Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos
Markos Moulitsas, founder and publisher of the the popular liberal political blog Daily Kos, was a guest on the “Make It Plain” podcast with host Rev. Mark Thompson a/k/a Matsimela Mapfumo yesterday, and had much to say about how Democrats are communicating in the current political climate. Mostly, according to Markos (who usually goes by his first name, or his U.S. Army nickname “Kos,”) the Democrats are falling down on the job, which is hurting them at election time:
We’re in trouble if we don’t learn how to talk to people and focus on the issues they care about.
First, according to Markos, the Democrats need to pick their subject and stick to it (a concept which we have advocated here since 2011). Most importantly:
Democrats really need to get back to, one, the economy, right? That’s the thing everybody is always concerned about, that’s the thing that’s most important… But if Democrats can’t present themselves as a party that is singularly focused on improving people’s lives, and Mark, young people can’t afford to buy a house.
In that regard, says Markos, liberal advocacy groups need to be careful about painting Democratic candidates into a corner over “niche issues”:
That doesn’t mean that if you are a Latino advocacy group, you’re not fighting for the issues you’re fighting for, but you gotta give space to a politician to focus on the one thing they need to focus on, which is, how are they going to make everybody’s lives better?
Second, according to Markos, Democrats must use simpler language. For example:
Now, we go around talking about ‘economically disadvantaged Americans,’ right? People know ‘poor.’ They don’t know ‘economically disadvantaged.’… Donald Trump speaks at a fourth grade level. We laugh at Donald Trump for his vocabulary, and him saying ‘THIS IS BAD!’, ‘UNFAIR!’ with all caps and exclamation points. The vast majority of people, that’s what they understand.
Markos even cited U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders as an old dog (he’s 83) who has learned some new tricks in this regard:
Here’s a quote from Bernie Sanders from a recent campaign rally…. He says, ‘We have a nation which is now run by a handful of greedy billionaires. I used to talk about “oligarchy,” and people say, “what is he talking about?” Everybody knows what I’m talking about tonight.’ Even he’s realizing that using words like the ‘oligarchy’ really does not serve him, right? It narrows the audience. Everybody knows what a ‘greedy billionaire’ is, and more so today than ever. ‘Oligarchy,’ it’s a fancy word. We need to get away from using words like that.
Once again, what Markos said is the same thing we have been talking about for years. We agree with him that, if Democrats focus on (1) sticking to the issues that most people care about, especially the economy and jobs; and (2) presenting their agenda in the simplest terms, they will achieve greater success in upcoming elections. “Make It Plain” indeed.
Photo by Neeta Lind, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/KiKiel
