On Messaging in Progressive Politics

By Grayson Burr and Emma Davis, Durham University

Photo Credit: Reuters

“When you walk through a storm / Hold your head up high / And don’t be afraid / Of the dark.” (“You’ll Never Walk Alone”, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II).

6.8 million fewer Democrats voted for Kamala Harris than they did Joe Biden in 2020. Considering this lacuna, there is evidently ample discussion within the party about who is to blame, what went wrong, and how to rectify. Democracy of course requires a healthy dialogue between all participating parties, however acrimonious the politics and divided the Nation may be, crucially one aspect we must avoid is the splitting into camps. Abraham Lincoln persevered during the Civil War by aligning himself with both members within his own party and the opposition who disagreed with him, which ultimately allowed our nation to remain united.

The issue with finger pointing is that we can essentially point everywhere. Political parties, global media, and the broader ecosystem supporting our democratic process have fundamentally failed to support the concept of our democracy by bending perceptions of reality. The Republicans have allowed a fringe element to infiltrate the party’s core; the Democrats have failed to provide a convincing alternative view. The media, for their part, have pursued sensationalism as opposed to dealing with reality.

Granted, right-wing movements are rising globally. The world is in a period of intense crisis, with conflicts quickly escalating over many dimensions. Vulnerable groups are increasingly put in precarious situations. Few are blind to this reality, yet most feel utterly helpless in the rise of these dark forces. America’s journey is neither singular nor isolated; instead consider it the culmination of global tendencies and a lackadaisical approach to politics in academic circles, compounded by a systematic disenfranchisement of a large part of our population.

Decades of navel gazing have led us down a path of downright ignorance. We have for too long been preoccupied by discourses pertaining to fringe topics, sucked in further by the so-called culture wars, that we have not spent adequate energy on earnestly fulfilling the needs of most of the population. While Bidenomics may not be sexy, and certainly did not win the election a few weeks ago, the core principles of not overlooking the middle and working classes should have been the focus of the campaign, in the same way that the MAGA-verse put pocketbooks—the bread and butter issue—front and center. Watching the exit interviews of Trump voters now proliferating the internet, the sheer gap in this election comes down more to the progressive caucus’ fundamental inability to communicate effectively how its policies work; we failed to demonstrate a realistic and lucid view of current economic circumstances.

Decades of introspection and re-calculation are needed to find the correct formula to rectify this fundamental issue, however we must begin with a total re-evaluation of our core priorities and how we communicate values. To take core constituencies for granted, to try and campaign through “joy” when so many are failing to provide basic necessities for their families, was a foolish mistake. The important thing to understand is that no one alone is at fault, we have operated in the wrong frame of mind for so long that we were blind to our own grave messaging errors. We need to meet people where they are. Failing this endeavor, a more serious clique in the center needs to form a third path forward, divorced of extreme MAGA and self-absorbed progressive politics.

Today, an unchecked MAGA-Republican Government will be given total power to alter the fabric of America and its place in the world. Tomorrow, the global opposition must arm itself intellectually to face the task of reformulating its message, must refocus its aims and dig deep into its soul to find the grit necessary to resist, and one day overcome. Never forget that Vice-President Harris is correct, “the light of America’s promise will always burn bright”. We “believe in the […] light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eludes [us now], but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——” (F. Scott Fitzgerald).