Life in Activism: Don't think about what messaging Democrats should use. Think about what messaging you should use.

You can control what you say, not what others say

Photo by Etienne Boulanger on Unsplash

We have all had these conversations.

"You know what Democrats in Congress should say right now? They should…"

"What if the Democrats started talking more like…"

"I think Democratic leaders should start focusing more on…"

When you are someone who consumes a lot of political news–and I assume you are exactly that sort of person, since you are currently reading a mid-size political Substack like Wolves and Sheep that is almost exclusively advertised via email–it can be tempting to watch great events unfold and imagine what you would do if you were in the shoes of one of the main characters.

What would you say differently right now if you were the leader of the House or Senate Democratic caucus? What kind of messaging would you use if you had a large platform on social media, on Substack, or a major news outlet? How would you go about getting the Democratic message out if you were a senior advisor to a leading member of Congress or major advocacy organization?

I know it is tempting to think about what you would do if you were vastly more prominent and / or powerful, because I often find myself doing the exact same thing in private conversations, or even in discussions that take place exclusively inside my head.

However, the truth is that we should not spend our precious time thinking about what other people should say, or what we would say if we were other people. The reason for this is simple: we will only ever be ourselves, and we cannot control what other people say. In fact, in the case of powerful people, such as high ranking politicians or highly visible pundits, we do not have any way of interacting with them to any significant degree. This means that all the time we spend hypothesizing about what leading Democrats or media figures should say or do is, unfortunately, pretty much wasted time.

Instead of thinking about what "Democrats" should say, you should be thinking about what you will say. There are, after all, many in-person conversations that you participate in but where leading politicians, high powered consultants, and big name national pundits are not involved. There are small platforms, such as your social media accounts, where only you can decide what content is broadcast. There are local political meetings that only you, and a small group of your acquaintances, can speak at. Only you can decide what you will say in the email and text chains which you participate in. This is the sort of messaging that you should be concerned about, and which you should put real thought into, because it is the only messaging that you can really control.