IdeaLog

A short to-do list for progressives

Posted on November 13, 2024

It’s fair to say that our side does not have a good grasp on why Trump won, which is essential to know in order to win in the future. Most explanations are, quite naturally, focused on what Democrats and Republicans have done or failed to do. And some of those grievances are true, but none really explain this moment in history.

Trump and right-wing Republicans won primarily because the U.S. was subjected to the same strategy that has been successful in promoting extremism around the world and especially in Europe. The key tactics are: (1) dominating communications systems, especially the Internet, in order to distort the target audience’s perception of reality; (2) demonizing and dehumanizing comparatively small or weak minority groups and their allies; and (3) encouraging contempt for democratic institutions, independent media, and the rule of law.

Democrats lost the 2024 elections narrowly; the state-by-state margins were quite similar to congressional elections in 2022. So the right-wing noise machine only persuaded a small percentage to abandon Democrats for Republicans or third-party candidates, or decide not to vote in 2024. That noise machine continues to operate every hour of every day. What, in a nutshell, do we need to do to win in 2026?

(1) Make Americans understand that today’s extremism is the result of a top-down strategy. Conservative Americans didn’t individually decide to believe a series of absurd ideas; a group of billionaires seeking greater political and economic power targeted them with a firehose of strategic lies. A small percentage of minorities didn’t individually decide to abandon the Democrats; they were microtargeted on the Internet with strategic counterintuitive messages. And let’s be clear, Donald Trump did not invent and does not direct this movement. He is, instead, surfing the wave; this movement fits his personality, situation and beliefs better than it fits anyone else. We must understand the worldwide right-wing movement in order to fight it.

(2) Expose who is financing this extremism. The media acts like this happened naturally, which is absurd. There has been no real effort by Democrats or the media to make the public understand that a small group of billionaires is manipulating them. A few years ago, our side backed an effort to expose the role of the Koch Brothers which was, at least, modestly successful. There needs to be a new project to expose the billionaires behind today’s extremism.

(3) Create new methods for progressives to reach persuadable voters in between elections. The Harris campaign spent a billion dollars in less than three months. What’s missing is well-designed messaging on the Internet, especially social media, during the other 21 months between elections. We’re never going to win with online ads during campaigns; our side has to communicate our messages 24/7 from person-to-person on social media (or bot-to-person as the right-wing does).

(4) Adopt an economic message that’s appealing to persuadables. Average Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. They are miserable and they want somebody to blame. The right-wing tells them that black and brown people are causing their misery. Americans are going to believe that unless we give them a more truthful alternative. The truth is, of course, this misery is caused by a 40-year effort by some (but not all) of the rich to take a larger and larger share of the economic pie. Just imagine, Democrats didn’t even tell average Americans that inflation was substantially caused by the very corporations that raised their prices! This argument would have worked because people are always ready to blame the wealthy and powerful. But because our side didn’t have a message, persuadable voters accepted the right-wing message instead.

(5) Ban bots that engage in fraud. Bots are a major tool, perhaps the most effective tool, to push extremist lies. Nobody knows how many there are, but probably hundreds of millions. Nobody knows who controls various groups of bots, but Russia controls a lot of them. Bots on social media are impersonations, they constitute fraud. State Attorneys General should launch investigations and lawsuits against this fraud in order to protect our nation and our world.