Continued from Part 1.
But, while it does appear there is some reason for optimism, Democrats lost! Big time! We need to understand why. From what I can tell, there appear to be three overarching debates happening right now around the information ecosystem, particularly the media targeted to young men; the role of populism vs. centrism moving forward; and the rightward shift in blue cities and states. These debates are simultaneously overlapping and contradictory, and no obvious answers will magically appear now or in the future.
A note to Dem politicians and campaigns: You won’t persuade voters with a one-off appearance on a popular podcast the week before the election (which is not a knock on Harris’ campaign; she only had a couple months so they did all they could). The reason Republicans are winning over so many young people is because the right invests hours and hours, everyday, every month, every year in audience-building among its influencer class. We can’t compete by sticking our candidates on an episode one time in October of an election year. Democrats need to embrace YEAR-ROUND progressive media (either directly political or political-adjacent) if we want to compete. But you cannot only remember independent media outlets exist 2 weeks before an election– not in a media environment where the vast majority of Americans (and practically ALL persuadable Americans) are consuming content on alternative outlets.
Hard to believe legacy liberal media isn’t reaching Real America:
Beyond the obvious “she should have gone on Joe Rogan” (the new “should have gone to Wisconsin”) critiques, a lot of folks are throwing around the term “liberal Joe Rogan” – an idea that’s much easier to generate in theory than in practice.
We’re at the start of a long intra-party fight over how to reach young men in particular, with a lot of recriminations around the liberal scolding of men in response to toxic masculinity/patriarchy discourse.
Childless cat lady here, albeit the kind with an asterisk in the form of stepkids and a dog.
Fetterman is right, and something that has helped my perspective recently is to be circumspect about the fact that I personally felt so alienated by the random crap JD Vance said on podcasts and that my immediate reaction was, “There is not a place for me in this version of the country.”
OK, so think about that. A lot of liberal voices have been quick to throw around “mom’s basement” or “intel man-baby” insults about young men. Those young men probably feel the *exact* sense of alienation that I do when JD Vance goes off on his rants about certain kinds of women.
One thing that can unify just about all of us: There is a national politician out there making us feel like we have no worth. People tend to vote for the ones that do.
Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports articulates pretty much that here:
It’s worth listening to, but also, not too sure what to do about this kind of person being highly influential:
One person who liberals are turning to in the wake of these results is lefty streamer Hasan Piker:
TikTokers as small-businesses: “Americans tend to love ‘small-business onwers’ as a concept, but as a class they’re among the traditional strongholds for fascist and reactionary politics: fearful of change from below (getting canceled by your followers), jealous of their relative social position (follower count), resentful of the larger and wealthier companies and people they see as threatening their livelihoods (real celebrities), eager to vote for a stronger leader whose dictatorial authority they can identify with (fellow influencer Donald J. Trump). –The TikTok Electorate
This is a real problem, and I of all people don’t pretend to have an answer, but hope to listen to and even in the smallest way I can promote those who do. All that being said, here’s the smug coastal elite portion of this newsletter…
…and the smug millennial portion. Vindication for the computer literate cringe rule followers that make up this generation! Bump that Hamilton soundtrack! Skinny jeans forever!
Read more in Part 3.
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