I am somewhat frightened to report this

[Cirsium]

57. Who doesn't?

That is not the point. The right wingers don't focus on elections and they don't rely on hope. The mistake we make is promoting electoral politics. The right wingers win at the local level, in the propaganda wars, in the media and they let the elections take care of themselves. They are fighting - and winning - the battle to determine the terms of the debate, and to gain the attention of their audience.

When we focus on elections as though they were a cause of social change rather than an effect of social change, we handicap our efforts. While we are saying "hire us we are the better managers" they say "we are about you, join the movement and make America great." Of course it is bullshit, but it works and we do not have a strong response.

Watching videos here this morning of Trump and his accomplices being interviewed, it is clear to me that they win every interaction with the journalists, providing that the viewer does not know that they are lying.

The right wing propagandists have infiltrated every nook and cranny of society with a supposed "common sense" message and they give people as sense of importance and of belonging. The talking points are developed by lavishly funded tested on focus groups, and then pounded into people's heads from every direction 24/7 for years and years now. We have not developed an effective counter strategy.

MAGA is working all the time, they are at war with us. We focus on selling and marketing our candidates and the party with an approach that mostly appeals to people who are already interested in politics, ad who are upper middle class professionals. Schumer said as much not long ago. They are building community and winning the culture war. That is how they can win despite having very unpopular policies.

Again and again here people are saying, especially in the grifting videos posted, that they are melting down, losing it, flipping out, etc. Only in our eyes is any of that true.