The Language of Politics | Messaging Matters

The secret weapon that will make Trump lose the election

Donald Trump’s response to COVID

There is a growing electoral threat to Donald Trump, and it is poised to swamp him in the 2020 elections taking place just 99 days from now. If you guessed that the secret weapon is COVID, you’re only partially correct. Indeed, Trump’s deadly failure to respond to the Coronavirus has now claimed the lives of 150,000 Americans. But in particular, the secret weapon that is poised to defeat Trump in 2020 is a giant bloc of voters that is terrified of COVID, and that went for Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, 2020 Elections, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Democrats, direction of country, Donald Trump, Florida, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Republicans, right track, seniors, wrong track

Fabulous framing by Byron Allen regarding Donald Trump

Written on July 22, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch

Byron Allen reduces Donald Trump to black “hired help”

We like nothing better than to hear folks effectively frame their political arguments, and yesterday, black media entrepreneur Byron Allen did just that. At a Yahoo! Finance economic conference focusing on recovery from the COVID pandemic, when the subject of Donald Trump calling unflattering or inconvenient news reports “fake news,” Allen said:

President Trump is completely wrong. What he’s not understanding is that he’s nothing more than temporary hired help. He works for the American people. He answers to us, we don’t answer to him.

Allen’s statement is so important as a reminder that, while Trump has locked children in cages, sent armed thugs to kidnap peaceful protesters in our cities, refused to obey subpoenas, enriched himself and his family at our expense, and committed many other deplorable and even illegal acts while in the White House, our Constitution provides that the president is supposed to be the servant of all Americans, not the other way around. That is an important statement about who really has the power in the United States, once they recognize it.

A second brilliant element of Allen’s remarks is that he flipped the script on hundreds of years of U.S. racial history, where blacks literally were brought here against their will as “help,” i.e. as slaves, only to continue to be “hired help” for whites for generations, at substandard wages, after obtaining their freedom. By calling Trump “hired help,” Allen completely reverses this racial stereotype and reminds us that Trump, a white man, is hired to serve black Americans, brown Americans, women, and the rest of us. One could even say that Byron Allen figuratively turned Donald Trump into a black man in terms of Trump’s status in America. And finally, Allen’s description of Trump as “temporary” points us to the light at the end of the tunnel, suggesting that whatever pain Trump is inflicting upon America will end someday, hopefully by next January 20 if enough voters come out and vote the right way this November.

Well done, Byron Allen.

Photo by Kheel Center, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/K7xIVH

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Tags: Byron Allen, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Donald Trump, economy, framing, voting

Today’s Snark: Kanye West edition

Written on July 20, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Today's Snark

Kanye West, whose presidential campaign is soon to be headed south

Kanye West, who says he is running for president as an independent under the “Birthday Party,” held his first political rally yesterday, in South Carolina, whose population is 27 percent black. At the rally, Kanye said that Harriet Tubman, a beloved national figure and former slave who rescued scores of fellow slaves via the Underground Railroad, “never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people.” And today, Kanye failed to meet the requirements to be placed on the South Carolina presidential election ballot.

Good thing Kanye isn’t trying to attract black voters.

Photo by Pieter-Jannick Dijkstra, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/FIdhMy

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Tags: 2020 Election, Harriet Tubman, Kanye West, Slavery, South Carolina, Underground Railroad

Today’s Snark: Goya Foods edition

Written on July 11, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Fox "News" Watch, Media Watch, Today's Snark

Reaction to Goya Foods CEO praise of Donald Trump

Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue showed up at the White House Rose Garden on Thursday and heaped political praise on Donald Trump, saying things like:

We are all truly blessed … to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder ….

After calls to boycott Goya Foods products went viral, Unanue doubled down in a Fox News interview on Friday, saying that the negative reaction to his remarks was “suppression of speech.” Here’s our response:

https://twitter.com/MessagingMatt/status/1281680000090099719

Photo by Jade Jackson, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/ocxoIr

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Tags: boycott, Donald Trump, Fox News, Goya Foods, White House

Trump cuts and runs from self-proclaimed “wartime”status

Written on July 10, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Winston Churchill, wartime leader and Trump opposite

Back in March, Donald Trump told reporters that, when it comes to his role regarding the Coronavirus (a/k/a COVID-19 or COVID):

I view it as, in a sense, a wartime president. I mean, that’s what we’re fighting.

Since then, however, Trump has acted quite the opposite of “a wartime president.” Instead, Trump has cut and run from COVID at every turn. Trump has failed to unite the country and take bold national steps to combat the virus. On the contrary, Trump has been as divisive as any president in U.S. history, whipping up a race war, teargassing peaceful protesters, and focusing on cultural shiny objects such as Bibles and Confederate statues. Moreover, in the face of further attacks on America by Russia, Trump has stood down and done nothing. This failure to unite and protect our nation is not only fatal in terms of lives, it is proving politically fatal to Trump and those Republicans who follow him.

U of Chicago economists say COVID fears slowing the economy

Written on July 1, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Fox "News" Watch, Good Government, Republican Messaging

Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Tom Wolf takes precautions with mask and temperature check

A revealing new study by two University of Chicago economists indicates that fear of COVID (a/k/a COVID-19 or Coronavirus) has had a greater negative impact on the U.S. economy than government-imposed Coronavirus lockdowns, as Americans make their own choices for themselves and their families. Among the findings from Drs. Austan Goolsbee (former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama) and Chad Syverson, based on cell phone records of customers visiting over 2 million businesses:

–“While overall consumer traffic fell by 60 percentage points, legal restrictions explain only 7 of that.”

–“Individual choices were far more important and seem tied to fears of infection.”

–“Traffic started dropping before the legal [shutdown] orders were in place; was highly tied to the number of COVID deaths in the county; and showed a clear shift by consumers away from larger/busier stores toward smaller/less busy ones in the same industry.”

The study appears to indicate that (1) many Americans feared the Coronavirus even though they were being told by Republican politicians not to fear it; and (2) based on the current explosion in COVID cases, those fears were perfectly rational.

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Tags: Austan Goolsbee, BOK Center, Brad Parscale, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, economy, Florida, Mike Pence, Republicans, Ron DeSantis, TikTok, Trump, Tulsa, University of Chicago

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis screws the pooch on COVID

Written on June 27, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, not social distancing on April 28, 2020

The news about COVID (a/k/a Coronavirus or COVID-19) cases in Florida is coming fast and furious, and it’s not good. Cases are skyrocketing. Additionally, Apple announced Friday morning that it was temporarily re-closing all 14 of its South Florida stores (located in Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Palm Beach County, where the most COVID cases have occurred in the state). And also on Friday, the state of Florida banned alcohol sales at all bars statewide. It feels like a more extensive lockdown is inevitable. And it’s happening three days after the Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said that the Coronavirus has “brought this nation to its knees,” but that, at the same time, our efforts to fight the virus are still underfunded. Let’s take a look at this Republican failure of government:

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Tags: Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Donald Trump, Florida, Republicans, Ron DeSantis

Why Trump and the Republicans will lose the election over Coronavirus

Written on June 17, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Fox "News" Watch, Good Government

Some of Donald Trump’s responses to COVID

As Donald Trump currently trails Joe Biden in many presidential polls and is in danger of losing reelection, one of the great ironies is that Trump’s failed response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19 or COVID) could have been largely averted. In particular, if Trump had acted more like a Democrat, he might be looking at a more likely election win in November, rather than a very good chance of defeat. But Trump and the Republicans are incapable, philosophically and otherwise, of taking the necessary steps to keep us safe and help themselves, our public health and the economy to win the election. Here’s how they failed:

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Tags: 2020 Election, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, economy, FDA, Fox News, hydroxychloroquine, Joe Biden, Republicans

Is it too late for Trump?

Written on June 10, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Media Watch, Messaging Maxims

Black Lives Matter protesters, at odds with Donald Trump

In 2012, President Barack Obama and his reelection campaign team did something very smart: they came out early and defined Obama’s opponent, Willard Mitt Romney, in a very unflattering way before Romney could define himself to the voters. Specifically, the Obama campaign defined Romney as an out-of-touch elitist, Mr. One Percent, with his offshore bank accounts and his dressage horse. This reinforced an existing narrative about Romney, one that Romney himself fed with his “47 percent” video, ultimately leading to Romney’s defeat.

This year, Joe Biden‘s campaign is taking a similar approach towards Donald Trump. Biden smartly has been running a general election-style campaign against Trump from day one. This was a risky strategy, since Biden had to battle some 24 challengers for the Democratic Party presidential nomination before he could run against Trump as the nominee. However, the strategy worked, and Biden is now the official Democratic nominee, something that would have happened sooner if not for primaries that were delayed due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

2020, meet 1968

Written on June 2, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Good Government

President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, 1968

America torn apart by unrest. An overarching issue that has caused the deaths of many thousands of Americans. Separate protests and riots over the death of a black man. It’s a good description of 2020, right? Actually, this also describes the year 1968. There are some striking parallels between these two years, and they do not bode well for Donald Trump or the Republican Party.

In 1968, Lyndon Johnson, who had become president after John F. Kennedy‘s assassination in November 1963, faced the twin issues of the Vietnam War and racial unrest. The war so mired President Johnson and tore apart the country that, in March 1968, Johnson announced that he would not run for reelection. And then, just four days later, as if to ensure that America would remain in strife through the election, black civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Coming after years of bloody civil rights battles and documented police brutality, King’s murder led to protests and riots around the country. Johnson’s decision not to run for another term was already based in part in the reality that his approval rating throughout 1968 mostly hovered in the low forties range, having declined steadily from the highs of nearly 80 percent in his first few months after taking office, and was largely attributable to the Vietnam War.