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Finding our communicators [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-20
In 2008, during Obama’s first campaign, I was living in Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Canvassing for Obama took me through tough working class White neighborhoods, run-down Black neighborhoods, and some gentrifying White neighborhoods. As a college educated guy with an upper-middle class background, I often felt out of place. In the Black neighborhoods the combination of electing the first Black President and my black Giant Schnoodle who reminded many, many people of their childhoods, provided enough of a bridge that I could chat a bit and ask for their vote. In the working class White neighborhoods I was sh*t outta luck — it was instantly I was an outside (intruder?) and they did not want to talk to me.
Fortunately the campaign had a talented field operative named Ryan. Ryan was a regular working class guy from the country outside of Pittsburgh. He had a Western PA accent, wore camo because he hunted, and could talk to anyone of any race or economic group. Me, my wife, and my dog got out a good number of votes for Obama, but Ryan was next level.
Right now we are in sore need of a whole lot of Ryans. We need folks who can talk to working class people (especially White ones) and help them see that they even though they have a right to be mad at the establishment, they need strong, fair, and effective government just like we all do, and that Trump and Musk are hurting them and not helping them. People like to imagine that the mighty hand of FAFO will teach people a lesson, but that’s just nursing online anger. People learn if and when they are educated.
Right now, most of what I see in our media ecosystem are folks who know how to talk to us. That’s useful and bless them for what they do. But I would like to help find, promote and support the Ryans of the world — the ones who come from a working class background (of many racial/ethnic backgrounds) and know how to get through to people who are not already progressive. There are some Trump voters who cannot be reached, but there are many, many more Trump voters (and non-voters!) who can be reached. We need to be reaching out to them ASAP to make sure they don’t get bamboozled.
So if anyone knows of initiatives to find the Ryans of the world and help them get our message out beyond our echo chambers, I sure would love to hear about it.
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