James Hohmann notes on WaPo‘s PowerPost that the Democrats are looking to improve their messaging:
Many Democratic talking heads make weak arguments on television that fail to move voters. To address this, several groups and top pollsters on the left are teaming up to launch a new project that will conduct surveys and convene focus groups to produce monthly guidance with the most politically potent lines of attack against President Trump and congressional Republicans.
This new initiative, which has not been previously reported, will be called Navigator Research. The debut report, shared first with The Daily 202, offers original polling and talking points related to the economy, political corruption and disruption.
It flows from fears among progressive thought leaders that their side focuses too much on the ups and downs of public polls related to the generic ballot and Trump’s approval rating, rather than messaging and framing.
“There is a dearth of direction as it relates to how to talk about things,” said Jefrey Pollock, the president of Global Strategy Group. “When the news cycle is the length of the tweet, that challenge is more acute than ever. … For years, Republican politicians have been better at paying attention to language cues. We’re trying to do a progressive version of that.”
My concern is how they play to make sure they do that ethically – or does the subject even come up? Things to avoid include only telling part of the story, using keywords to get the emotions of the voter all het up, making shit up … that sort of thing.
