The big secret is that voters don’t really look over a candidate ticking off boxes to see if they agree on issues—voters go with gut reactions and if they like or dislike the candidate, they’ll vote based on that even if that doesn’t line up with their preferences (really, do you ever say “well I’m voting for Senator Jones because they agree with me on issues 1 through 5, and not Senator Smith because they only agree with me on issues 1 through 3”?). This also explains why every time Trump “breaks” with GOP orthodoxy on some issue, those “wow, now conservatives will no longer support him” takes keep failing.
And one thing Slotkin is part right on is voters HATE weak. They love fighters, and will sooner support a fighter they disagree with on some issues than a weakling they agree with on everything, because the former could be useful to them and the latter is useful to nobody.
Finally, it’s ok to use focus groups, but (1) make sure you act like someone who has never seen a focus group before and (2) remember the limitations on focus groups. After all it was focus groups that told Coke that customers preferred the taste of Pepsi so they’d need to roll out a new Coke.
People: I don’t have to personally like you to have the desire for all to have decent health care, a livable wage and a roof over your head that doesn’t eat your whole paycheck.
Politicians: I don’t have to agree with them 100% but they must have the desire to get actually get the work done for all Americans and be loud about those who would take us all back to the Middle Ages. This is how AOC and Jasmine Crockett rock
"Alpha" is a shit term for shit people anyway. Don't need it. Don't fucking need focus groups either.
You need strength. Whether it is a loud, boisterous, passionate union leader or prophet or a quiet person who stands in front of the mob and says "No farther. Move."
You need courage. Courage to face that mob. Courage to face assassins. Courage to stand in front of tanks. Courage to be willing to die on a hotel balcony. Courage to be beaten, blasted with fire hoses, attacked by dogs, and jailed. Courage to be ripped from jail by a mob and lynched. Courage to stick with your principles no matter how many stand against you.
You need the courage of a little girl being escorted to school by troopers while angry people scream obscenities at you.
If you can't muster the same courage as that little girl, you don't have any business trying to lead others.
You need morals, ethics, principles.
You need intelligence. You need empathy. Intelligence to see that your opponents have broken the system irreparably and that the status quo wasn't really working for most people anyway. Schools were still largely segregated. Women and minorities still made less money. Black people were still subject to State and mob violence, people spent their lives in poverty, hopelessness, and misery and turned often to self-medication to cope.
So standing up and promising a return to normal is not the inspiring shit moderates seem to think it is.
Capitalism, unfettered capitalism, has captured the laws and the government and left tens of millions of people behind and teaching them how to code or how to use AI LLMs isn't going to do miracles.
Ultimately, do we care? Do we care enough? Do we care enough to die for our beliefs? Do we care enough to suffer? Do we care that our neighbors suffer?
Or are we just angry at Trump because he disturbs our own personal comfort and feeling of safety and we want to just return to a time when we were safe and warm and comfortable and could shut out the bad news for tens of millions of other people?
Well, AOC needs to get in the barrel and actually declare against Schumer. That's how this gets changed. After all she has wide appeal in her House district, so I want to see what she does with the Senate. And given the brickbats out for Schumer, now is the time. Let's let the rubber hit the road. Has she declared yet?
That is a really, really interesting data point that Slotkin won with fewer votes than Harris. W.T.F. Also the whole blank ballot except for Klan Robe thing...that is really bizarre and I wonder what that was about. I assume they were definitely all in for the ethnic cleansing.
Thirdly, I do find it's a lot easier to demonize Marxism when you have a rightwing media human centipede to help reinforce the smears. (Also doesn't hurt that there's been 70+ years of bashing Marxism to turn it into a shibboleth) History has shown me too that it's hard to get Americans to actually care about one another when you get down to it.
For all Buttigieg and AOC's great communication, I'd love to see them inspire the big changes in the upcoming election that people say they want. I do know that people are happy with AOC when she's saying that the Democratic Party leadership sucks, but they really didn't want to listen to her (or, say, Bernie Sanders) when they were urging people to not abandon Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
I have always liked AOC. People would tell me that she’s too “progressive” like that’s a bad word. Do we want to be stuck where we are? It’s time for her to have a leadership role in this experiment. And I hope she brings Crockett with her.
You are right, Stephen, on all counts, even the part about voters choosing the coolest candidate for president for the past 40 years. Harris was cool until she listened to the focus groups that the paid political consultants put together. Dems need to ditch both, because they help them lose, not to win. As for coolness - magas may think that trump is cool, but no one else does. He lost the popular vote in 2016 and in 2020, and eked out a popular win in 2024, only because enough Dem voters stayed home.
I particularly like the part where you wrote about Dems defending the principles (which are popular) and not accepting RW framing on issues. That is being strong, but calling human beings distractions is weak.
ETA: yes, I know that the popular vote doesn't count for president, but trump's popular vote totals show just how unpopular he really is, as do his latest numbers from all of the latest polling. Also - I would like to know just who participated in these focus groups?
She is promoted by Schumer, no thanks , she’s in it for the money. We need fighters not equivocation. She voted with republicans on the cabinet which is in the process of dynamiting our democracy. Get lost lady, We The People are tired of the quislings in our govt.,
OK, first of all, LOL: "demonstrating that she can’t even pick a fight with the Senate leadership equivalent of a paper bag."
Second, damn right: DEI, woke, and everything else the Repubs are trying to vilify are what this country is all about. Embrace, educate, and call out these bastards for their evil sh*t. Election wins will follow, and become more inevitable every day of this clownshow administration.
“Democrats like Slotkin wouldn’t know how to respond to electoral losses if they couldn’t blame the party’s left wing.”
I think you’ve hit on the core problem within the Democratic party these days. The recalcitrant old-school Dems are reluctant to forfeit having it both ways, by attacking Repubs AND their party’s own “radical” party faction, in order to preserve their comfortable political careers. But they can no longer fight us all. Lead, follow, or get out of the way, Democrats.
The big secret is that voters don’t really look over a candidate ticking off boxes to see if they agree on issues—voters go with gut reactions and if they like or dislike the candidate, they’ll vote based on that even if that doesn’t line up with their preferences (really, do you ever say “well I’m voting for Senator Jones because they agree with me on issues 1 through 5, and not Senator Smith because they only agree with me on issues 1 through 3”?). This also explains why every time Trump “breaks” with GOP orthodoxy on some issue, those “wow, now conservatives will no longer support him” takes keep failing.
And one thing Slotkin is part right on is voters HATE weak. They love fighters, and will sooner support a fighter they disagree with on some issues than a weakling they agree with on everything, because the former could be useful to them and the latter is useful to nobody.
Finally, it’s ok to use focus groups, but (1) make sure you act like someone who has never seen a focus group before and (2) remember the limitations on focus groups. After all it was focus groups that told Coke that customers preferred the taste of Pepsi so they’d need to roll out a new Coke.
"Slotkin doesn’t sound like an American who has a core set of beliefs she’s willing to passionately promote, regardless of how the wind is blowing.".
Its overthinking.
Simply passionately And truthfullytell people what you stand for then let them decide if they want what you're selling.
Don't water anything down, and don't change your message depending on your audience.
"Slotkin doesn’t sound like an American who has a core set of beliefs she’s willing to passionately promote, regardless of how the wind is blowing.".
Its overthinking.
Simply passionately And truthfullytell people what you stand for then let them decide if they want what you're selling.
Don't water anything down, and don't change your message depending on your audience.
"Slotkin doesn’t sound like an American who has a core set of beliefs she’s willing to passionately promote, regardless of how the wind is blowing.".
Its overthinking.
Simply passionately And truthfullytell people what you stand for then let them decide if they want what you're selling.
Don't water anything down, and don't change your message depending on your audience.
"Slotkin doesn’t sound like an American who has a core set of beliefs she’s willing to passionately promote, regardless of how the wind is blowing.".
Its overthinking.
Simply passionately And truthfullytell people what you stand for then let them decide if they want what you're selling.
Don't water anything down, and don't change your message depending on your audience.
People: I don’t have to personally like you to have the desire for all to have decent health care, a livable wage and a roof over your head that doesn’t eat your whole paycheck.
Politicians: I don’t have to agree with them 100% but they must have the desire to get actually get the work done for all Americans and be loud about those who would take us all back to the Middle Ages. This is how AOC and Jasmine Crockett rock
GAH! QUAD CHARTS! GAH!
"Alpha" is a shit term for shit people anyway. Don't need it. Don't fucking need focus groups either.
You need strength. Whether it is a loud, boisterous, passionate union leader or prophet or a quiet person who stands in front of the mob and says "No farther. Move."
You need courage. Courage to face that mob. Courage to face assassins. Courage to stand in front of tanks. Courage to be willing to die on a hotel balcony. Courage to be beaten, blasted with fire hoses, attacked by dogs, and jailed. Courage to be ripped from jail by a mob and lynched. Courage to stick with your principles no matter how many stand against you.
You need the courage of a little girl being escorted to school by troopers while angry people scream obscenities at you.
If you can't muster the same courage as that little girl, you don't have any business trying to lead others.
You need morals, ethics, principles.
You need intelligence. You need empathy. Intelligence to see that your opponents have broken the system irreparably and that the status quo wasn't really working for most people anyway. Schools were still largely segregated. Women and minorities still made less money. Black people were still subject to State and mob violence, people spent their lives in poverty, hopelessness, and misery and turned often to self-medication to cope.
So standing up and promising a return to normal is not the inspiring shit moderates seem to think it is.
Capitalism, unfettered capitalism, has captured the laws and the government and left tens of millions of people behind and teaching them how to code or how to use AI LLMs isn't going to do miracles.
Ultimately, do we care? Do we care enough? Do we care enough to die for our beliefs? Do we care enough to suffer? Do we care that our neighbors suffer?
Or are we just angry at Trump because he disturbs our own personal comfort and feeling of safety and we want to just return to a time when we were safe and warm and comfortable and could shut out the bad news for tens of millions of other people?
Well, AOC needs to get in the barrel and actually declare against Schumer. That's how this gets changed. After all she has wide appeal in her House district, so I want to see what she does with the Senate. And given the brickbats out for Schumer, now is the time. Let's let the rubber hit the road. Has she declared yet?
That is a really, really interesting data point that Slotkin won with fewer votes than Harris. W.T.F. Also the whole blank ballot except for Klan Robe thing...that is really bizarre and I wonder what that was about. I assume they were definitely all in for the ethnic cleansing.
Thirdly, I do find it's a lot easier to demonize Marxism when you have a rightwing media human centipede to help reinforce the smears. (Also doesn't hurt that there's been 70+ years of bashing Marxism to turn it into a shibboleth) History has shown me too that it's hard to get Americans to actually care about one another when you get down to it.
For all Buttigieg and AOC's great communication, I'd love to see them inspire the big changes in the upcoming election that people say they want. I do know that people are happy with AOC when she's saying that the Democratic Party leadership sucks, but they really didn't want to listen to her (or, say, Bernie Sanders) when they were urging people to not abandon Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
I have always liked AOC. People would tell me that she’s too “progressive” like that’s a bad word. Do we want to be stuck where we are? It’s time for her to have a leadership role in this experiment. And I hope she brings Crockett with her.
You are right, Stephen, on all counts, even the part about voters choosing the coolest candidate for president for the past 40 years. Harris was cool until she listened to the focus groups that the paid political consultants put together. Dems need to ditch both, because they help them lose, not to win. As for coolness - magas may think that trump is cool, but no one else does. He lost the popular vote in 2016 and in 2020, and eked out a popular win in 2024, only because enough Dem voters stayed home.
I particularly like the part where you wrote about Dems defending the principles (which are popular) and not accepting RW framing on issues. That is being strong, but calling human beings distractions is weak.
ETA: yes, I know that the popular vote doesn't count for president, but trump's popular vote totals show just how unpopular he really is, as do his latest numbers from all of the latest polling. Also - I would like to know just who participated in these focus groups?
She is promoted by Schumer, no thanks , she’s in it for the money. We need fighters not equivocation. She voted with republicans on the cabinet which is in the process of dynamiting our democracy. Get lost lady, We The People are tired of the quislings in our govt.,
Jane Fonda recently said, “Woke just means you give a damn about people.”
I've been saying to people that bang off about 'wokeness'... 'Why do you not want to treat other people decently?'
OK, first of all, LOL: "demonstrating that she can’t even pick a fight with the Senate leadership equivalent of a paper bag."
Second, damn right: DEI, woke, and everything else the Repubs are trying to vilify are what this country is all about. Embrace, educate, and call out these bastards for their evil sh*t. Election wins will follow, and become more inevitable every day of this clownshow administration.
I love good charts, they convey data easily to sighted people. But a quad chart to decide if you're going to act? Well, best keep that to yourself.
“Democrats like Slotkin wouldn’t know how to respond to electoral losses if they couldn’t blame the party’s left wing.”
I think you’ve hit on the core problem within the Democratic party these days. The recalcitrant old-school Dems are reluctant to forfeit having it both ways, by attacking Repubs AND their party’s own “radical” party faction, in order to preserve their comfortable political careers. But they can no longer fight us all. Lead, follow, or get out of the way, Democrats.