Propaganda War Update

Since 9/11 the Democratic Party's leaders have been consistently losing the propaganda war to the Republican Party's leaders. I suppose we could argue over how badly Democrats have been losing. We might not agree over why. But there's no doubt that for a generation, now, the conservative politicians and flacks have consistently been better at motivating their brand of voters than their liberal counterparts have been at coaching up their voters.

Sure, in the last 20 years the left won a few battles. Still, more often than not, the right has gotten some version of what it wanted in the way of public perception to stick to the wall. 

OK, during his presidency, Barrack Obama scored some points in the game -- Obamacare! -- but if he had actually won most of the key information battles during his eight years in the White House, we probably wouldn't have had to suffer through four years of President Trump. Thus, while Obama's charm got him elected president twice, policy-wise, he still didn't change many minds, to sell the Democrats' other progressive problem-solving ideas. 

However, during the Obama presidency, the charm-challenged Mitch McConnell -- helped by the surly Tea Party movement -- stiff-armed the Democrats' agenda, quite effectively. And, they somehow seemed to convince John Q. Public that having the GOP standing as the party of, "No!" and tax cuts (which is an oblique way of saying, "No") was a worthy strategy. 

Put another way, if liberals have really been right about how to deal with, even solve, the USA's biggest problems, how come we haven't seen a healthy majority of voters in two-thirds of the states happy to buy their approach? How come so many people still don't trust science? Instead, while optimistic but boring Democrats have talked about how to craft solutions, pessimistic but angry Republicans have consistently drowned them out by hurling blame at Democrats. 

Consequently, the river of disinformation coming out of extreme right-wingers has been shaping John Q. Public's perception of what actually constitutes a problem. For instance, how the hell is outlawing abortion truly solving a problem? Consequently, the USA has been in the process of creeping toward the policies of backward nations that routinely treat women as semi-citizens who don't enjoy the same rights as full-citizens: men.

With the mid-terms six months away, well-meaning Democratic Party candidates don't have a lot of time to wise up, reconfigure their approach to messaging and start winning the propaganda war. 

Come on, Democrats! If Trump isn't the most mock-worthy politician in the country, who is? And, there are plenty of mock-worthy weirdos in the Republican Party lining up to be the next Trump. 

So, remember, when it comes to being persuasive, being the funniest guy in the room is sometimes better than being the smartest guy in the room.