Dems Are Losing the Messaging War—Can Mean Girls Save the Day?
A viral comedian is making the case that snark is a powerful tool. Is she right?
As we saw at this week’s faux State of the Union, a lot of Democrats are still unsure how to respond, react and push back against the insanity that is happening in our country, against the reality show that Trump is continually rescripting.
The NYT put it best:
“Party leaders opted for a soberly delivered, centrist counter to the president’s speech, but the dominant image of Democratic pushback was a liberal congressman waving his cane in protest.”
A Reid Hoffman backed pollster found that 40% of voters think Dems have no strategy to respond to Trump.
While many Congressional Dems are still messaging like it’s 2004 people like Rep. Jasmine Crockett are online saying that she would tell Trump “to grow a spine and stop being Putin’s ho.”
But what is the right answer? Should we still adhere to Michelle Obama’s advice to go high when they go low? I’m not even sure Michelle Obama wants us to follow that advice any longer.
If you’ve followed me for a while you know that one of my biggest arguments is that we have to view the messaging ecosystem as much bigger than only Congressional Dems. Politicians are inherently tied to upholding institutions, their message is not for the moment. And they lack one of the most powerful tools that we have at our disposal: humor.
Trump and his cronies are people with both massive egos and big insecurities and they hate to be laughed at.
Humor can safely challenge authority, question established norms, and rally the public against oppressive forces. Political humor, in particular, represents a sophisticated form of democratic defiance. As George Orwell once wrote: "Every joke is a tiny revolution.
Social media has turned all of us into potential political satirists. There's something delicious about that. All these regular people distilling complicated political nonsense into a single image with a caption that cuts through the official blah-blah-blah like a hot knife through butter.
Today I’m sharing a frank and fun conversation with someone who definitely has a strong opinion on humor as a way to push back against power. Suzanne Lambert has probably appeared in your scroll as the “Regina George liberal” or the instigator of the “Republican Makeup Trend.” She’s a D.C.-based comedian who has a very specific hot take on how the left should be responding right now. She believes that the time for nice has passed and that it might just benefit us all to lean a little more Regina George and channel our inner mean girl.
EMILY: I love the Republican makeup trend so much. It’s a funny and consumable way to viscerally convey the ugliness of MAGA’s desire to stay in the past. The core feature of Republican makeup is that it’s incredibly dated, over done and not flattering. For readers who aren’t aware, can you explain the trend and why you started talking about it?