Right. So one of the things that we found in our research is that there are issues that would never pop into your average poll of top voter concerns, that nonetheless are extremely powerful signals to people that you have a heterodox point of view and that you don’t think in a rigidly ideological way.Out: always talking about trans sports (who was doing this?).
So one example is the issue of what’s called social promotion in schools — the idea that you just promote kids to the next grade regardless of whether they failed the tests or not.
Being against that is something that people don’t expect to hear from Democrats these days. They think of Democrats as everybody-gets-a-trophy squishes.
So if you say: If kids fail the test or fail the requirements of their grade, they should not be promoted — that sends a really powerful signal to voters that you’re a different kind of Democrat.
Being against homeless encampments is a very powerful signal.
Being open to things like spanking — those issues are incredibly culturally loaded but I think connect with voters on a values basis.
So we don’t always have to be talking about trans sports or climate change or border security. There are lots of ways for people to develop these complicated appeals that reflect the complex ways that voters interact with the world beyond these four or five issues that we’re always talking about.
In: talking about spanking.
Gotta hire some consultants to tell Dems how to put spanking references into their speeches.