Sledgehammers In Connecting With Voters
BY MICHAEL TOBMAN
To the chorus opining on the hows and whys of Democrats poor performance last month, both nationally and for the New York State Senate, Im adding discussion on the clumsy use of needlessly confrontational language. Having worked for 20 years with candidates and incumbents from both parties at all levels of government, I was taken aback by widespread Democratic focus on culture so obsessive it became as offensive as it was clearly ineffective. The Democratic message was hijacked by constituencies whose internal concerns require unending discussion on culture wars while many voters, it was shown, believe most of those battles to be already won in favor of inclusion and fairness.
Voters were hearing from Democratic candidates about dire crises concerning gender equity, workplace discrimination, reproductive rights, discrimination based on sexual orientation, civil rights, and marriage equality while, for some time now, Americans have been immersed in a media and popular culture environment celebrating and advancing accomplishments in those same areas. For every campaign ad highlighting womens rights, there are the strong female leads in The Good Wife and Scandal. For every direct appeal to the LGBTQ community, there is Neil Patrick Harris being fabulous at whatever he does and Modern Family. For every focus on obvious and awful racial disparities, police violence in communities of color, and bias, there is an African-American sitting in the Oval Office and Lupita Nyongo winning an Oscar. For every emailed fundraising appeal based on the availability of reproductive health services, there are glowing reviews of Jenny Slates The Obvious Child.
Its really much worse than you think will never make a winning campaign.
The disconnect between campaigns and culture has become too great to allow for effective use of the latter as motivation to go to the polls. The speed at which entertainment and media have made previously controversial issues mainstream has far outpaced Democratic playbooks, whatever the actual facts of the situation may be and no matter how at risk gains remain.
When a scalpel is needed, advocacy and culture war language can only mimic a sledgehammer. Insisting that voters care about issues they have internalized as already settled is insulting. Insulting voters, has been my experience, is not an effective way to earn their support.
Michael Tobman is an independent Brooklyn-based political consultant.
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Sledgehammers In Connecting With Voters