@HakeemG Yeah, that's insufficient for the context. Bernie's rhetoric resonates in Vermont. By "taking that of Sanders, Talarico, and Platner a bit farther," I mean acknowledging the legitimate concerns of the target audience, validating their anger about which, and redirecting it using the terms, values, and narratives of the target audience against the actual causes of those legitimate concerns.

Trying to cargo-cult Bernie in Louisiana won't work. Talarico is leading in Texas, because he's talking to Texans like a Texan about things Texans care about. Platner is leading in Maine, because he's talking to Mainers like a Mainer about things Mainers care about. AOC succeeds in New York because she talks to New Yorkers like a New Yorker about things New Yorkers care about. Mamdani succeeded in NYC because, well, no point continuing to repeat myself.

Bernie bros try and fail to copy Bernie when speaking to a different voter base, and it comes across as disingenuous and artificial, because it is: They start with a conclusion and don't listen enough to connect, and they don't build on a narrative they've lived, let alone connect it to the narrative of their audience.

So far, last I check, every seat that has flipped this time around has flipped towards the Democrats. This proves it's possible. However, quite evidently, how to do so varies per place. If the place you're trying to flip is a district newly redrawn to dilute the votes of a predominantly leftist, progressive, or liberal urban BIPOC district into a few predominantly rightist, conservative, or newly and angrily disillusioned ex-MAGA white districts, most of voters in which are in denial about their racism, an effective method will necessarily build on prior and new common ground (not on a bunch of Angelou and Kendi books they lack the education to comprehend).

Lee Atwater politics can be made to backfire, especially when there's a growing portion of alienated and disaffected former Trumpist base having their leopards-eating-faces moment. The cult of personality is cracking; it's the perfect moment to give a face-saving exit and to validate whatever you can (not repeat Clinton's "diplorables" footbullet). Instead of mocking and deriding them, rhetorically join with them in their anger, and encourage their desire to punish Trump and his enablers in the midterms, as shown in the current backlash.

Instead of arguing against "whiteness" in the academic sense that nearly every white person with no college education is almost certain to misunderstand, argue for policies which are in fact in those under-educated and miseducated white voters' interests, in terms which they (not you) understand correctly, knowing while not telling them that those same policies benefit equity-seeking groups even more than they benefit the target audience.

For example, tell of medical bankruptcies among their neighbours, and of rural hospitals due to close in early 2027 because of #OBBB, knowing but not telling them that universal healthcare would benefit the average Black citizen even more than it would benefit the average rural blue-collar white guy. Likewise with just about every other better policy: the most systemically disadvantaged groups stand to benefit most, but those just starting to feel the pain don't need to know that.

They need to hear that Donald lied to them and betrayed them in every good promise he made, that he also lied when he blamed it all on others besides himself, that their anger about that all is valid, that he's stealing from them and wasting their money, and that he's the reason their gas and groceries are more expensive, the reason their dad can't afford chemo, the reason their daughter will have to drive five hours to deliver her baby, the reason their son can't get a job that pays enough to make rent.

Listen to videos like the one above, and you'll hear exactly what they're angry about. Find the parts that are valid, and agree with them about it. You don't need to change all their minds: you only need to swing enough margin to make the gerrymander a dummymander. (To do that, you will have to campaign for policies that aren't in the financial interests of a few parasitic billionaires and their rapacious corporations. You may also thus have to inoculate voters against the inevitably ensuing flood of attack ads by telling them how much those cost, who pays for them, and why.)

#uspol

@SeanCasten

In #Virginia, #DOGE and the #OBBB hurt a LOT of people, and they held Trump and those that backed his policies, or simply licked his boots, to account.

There were some pretty red districts in the VA House of Delegates that went blue, & not just by one or two votes.

This is the biggest margin for Democrats in the House in several decades.

#election2025