Can Democrats Step Up Their Media Game?

Time to join the 21st Century.

Fox News host Jesse Watters had a supervillain monologue moment on his show this week where he detailed MAGA’s evil scheme for world domination. There was even some maniacal laughter.

“We are waging a 21st Century information warfare campaign against the Left,” he raved. “What you’re seeing on the right is asymmetrical … Someone says something on social media, [Elon] Musk retweets it, [Joe] Rogan podcasts it, Fox broadcasts it … and by the time it reaches everybody, millions of people have seen it.”

He boldly admits that his employer and his own hate-filled show are all part of an obvious right-wing propaganda death ray pointed at American democracy. Supervillains often talk too much, revealing their plans to the hero, who has time to work out how to stop them. Unfortunately, Watters reminds me of Ozymandias from Watchmen (just far less attractive).

“Do it?” Ozymandias responds when asked when he’d launch his attack. “I’m not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I’d explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”

Right-wing propaganda was seeded about 35 years ago, starting with talk radio, and quickly took root. Now, Democrats are scrambling to respond while people like Watters laugh in our faces.

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If Only Democrats Were In Disarray

Democrats are getting smoked on social media. They have far less reach and impact than Republicans. They are slow to react to right-wing narratives and seem stuck in 1990s communication styles. Democratic House Rep. Steny Hoyer went even further back during an anti-DOGE rally. “You remember the name Don Devine?” he asked the crowd. “That was Patty cake compared to Russell Vought.”

It’s fair to say no one present remembered the name Don Devine, who was director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during Ronald Reagan’s first term, more than 40 years ago.

How a right-coded media environment boosts Trump

A majority of swing voters, including Hispanics, primarily receive their news through social media and podcasts, which are heavily right-coded. Democrats have struggled to catch up and have only grown further removed from what was once their key demos, especially young people. Their media strategy still relies on traditional media, and even there they don’t come across that well.

During a recent cable news interview, Rep. Gerry Connolly, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee for some reason, looked as if he’d never used webcam technology. He was poorly lit, off-center, and didn’t even bother with a functioning microphone. This is 2025! (Watch radio host Sam Seder’s scathing critique below.)

Cory Booker is a few decades younger than Connolly but his communication style is just as fossilized. He’s in charge of the Senate Democrats’ social media account, which posts dense text messages no one reads all the way through. I repeat once again that this is 2025, and video content consistently boasts higher engagement rates. Users are far more inclined to like, share, and comment on video posts compared to text messages and still images. According to a 2020 article on storytelling through video, viewers retain 95 percent of a video's message compared to just 10 percent when reading the text. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace almost always posts videos of her latest, attention-seeking bigoted stunt.

According to The New York Times, Booker advised Democrats on how to deliver their message online through a PowerPoint presentation. (Presumably the terms “drill down” and “all aligned” were used.) The result is absolutely depressing:

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s social media post above, which you probably didn’t read, is dull and emotionless. Body language and verbal tone play a powerful role in advancing a message. Although, admittedly, it doesn’t help much when Schumer speaks in public, either.

Right-coded media is successful because their messages don’t sound like focus group-tested press releases. Pete Buttigieg, who spends too much time on Fox News, recently noted that Joe Rogan’s audience aren’t “looking for politics, they’re looking for what protein powder to use … a lot of folks aren’t looking for political content, but it’s finding them.”

Rogan’s podcast is number one among Black listeners, and more than 20 percent of his audience is Hispanic. The solution isn’t specifically a “Joe Rogan for the Left,” but someone who is culturally left-coded. Rogan just presents as a “dude” and has built a parasocial relationship with his audience. Democrats need to do the same. (Some good news: TheMeidasTouch Podcast just dethroned Rogan as the most-listened-to podcast.)

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith had some good advice for what type of leader could fill the gap. Basically, it’s someone who sounds like a normal person who’s not trying to sell us Amway products. (Watch below.)

Why Democrats Should Start Acting Like A Democratic Political Party

This week, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin released what he called “a framework detailing how the Democratic Party will fight against Trump’s war on working people.” It was just more of the same but in a different shade of blue. Perhaps Democrats are losing the communication battle because they don’t know what they should communicate.

Dan Sena, a longtime Democratic strategist, warned that any real fix is “going to come through our candidates pushing back, getting their own internal communications sharper as we head into 2026.”

And maybe Gerry Connolly can buy a microphone for his interviews.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engages in a genuine, personal way on social media. Her posts read as if she actually wrote them, yet she can also remain on message. On YouTube and Instagram Live, she talks with actual voters not just cable news hosts, and she breaks down what’s happening as if we’re all in on this together. She also knows how to center a camera.

Of course, if Democrats truly took this issue seriously, they would replace their failed leadership and elevate people who are willing and capable of fighting a 21st Century communications war. That’s obviously not Chuck Schumer or even relatively young Hakeem Jeffries, who has “unveiled” the devastating new nickname for Donald Trump — “Captain Chaos.” That doesn’t quite reinforce the threat. It sounds like a children’s TV show where the goofy host uses a lot of prop comedy and picks a kid from the audience each week to hit him in the face with a cream pie.

AOC’s media strategy isn’t some kooky thing the “kids” do (she’s 35 years old, by the way). It’s how every Democrat, especially leadership, should communicate. I fear the reason most of them don’t is because they understand on a fundamental level that they can’t.