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Reply to Congress member upset at demand to halt, complicate, at least delay EVERY evil, EVERY time [1]

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Date: 2025-02-14

Bona fides, for the record: I worked in Washington for some 25 years in public communications, later in journalism covering Capitol Hill among other beats.

..

A Democratic Congress member reported on BlueSky that he and his team had just done exactly what members of the public have been begging them to do: use every possible means to delay a Republican victory on any bad piece of legislation or nomination. (And at this point they are all bad!)

He wrote they had managed to delay a losing vote by all of 12 minutes, and got zero media attention or praise. What, he asked, is the earthly point?

One of the few downsides for me to BlueSky is that feeds slip by so fast, and there is no way to hold onto someone's post except by reposting or responding. Scroll past something; a few minutes later think, "I should have replied"; and you might not find the post again, especially if you don't remember which feed and it's a busy time on the site. Like this morning.

So I can't find that post, which is okay, maybe just as well, because it isn't really personal. It's for everybody in Congress who might have the same perspective.

Here goes:

You may reasonably feel tired and that your work is underappreciated. It is true that most people have no clear idea what you do all day, let alone how complicated and relentless the demands can be. Unfortunately, it does not help to try to educate the public about this just now; they are also under severe stress and feeling misunderstood. Sure, this is not fair; but whatever you do, try not to communicate helplessness or anything that could God forbid be mischaracterized abeled "whining." It only adds to the risk of demoralization.

Your constituents and allies need to SEE your strength and determination. The writers' trad commandment is: SHOW, DON'T TELL. In public communication, you have to do both: show -- embody -- via action; ALSO tell people in so many words what the action signifies.

Every action or inaction is also a message. Your constituents and allies sense this is no less than a fight for the soul and survival of the Republic, AS a Republic. They need to SEE you ACTING like it. Don't fall into the trap of Uvalde--accepting impotence as time slips by.

Be loud. And vivid. And angry, when justified. Action does not, in general, speak for itself, you also have to amplify it. "Today we blocked this procedural vote, and here's why. Advancing this measure--or nomination--would be WRONG." Say how. Use strong words. Say "unpatriotic," "stupid," "corrupt," "betrayal," "disgraceful," "will harm millions of Americans,"; "morally wrong" if you see it that way, "against my conscience" or similar, and why. Cool restraint of emotion btw does not communicate well with most people; controlled but expressive anger can. Use specific examples--e.g., (anonymized) from constituent communications or similar. News releases, press availabilities (solo or group), and/or offer short phone interviews since you're busy. Reach out proactively to home-based media if there are any left.

It's a long game and had best not be scattershot. A single 12-minute delay is indeed next to nothing in practice from the practical standpoint (unless it pushes the next thing off for another few hours, a day, as it might....) and very little from the media standpoint. You can't expect anything from doi0ung anything once. A steady policy of using every tool in the box to protect the public and the Republic, even for what seems like a negligible time, is news, though it may escape much notice unless you make a big, public point of it. And I can't stress this enough, repeat the message, repeat, repeat, repeat, don't stop. It also has a chance of adding up, with time and persistence, in a practical sense. As Republican obstructionism did under President Obama.

Anyway, suppose the Republic, as a Republic, in the worst case, goes down into dictatorship. Would any of us, metaphorically, want to live with the memory that we didn't throw everything we had under the treads rather than standing by and just watching the tanks roll past?

There could be more opportunities. Congressional Democrats, or a caucus if necessary, could start up a central, coordinated media outreach effort instead of relying totally on hundreds of individual ones. Appoint a full-time press secretary--Pete Buttegieg would be excellent, for example, if he were willing, and some professional communication staff, parallel to the White House. They should use BlueSky and other social media as feasible, like YouTube. Hold daily in-person media briefings as a counter to the White House; include AP and angine ekse Trump and Musk exclude. ;-) Radical change like this would also constitute a powerful message that this is, yes, a true emergency.

THE WORLD AS WASHINGTON POLITICIANS USED TO REGULARLY NAVIGATE IT IS, IT SEEMS TO ME, DEFINITIVELY OVER, whether what emerges is for the better or worse. And Congress members need new strategies as well as employing all the existing tactics right now, to the max.

Proactive as much as reactive.

That said, I'm a person of no great importancer, without any sort of direct access to the powerful at present, and quite possibly ignorant or behind the curve in some points, in which case I ask pardon. Among other things, whether such a reset as I described is in any way possible under the present, what I have to call "conservative" in the small-c sense, leadership of Schumer and Jeffries I won't pretend to be certain.

Of course, if politics is just a career like any other, and not a calling and commitment as serious as any in the world...but I do know some think that way...this cry from the heart will seem foolishly naive, idealistic, even absurd. It's how I grew up--patriotic and not, I believe, alone.

All I can do here is try to observe the "battlefield" with what means I do have and send up a flare.

If you have read this far, thank you.

If you are in the fight, thank you many times over.

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