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- 4th Grade Level
Really good post this morning from Mister Mix titled “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. I’m in total agreement with his thoughts, and I’d like to supplement that a bit with some thoughts of my own coming from my experience as a candidate in three federal races.
First, MM writes “I’ll note that the way that the Democratic messages are phrased is boring and complex, while Republican messaging is straightforward.” I agree, although part of the reason for that is Dems actually care about governing on complex issues and Repubs…. don’t. But I believe the single best (and, coincidentally, simplest) piece of advice I received before I first ran for Congress came from a wily Dem veteran of Wyoming politics who became my first campaign manager. Early on, she bluntly told me in a droll monotone, “Keep it at a 4th grade level”.
Now, before you yell and scream at me that I was guilty of dumbing things down for dumb people, let me help you understand a bit deeper. What she meant, and I 100% agree with, is finding a way to speak to/with people the way they speak amongst themselves at home. While knocking on literally thousands of doors in my campaigns, I learned that someone might agree with me on a specific issue, but unless I found a way to quickly get inside what I call their “Circle of Trust”, they won’t actually internalize what I said, i.e., they’ll tune me out.
Quick side story to illustrate: I was mountain biking/camping with friends during the GW Bush/Jon Kerry debate when Bush first swiftboated Kerry (I was sitting in my car listening on the radio - perhaps that’s when I should have realized I had a serious political junkie problem 😏). So, Bush demeans Kerry an accuses him of inflating and faking his Vietnam War experience. Kerry’s response? A dispassionate, calm, reasoned push back with minimal emotion. Sitting in my 15-year-old Isuzu Trooper, I slammed the steering wheel with my open palms. Hard.
Why? Well, I thought, WWAJD (What Would Average Joe Do)? If someone sitting on Joe’s couch accused him of lying about his war record, I’d bet better than even money that AJ would jump up and punch that person in the mouth. While Kerry probably shouldn’t have literally done that (although that might actually have been effective politically), he should have done that figuratively with emotions - anger, indignation, you-name-it. I believe that was the beginning of the end for Kerry. He had been excluded from most people’s Circle of Trust because his response was not how they viscerally felt he should respond.
Keep it at a 4th grade level” was my campaign manager’s way of imparting the KISS principle (Keep it Simple Stupid) to me. Of course, it doesn’t help Dems that 54% of adults in America reads below a 6th grade level.
One more note that I’ll write more about down the road. Courtesy of LOLGOP (@thefarce.org) on Bluesky, this Substack by John Ganz called Against Polling (subtitle: it’s 90% bullshit) is a great read. Polling has its place as one of many tools in a campaign. But polling should not be the leading tool for effective politicians. Ganz writes that, “The approach of issue polling and then building a campaign around it completely ignores the human faculties of judgement and imagination.” Spot on and a pox on DC consultants! He goes on to write “But politics is based on a fundamentally changing world: of opinions, of historical events, of the public’s feelings and imagination on issues. A great politician recognizes changing tides and gradually shapes their public: they go from speaking to a crowd to leading it.” Exactly correct!
His closing statement says it all (italics at the end are HIS, not mine): “We are not in an era of small calculations but of great movements. Politicians with a vision and a strong, clear rhetorical appeal, like Trump, Bernie, AOC, and now Mamdani, are those who excite people. People become disappointed and disillusioned when they lapse into focus-group-tested canting. Say something for a change.”
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