Thread by @SallyAlbright

I have taken classes at the Leadership Institute. Berners can add this to the list of "evidence" that I'm a "secret Republican" but I consider it gaming the system. Also, like the Iowa gig, it was really interesting to peek behind the curtain.

Let me explain
1/

As a civic education group, Leaderhip Int gets federal subsidies. (I'm not sure Democrats have anything similar but we should.) They have tons of classes: social media, research, campaign management, graphic design, media training and they are DIRT CHEAP
2/

I'm not even kidding. $35, $50, never more than $100/day for multi-day classes, and they serve breakfast, lunch & dinner free- n some cases you come out ahead. It's technically "non-partisan" so they have to let anyone in. They'd lose funding if they treated me differently
3/

There is of course a partisan slant, or at least a conservative slant. I try to be polite and not call them out for EVERYTHING but sometimes I do. It's hard. I don't do the exercises or breakout sessions. I don't network. But the skills and techniques are agnostic.
4/

So anyway, I took on-camera media training. Like I said, I didn't do the assignment so I didn't do the screen test, but I learned how to do it. More importantly, I learned what their candidates are being taught to do.
5/

To prepare for a TV spot, they said to write down 3 talking points/brief statements making the points you want to cover. Memorize them until your perfect. Then, no matter what the question is, you respond with your rehearsed lines. No one will call you out for not answering
6/

We've all seen them do this, right??? And there's never a follow up, no one calls them out. And even if someone like Joy tries to go after them, they just sit there repeating themselves. They figured out how to exploit our weak media culture.
7/

Admirable message discipline aside, this explains why it is so hard to argue with them. Because they are not listening. They are waiting until it's their turn to talk. And it's so aggravating how they don't respond to what we actually said.

We've all been there, right?
8/

Once you understand what they're doing it's easy to spot. Don't waste your time arguing with someone who isn't arguing in good faith. And always call them out.
9/x

*IDK why that says "your" that's a bad edit, should be "they're"