"Rising" authoritarianism is still too minced of a word to be effective.

America, you are living in an authoritarian regime. Stop acting like Putin's opposition and start making a credible plan (Project 2030?) to restore democracy and establish better guardrails, more accountability to the people instead of in service of capital.

[Hakeem Jeffries] also, as the Blue Rose memo suggested is effective, cast the federal takeover as a “distraction” from Trump’s unpopular policies.

The future of our country is at stake...and this is our leadership?

Democrat leadership continues to be clueless about the lived experience of Americans and will be baffled at their own inability to wrest control from the fascists. I'm sure that when the regime outlaws the democrat party it will come as a huge surprise. "How did this happen? Where did this come from?" they will say as they are either dragged away or swear loyalty to MAGA.

this is absolutely enraging. Dems would rather be lied to about what's actually going on than face the horror of fascism. "yeah talking about Tump's authoritarianism is boooring lol boo!!! big thumbs down. that is too heavy a reality for me. can we paint him as a stubborn old fool instead? like just a bad, bad man but in a fingerwaving sense."

This country and its people are fucking stupid. Shit is literally unfolding in front of their own eyes, yet they still support Donnie.

I don't know who is going to use it, but the group that adopts "#GuillotineParty" has my vote.

If you live in the USA, CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES! https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Armchair quarterback here, but I think the messaging is only as convincing as person sending the message.

The research may show that the current messaging is not convincing. But does that mean it will never be convincing? Or does it mean that the democrats aren’t doing a good enough job of convincing people?

Gee I wonder if they’re getting paid by the same oligarchs who want to implement an authoritarian police state in order to quell populist revolts before people start pulling them out of their houses like the Romanovs?

Why the fuck do they listen to these idiots?

Stop relying on the Democrats to get you out of this mess. They are not on your side against the Republicans. THEY HAVE THE SAME GOALS and only differ in how to get there.

Ever wonder why the Republicans pull everything to the right when they're in power? And then the Democrats do almost nothing to pull it back to the left even when they control the Legislative and Executive branches?

One side is definitely better than the other, but neither party is on the side of the people. They are not your friends. They are not your allies.

I can't wait to see what happens when Little t actually deploys some other states' Nat Guard troops to Chicago. It will not go the way it did in California.

"Guys remember: the point isn't about winning it's about pointing to Trump's poo poo diaper and laughing! Then we lose the future elections, keep all the donations, and don't have to upset our owners donors by enacting any policy the voters want!"

Meanwhile on Fox news:

Those of you who are new, this is the inevitable defeat of [insert your Democratic candidate here] as it has always been. This is why Harris’ messaging started out gangbusters and was eventually smothered.

After trumps first installment in office by Putin, the DNC - no shit, i’ll find it if I have to - decided the midterm platform should be “Better Jobs”. 😱

But it’s not a new phenomenon, it’s as old as sleazy marketing itself.

And here’s what it’s telling us right now: the DNC isn’t seeing how it’s done. The only thing they’ve seen is Bernie/AOC and they’re unconvinced.

And immediately before you go shitting on the DNC again, I’d remind you this is the case with any non-fascist party. They will have disagreements on messaging.

So let’s tell them what we want! Write your reps and senators (presuming they’re Dems, DNC if they’re not) and tell them. They’re in the bubble, they need some sticking.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) was asked Sunday on CNN what the party’s plan is to fight the president sending troops into Chicago. He only offered that Trump has no authority to do this, and that he supports the men and women working in law enforcement.

... reminds me of that GoT scene where a limping Ned Stark hands a piece of paper to Cersei Lannister

This might be on the edge of topicality here, sorry if it's too far afield. But I suppose we could always talk about the sudden massive astroturfing for hrk Gavin Newsom instead! 👍

Takes a minute for them to get into the meat.

Critics question whether this is a viable way to test the impact of political messages, as well as the methodology — which Blue Rose doesn’t share — based, in part, on who exactly is participating in its web panels.

And from there on, it's all pretty damning.

House Minority Leaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) was asked on CNN on Sunday what the party’s plan is to fight the president sending troops into Chicago. He only offered that Trump has no authority to do this, and that he supports the men and women working in law enforcement. He also, as the Blue Rose memo suggested is effective, cast the federal takeover as a “distraction” from Trump’s unpopular policies. Jeffries didn’t seem too worked up about any of this, delivering his talking points with a complacency that certainly did not bely that the United States is currently experiencing a militarized dismantling of representative democracy.

from the CNN transcript because I hate watching these videos:

There's been no request from the state of Illinois, no request at all for federal assistance. I support the Chicago Police Department. I support the New York Police Department. These are men and women who have taken an oath to protect and serve these communities, and they do a great job of that.

leader of the House Democrats says that Trump shouldn't send the National Guard to Chicago, because *checks notes* the Chicago Police Department is so amazing and wonderful?

As the Times explained elsewhere, Blue Rose handled much of the ad testing for the Super PAC Future Forward as it worked to support Harris’ campaign. Blue Rose’s team was effectively embedded within Future Forward, which served as Harris’ primary outside spender and spent $560 million to boost the Democratic ticket in 2024. It’s worth noting that many of the ads run by Future Forward were completely unwatchable — overstuffed with tidbits about various policies, provided too quickly for a casual viewer to process and often presented by random narrators.

...

The firm is prone to bold proclamations. Among its contributions to the 2024 campaign was the idea that running negative ads against Trump was ineffective, and contrast was more important, according to people familiar with the Blue Rose operation.

remember kids, Harris lost the election because of leftists with blue hair and pronouns who refused to vote for her.

we should blame them, not the consultants who spent half a goddamn billion dollars to come up with galaxy-brain political strategies like "don't run negative ads about your opponent".

blaming those consultants would be a distraction from kitchen-table issues, like "how many hundreds of millions of dollars should Democrats give Blue Rose for the 2026 midterms?"