Democrats are Suddenly Interesting Again

The party that has had messaging problems is now messaging very effectively, but not about the issues

Nothing like a crisis to hone the mind. It makes clear the purpose and directs the energy swiftly and efficiently in the right places.

Democrats face a potential crisis. It seemed short-lived at first, but now there is no end in sight. There is dissent in the ranks, and they are making themselves known. Some want Joe Biden to drop out of the race, as they think he cannot win the election in November. Others want to stick with Biden and believe he has the best chance to win the election in November.

The dust hasn’t settled yet, and there’s no way to know for sure how things will play out from here. But one thing is now certain that wasn’t before: Democrats are interesting again.

This isn’t necessarily a good thing. Republicans have been interesting for about two decades now. And very, very interesting for about eight years. During this time, of course, we saw the collapse of the traditional GOP and rise of a new nationalist authoritarian strain take control. Yes, this was interesting. But good? Not really.

Look at my past articles, they are all about Republicans. Why? Because there was a lot of interesting shit to write about. From flip-flopping, to Trump ass-kissing, to House Speaker battles—plenty of content to choose from.

It was interesting to see how reporters hounded Congressional Republicans for comment whenever Trump said something shocking or nonsensical. It was interesting to see them squirm and make excuses and spin these stories like confectionary alchemists turning shit into cotton candy. It was interesting to watch them go from unabashed critic of Trump, to his most sniveling sycophant.

It was interesting to watch House Republicans botch one Congressional hearing after another with unkept promises of evidence proving President Biden’s malfeasance. It was interesting to watch their infighting and read the leaked stories about what members actually thought versus what they said publicly. It was interesting to watch Nikki Haley’s very real—if somewhat mild—protest pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination.

During these interesting times, Democrats mostly kept a low profile. You barely read about them or heard about them in the news media. Sure, there were brilliant take downs by House Democrats of their Republican colleagues, but these were largely seen on social media videos produced by more underground or alternative media publications.

Democrats weren’t very visible. Republicans thrived on visibility, and putting on a show for the show’s sake. Democrats never seemed like they were actively or effectively relaying any positive messaging in order to brand their party something that would stick for the electorate in the upcoming 2024 elections.

This is all changing now.

Try as they might to shine in the spotlight of national traditional media attention, Republicans are struggling to get their message across, because the media is focused on Democrats. This is a shame, because the Republican message is pretty clear and concise and should scare the hell out of most Americans. They have not been shy about it. In fact, they are pronouncing their agenda with gusto. It’s just that they are no longer interesting.

The Democrats are now interesting. The Democrats are now the ones reporters are hounding, the ones squirming and making excuses, infighting, leaking, and protesting the presidential nomination process. Will this be a blessing or a curse? We shall see.

The sort-of-good-news is that the messaging problem is solved. Perhaps it wasn’t understood fully before, but when a party messages, you need to play somewhat to what the media wants to be messaged with. During the Trump years, the messaging for Republicans was mostly one of solidarity behind the unconventional Trump. Were the “issues” actually highlighted, or was this mostly about dealing with Trump? Looking back, it seems like the latter. This was interesting, more so than the issues.

Now, Democrats are the hot ratings extravaganza. But this is not because of the issues of the day; they are having their own existential crisis. They are “dealing with Biden”. The are having conflict, and conflict is what increased drama; it makes stories interesting. Would you make it to the end of a movie that didn’t have a single conflict of some kind?

The question is what does all this newfound media attention mean for Democrats? Republicans have somehow remained a viable political party despite their obvious dysfunction, on display for all to see. They have thrived largely because they have been interesting.

But Democrats have been thriving during Republican dysfunction because they were the stable and “normal” party.

Will being interesting help Democrats? It could. In the same way the Republicans politicians rallied around Trump, even though everyone knows that 95% of them are doing so out of crippling fear, Democrats may move strongly in a direction of unity and solidarity, despite strong private dissent and dissatisfaction. This could help shore up what would otherwise be lagging or anemic support. It could make for a great story with a happy ending.

But Democrats are not Republicans. To Democrats, the dissent and dissatisfaction may be the goal. Prolonging these sentiments would make them even more interesting than they already are. Some think this could help, others think it will not.

Now that they are interesting, Democrat leadership currently doesn’t have a messaging problem. There is a clear message that is now being sent and received in full. Their leadership is fearful, unhappy, and divided. In this regard they are benefitting from being interesting. They are clear-eyed in the message they want to send, and this message is being lapped up by the media.

The main question is: now that Democrats are interesting, and the media is listening, will they benefit from the message they are sending?