As Bob Dylan wrote, "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" (and yes, there is a lot of applicable subtext to how that phrase was used then, and how it may well be adopted to our current situation). In other words, the villagers have started thinking about gathering their pitchforks and torches. They don't need complex polling that attempts to suss out the perfect communication tool. They know the monster isn't capitalism—it's the abuse of capitalism. And the the abusers are the oligarchs who use their vast wealth to exert power over them. The oligarchs who own the media and control how reality is manipulated, who have monopolized corporations and control what goods are offered and at what price, who harvest their personal data and monetize it, who control which candidates are offered up and how they stand on issues, who decide how much of their health care will be covered, where data centers are built, which wars are fought, etc., etc., etc. The villagers know the monster is oligarchy. They know that what is happening in Russia is beginning to happen in America. The urgency is palpable. The villagers only need a clear, unambiguous unifying message concerning where the monster lives.
Key term here is "persuadable Trump voters." That's the target. Oligarchy is a mouthful word, one that college people use, so "not people like me." Don't underestimate power of an independent line of thought such as Ossoff taking on Trump's obvious corruption. It's fresh, not some tested talking point. Also, politics is about personality as much as policy, maybe even more so. Voting done by one liner X factor: I like X. I dislike X were Clinton, Biden (2024), Harris problems.
"Economic populism" - if that's the goal - should probably start with how to address the needs of the largest population of voters. Most of the population is in a household with income that exceeds thresholds for SNAP or Medicaid, so their path to affordability is much less driven by government programs and much more driven by taxes and interest rates. That segment of voters (who don't qualify for government programs) likely won't benefit from increasing tax rates on the rich.
In addition, many programs ascribed to economic populism depend on "ifs" before realizing outcomes: getting trained on green energy like windmills makes sense if you can move to very rural areas, free bus fares make sense if you can afford living in HCOL metro areas, free college education makes sense if companies recruit in your major from your school after you've spent years on a college education.
That's not to say that all programs are ineffective from the get go. Rather, selling a program requires belief in government execution from voters. That is a very tough sell to voters who don't believe the government can execute on the programs it already runs.
Utterly hilarious and A+ headline btw. “You know what I’m fired up about?”
It’s kind of a wierd leap to conflate the RCN with what seems like is actually race-first messaging.
Nope.
As Bob Dylan wrote, "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" (and yes, there is a lot of applicable subtext to how that phrase was used then, and how it may well be adopted to our current situation). In other words, the villagers have started thinking about gathering their pitchforks and torches. They don't need complex polling that attempts to suss out the perfect communication tool. They know the monster isn't capitalism—it's the abuse of capitalism. And the the abusers are the oligarchs who use their vast wealth to exert power over them. The oligarchs who own the media and control how reality is manipulated, who have monopolized corporations and control what goods are offered and at what price, who harvest their personal data and monetize it, who control which candidates are offered up and how they stand on issues, who decide how much of their health care will be covered, where data centers are built, which wars are fought, etc., etc., etc. The villagers know the monster is oligarchy. They know that what is happening in Russia is beginning to happen in America. The urgency is palpable. The villagers only need a clear, unambiguous unifying message concerning where the monster lives.
God forbid a data center gets built in my town! What ever would I do with lower property taxes?
Key term here is "persuadable Trump voters." That's the target. Oligarchy is a mouthful word, one that college people use, so "not people like me." Don't underestimate power of an independent line of thought such as Ossoff taking on Trump's obvious corruption. It's fresh, not some tested talking point. Also, politics is about personality as much as policy, maybe even more so. Voting done by one liner X factor: I like X. I dislike X were Clinton, Biden (2024), Harris problems.
"Economic populism" - if that's the goal - should probably start with how to address the needs of the largest population of voters. Most of the population is in a household with income that exceeds thresholds for SNAP or Medicaid, so their path to affordability is much less driven by government programs and much more driven by taxes and interest rates. That segment of voters (who don't qualify for government programs) likely won't benefit from increasing tax rates on the rich.
In addition, many programs ascribed to economic populism depend on "ifs" before realizing outcomes: getting trained on green energy like windmills makes sense if you can move to very rural areas, free bus fares make sense if you can afford living in HCOL metro areas, free college education makes sense if companies recruit in your major from your school after you've spent years on a college education.
That's not to say that all programs are ineffective from the get go. Rather, selling a program requires belief in government execution from voters. That is a very tough sell to voters who don't believe the government can execute on the programs it already runs.