Nancy Reagan telling kids to "just say no" ushered in a spike of drug/alcohol use. Hard to imagine what - if actually heard - could better *dissuade* young from voting than being excoriated for not doing so.
What DOES mobisuade young people.../1

https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1784951750262395237

1) Apply lessons from Brazilian campaigners in 2022, in a 2 aging ex presidents face-off, increased youth turnout 47% by channeling desire for defiance into voting: wordstowinby-pod.com/speak-yourself/

What folks are missing in the "does Bragg actually hurt Trump" discourse is the following:
1. Elections are won/lost by millimeters. "Only" 29% (lowest poll) of uncommitted voters saying this flips them is a tsumani. /1

https://twitter.com/WordsToWinBy/status/1780226665970291060

2. Voters don't follow details, nor do they parse specifics. And they've been conditioned to view electoral contests in sweeping narratives, e.g. Morning in America, "Yes We Can," Swift Boat, Romney's 47% elitism.

Here's what we're seeing in focus groups: Double haters contemplating sitting out, third party or skipping top of ticket are often willing to brush aside Trump committing past crimes. But what moves them is contemplating future harms *to them*. /1 This is why it's so vital to call out what Trump is really on trial for in NY criminal case: Voter Deception. That turns "hush money to adult star" case that's background noise of bad thing to the original effort to seize and wield power that set the pattern for his presidency.

Evergreen pro-tip: Run against your opposition not the "other" your opposition has scapegoated to hide the fact that they're screwing us all. /1

https://twitter.com/labourlewis/status/1745103720600265166

Over and again, we see not merely in data but in actual results that "please all" - i.e. milquetoast messaging intended to be at least inoffensive - ensures you "please none."

Dancing to @taylorswift13's "Look what you made me do," in NYE Sexitude class (as one does) and just fully felt the much needed buck the fuck up energy. @taylorswift13 How dare any of us be cowering in fear before the fascists winning the election? They are a sniveling few and we are beyond the majority.

Absolutely! Here are some ready-made materials for and examples of doing just this -
1. Making the MN Miracle possible - confronting relentless race baiting and defining "Minnesotanness" to achieve progressive governance
wordstowinby-pod.com/greater-than-f…

https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1737478882503082114

2. Electing Jacinda Arden in a whirlwind 6 weeks with a say what you're for strategy - wordstowinby-pod.com/lets-do-this-n…

Democrats are making the same mistake as ever: agreeing to have the opposition's argument, handing them the advantage, thereby both losing swing and pissing off surge voters. /1 By recreating Trump's brought to you by White Nationalists immigration program, they are tacitly endorsing this as the right thing to do. Thereby signaling to conflicted voters that "securing" the border is a key election issue and leading them into the arms of Robocop. /2

Arguing with people's feelings and their lived experience is a losing prospect in any conversation - politics included. This is why touting accomplishments - esp. framed in terms of having "grown the economy" & raised GDP will not work & even backlashes. /1

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1729867642981544356

A rising tide no longer lifts all boats (arguable it ever did before but at least moreso) because we're drowning in a sea of inequality. Growing GDP means nothing unless working people actually get to keep the wealth we keep creating. /2

The problems, the horrors, the challenges - they are manifold. And yet it is always the case that if you want people to come to your cause, you must be *attractive.* That is - draw people into an enticing future, not merely attempt to convince them of present achievements. /1

https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1725214201612812586

And just like any magnet, being attractive requires having a polarity. In other words, you will also repel those who utterly disagree with everything you believe. Otherwise, you're peddling milquetoast - the appease all, please none approach. /2

Talking about the MAGA/McCarthy (yes, you read that right) Impeachment, a thread: First, putting the words "Biden" and "impeach(ment)" near each other likely implies, to conflicted and/or low info voters, some guilt. And it feeds the "both sides" - Dems impeached Trump so GOP impeaches Biden equivalency right is counting on.

Fantastic piece. Only affirms what we see in weekly focus groups: Democrats are viewed as lacking strength, as not fighting back against the MAGA threat. That's the chief beef among voters who made up our winning '18, '20 & '22 coalition.

https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1666252868741918722

Illustrative e.g. from disaffected Dem group: “I've heard a lot about transgender rights. It's frustrating to hear such a dedicated effort to restrict rights for a group of people when there are so many other issues going on in the world that need attention.”

Absolutely devastating how many decades we spent embroiled in arguments about climate change being real & person-made when, all along, we should have been clearly telling folks that a handful of corporations are poisoning us for profit.

https://twitter.com/nymetrowx/status/1666484476908560390

Personifying "climate change" - making it the actor in our sentences - precludes organizing. You can't go protest at "climate change's HQ." But you can go after the petrol pirates plundering our very air, land and water.

First they came for the...and I did nothing because I had opeds to write about how, really, polarization is the problem. Next they came for the...and it was vital that I point out how both sides, really, are at fault.

If you want to win the debate, you must first set the terms./1

https://twitter.com/perrybaconjr/status/1648356328732078080

Going into 2022, we saw clearly that if election was referendum on economy and Biden, we would get the precise shellacking predicted./2

Emphasizing how new budget reduces the deficit makes people think about the deficit. Regardless of what's true, tackling deficit is something they associate with GOP. Making your opposition's argument invariably backfires. In testing, for example, for single payer care, we found that saving money argument made people buy oppo argument that care would be bad. Cause, cheaper means worse.

Where we made 2022 a referendum on Republicans taking your freedoms - from fair elections to abortion to education - we boasted record turnout, defied precedent, and won. Where people voted with crime and/or inflation top of mind, our base sat out and we lost. In the 15 states Cook and 538 deemed "competitive" where clear MAGA candidate ran top of ticket, turnout was on par with 2018 - and this was during Dem incumbency. 35 other states it was, as predicted, down.

First rule of mobisuasion: if your words don’t spread they don’t work. If base won’t carry message middle won’t hear it. /1

https://twitter.com/jenancona/status/1588983922121408513

Second rule: Magnetism. If you want people to come to your cause, be attractive. That means drawing people to you by, yes, having a polarity and accepting this will repel those who would never agree with you anyway. /2

Periodic reminder that what you're reading is simply some pollster waving a magic math wand to conjecture who is likely to vote. This election will come down to margin of effort. Media and pollsters have every incentive to predict GOP win and every disincentive to lift up good Dem performance. They over-rated Dems in '16 and '20 and got pilloried for it.
Note - not saying what's actually true - we won't know till votes (not surveys) are totaled.

Why did we make this ad with this storyline? /1

https://twitter.com/WayToWinAF/status/1587442320399441920

America has always been more than a country. America has always been an (often bloody) argument. /2

The thing about talking about the existential threats that Trump Republicans pose AND getting to the heart of what's top of mind for voters - making ends meet - is that these are ONE IN THE SAME. /1 You can - and should - talk about "democracy issues" but there's no reason to do so using that phrase. There are simple ways to link the total assaults on all of freedoms - bodily and budgetary. /2

Slow clap for this stunning example of a passive construction /1 Person who literally writes media headlines, at acknowledged pinnacle of determining what constitutes "news" that's "fit to print" presents headlines as self scribed. /2