What I left out...

It's the vibes, folks. Dem leaders are giving the Dictatorship a free pass (I know, not ALL Dem leaders).

When I wrote to you last week about what I had planned for this upcoming season of the column/podcast, I left out one very important ingredient.

My own voice.

Yes, we need to understand where we are and where we’re going. Yes, we need to know why understanding the past correctly matters so much. And we will do that.

I want to say now something that I should have mentioned last week. I’m not just going to interview folks.

I’m going to use my own voice. We need to talk about emotion-based communications that right now only Gavin Newsom, Jasmine Crockett, and a few others are using. We need to be calling out the regime and its concentration camps. We need to learn to own the news cycle. And we need to be using messaging that works. Because right now the Trump regime is setting the agenda every. single. fucking. day.

There are lots of folks here on Substack that are doing a great job uncovering the truth and making meaning of it (like

Dean Blundell

Zev Shalev

Nick Paro

Ellie Leonard

Aaron Parnas

Chris Armitage

Dr. Steven Hassan

Kevin M. Levin

Mary L Trump

Andra Watkins

Walter Rhein

The Opinionated Ogre

LOLGOP and so many more)! But out there in the political world, national dems are letting the regime control the news cycle. They’re not going on offense. They’re not reframing the discussion the way it needs to be framed. They’re always on their back foot b/c they let the Rs lay down the terms of the discussion. That won’t get us anywhere, except further down the road of horrors that a dictatorship brings.

We need to be using words that mean something. That grab people in the feels.

I may need to say it again.

Policy doesn’t matter; vibes do. Good policy won’t win Dems any points if they’re not talking about it in a way that connects with voters. And voters are tuned out if they can be, because the real world is too overwhelming. So we need to be using popular culture and attention grabbing tactics to break through the bubble everyone wants to live in.

And we need to fucking stop talking about 2028. We won’t get there at the rate we’re going. It doesn’t matter right now what Newsom is going to do in a couple years. It matters what he’s doing now. It doesn’t matter whether Kamala’s going to run, or what Pete is doing to build an organization. We need to be focused on what Dem leaders need to do TODAY instead of lying down and showing their bellies.

Refrain from calling everything a distraction. Trump’s distractions are part of a strategy to flood the zone. It’s ALL important to consolidating power…none of the actions are distractions from anything else. It all works together to gather and harden power. When you tell people their issue is a distraction, all you do is alienate them more.

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As Obama once said, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Here’s my recipe for leadership dems and the base:

1. Frame the discourse

2. Go on offense

3. Stop the fucking pearl clutching

4. Stop the gdamn purity testing

5. Stand up for the people

6. Stop calling things a distraction

7. Start to frame a vision of what we want America to be. Not what it was and has been.

And as for us, the activists.

1. We need more organized protests

2. Pay attention to what Blue states are doing to shore up innovation, protect the community, fight the regime. There are some roadmaps there that will be crucial in the coming months, years, etc.

3. Keep up the investigative reporting

4. Do more to create a solid community here on substack and in other places thinkers and doers gather.

5. Focus on the feelings, not the policies.

6. Use the language that cognitive-based messaging people like

   Anat Shenker-Osorio
   Antonia Scatton
   Aviv Russ
   and more are recommending. Don’t sink too much time into rhetorical traps that give more power to the dictator. Pay attention to the recommendations and USE them.

7. Make some viral moments.

There’s so much more, and I’ll come back to it over time. For now, do one thing that gives you hope. Because hope is an action, a muscle that we need to exercise, in order to keep going and working for the country we want, not the country we have.

My action is engaging more on here, talking to more substackers, speaking up with my own voice and bringing you conversations about why it all matters. What’s yours?

Happy Labor Day, my friends. Let’s use our collective power, like labor has always shown us.

Peace.

Here’s another link to the conversation I had with

Ellie Leonard

this last week.