman has made that an irrelevant issue and has Oz chasing his own tail.
10/x if you polled Pennsylvanians before Fetterman's general election campaign, would anyone have told you they care that Oz is from across the river? No. But Fetterman made it an issue, one that plays to his strengths. And this is the main upshot that Dems need to learn:
11/11 stop chasing the voters on the issues that other people are setting the terms on. start with establishing personal character contrasts and allow the issue conversation to flow downhill from there.

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More from @DanteAtkins

Oct 30, 2024
As an example of how mindbogglingly stupid Elon is and how you shouldn't be having him run your GOTV, he posted this about New Jersey's vote. Commentary in thread. Image
Yes. Republicans are ahead by a few thousand in in-person early voting. Unfortunately for him, that's only 37 percent of votes cast. The rest are cast by mail, where Dems have a 40-point advantage. 1/x
Cumulatively, that means that Dems have an advantage of 51-27 in party percentage, with the rest being no party or minor parties, and a raw vote advantage of 250,000. Over half the state's million+ votes have been cast by Dems. 2/x
Read 6 tweets
Oct 3, 2024
Republicans for Harris are saying that no matter their policy disagreements, they can't let Trump win.

A lot of leftists are saying that unless Harris aligns with them in specific ways, they will let Trump win even though they disagree with him on everything.

1/x
2/x Whom do you expect normie Dem voters are going to listen to, agree with, and sympathize with more going forward, win or lose? Who do you think is going to have an audience, and a seat at whatever tables exist come 2025?
3/x you can't complain (falsely) about the Democratic Party shifting right (which it isn't, but that's for a different thread) while at the very same time doing everything you can to cede whatever battle you think is occurring for the Party's soul to actual Republicans.
Read 7 tweets
Sep 16, 2024
If MAGA really wants to claim that calling someone a threat to democracy engenders assassination attempts, I have some ideas for things they should stop doing: 1/x
2/x saying that Kamala Harris is a Soviet-style communist and calling her "comrade"
3/x saying that Harris and Democrats are turning America into a third-world country
Read 10 tweets
Sep 16, 2024
Trump is a threat to democracy. The fact that crazy people with access to weapons of war have tried to kill him doesn't change the fact that he's a threat to democracy, and it's interesting that MAGA uses those crimes to demand you stop saying he's a threat to democracy. 1/x
2/x Trump hlmself thirsts for political violence. He got people killed on January 6 and ought to spend the rest of his life in jail for it. He encourages violence against media and protestors. He has spread vicious lies against Haitians, leading to bomb threats.
3/x he and his Uday and Qusay wannabe sons thought it was hilarious that the husband of the House Speaker was invaded in his own home and beaten with a hammer. It was the source of constant jokes for them. Because the Trumps thirst for violence. It's who they are, what they do.
Read 8 tweets
Sep 2, 2024
Everything about Trump makes much more sense when you realize he sees the world as.ethnicity-centered organized crime bosses fighting over turf, with himself as the leader of the White crime family.
2/x this is the lens through which he views tariffs. Tariffs are what other crime families (like the Chinese) have to pay him for the privilege of doing business on his turf and selling goods there.
3/x it's the lens through which he sees NATO. He understands it as a protection racket where Europe pays the United States for "protection" and if they don't "pay" then he's fine with Russia considering them, even though that's not remotely how NATO works logistically at all.
Read 7 tweets
Aug 29, 2024
I listen to a lot of focus groups with Latinos (both in Spanish and English, and yes, I speak Spanish) and this is an excellent ad. It is excellent precisely because it treats the border and immigration as SEPARATE, though related, issues. Here's a bit of explanation 1/x
2/x Spanish-speaking communities are often frontline communities when it comes to border policy. Whether it's drugs, migrants, smuggling, cartels, whatever it is, they tend to think they bear the brunt of it, and they want a well-regulated, well-policed border.
3/x that doesn't mean a CLOSED border like what Republicans talk about. They go to Latin America all the time! Their friends and family from Latin America visit them all the time! They don't want anything to get in the way of that! But they also want to feel safe.
Read 6 tweets

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