Dear Democratic National Committee,
As the analyses of the election have come in, you can see that:
- We The People were the boots on the ground, knocking on doors, phone banking, registering and assisting voters.
- Democrats and never-Trump Republicans learned and shared what we knew.
- Hundreds of experts, journalists, college professors, and ordinary citizens did the research and broadcasted podcasts and videos and wrote books and articles and blogs warning of the dangers Trump posed to our capital-D Democracy. For 10 years.
- Hundreds of Trump’s ex-staffers, former and present government officials, and defense experts banded together to sound the alarm.
- Legitimate fact-based news outlets exposed every Trump lie, scandal, failure, conviction, attack, and ignorant misstep, as well as every unconstitutional, unethical, authoritarian, undemocratic action. (These links are just a sampling.)
The magnitude of the outcry was astounding. It was The People’s brute force attempt to amplify the Truth. We gave you money, DNC — lots of it — hoping you would magnify our efforts.
Somehow, it wasn’t enough.
And why not? Because of you, DNC. Here’s what you should have done:
- Been better at reaching rural, working-class, non-white, and young voters.
- Let Harris separate herself more from Biden.
- Extolled the Biden-Harris team accomplishments, like increasing oil drilling to lower gas prices, lowering drug costs, deporting thousands of undocumented immigrants, and passing legislation to pump $1.2 trillion into the economy, adding tens of thousands of projects and hundreds of thousands of jobs into local communities.
- Nixed “talking points” and let Harris detail specific plans for lowering the cost of everyday goods, increasing affordable housing, and alleviating border issues.
- Done more to indict not just Trump’s character (which Trumpers apparently don’t give a whit about) but also his impact on everyday Americans’ pocketbooks – the impact of tariffs, and the inflation they will cause, and the risk of Trumponomics driving us into a recession.
But even if you had done all of that, it still wouldn’t have been enough. And it won’t be enough in the future.
Why? Because you, DNC, aren’t addressing the behemoth in the room: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and the Truth Divide Silo it causes.
Michael Tomasky of The New Republic articulates it well: “Today, the right-wing media sets the news agenda in this country. ... And [in 2024] they fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win.”
They were so successful, in fact, that even Democrats believed the lies, and few people (of any political persuasion) knew about Biden’s accomplishments.
Now right-wing media is continuing to serve the Kool-Aid to their audience, who sit back in their stupor, oblivious as Trump executes in rapid-fire succession one illegal, inhumane, unconstitutional action after another; as he ticks the boxes on the Authoritarian-Takeover Checklist; as hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens take to the streets across the country in protest.
The Truth Divide Silo has grown wider and taller over the past 30 years, ever since the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 and subsequent launch of Fox “News” in 1996. Every message that We The People try to put out, every scrap of Truth, rarely reaches the eyes and ears of the people in the right-wing silo.
And when it does, Trumpers don’t believe it, because the Propaganda mill is stronger than the Truth mill. When we can’t agree on facts, there’s no hope that we can heal the divide. None.
So DNC, what is your plan? Everyday citizens are hungry for a solution.
Our Democracy, the longest running, is experiencing a crisis of seismic proportions, an Uncivil Truth War, and we can’t wait four, or even one, more year for solutions. This should be Priority Number 1.
We must see evidence, DNC, of a unique strategy to break through the Right-Wing Propaganda Silo — NOW.
Remember: Autocracies thrive by manipulating facts; democracies die in the absence of them.
So I ask you again, DNC – What is your plan to break through the silo’s wall?
Because We The People can’t scream any louder.
--30--
| Tip Jars |
