Right after Hillary Clinton lost in 2016, the most common excuse put forward by Democrats and their media allies as the reason for her loss was that she didn't get her message out to the public well. The reality was that Hillary's campaign spent multiples of what the Republicans spent, but the Democrats still faulted the lack of messaging. They just couldn't bring themselves to fault the message. Soon thereafter, the focus shifted to the phony story of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The 2016 blame for messaging was not the first time that the Democrats lamented their failure in that regard. During the Obama years, we kept hearing that one agenda item or another was failing due to poor messaging. Just Google "Obama Poor Messaging" and you'll surely see a whole host of articles on point. It was the go to excuse. Obama's policies were never poor or misguided. It was always the lack of complete or effective messaging. For those seeking an excuse, the messaging was the medium.
Now they are back at it. David Corn is about as strident a Democrat leftist as there is. He writes at ultra-left Mother Jones. He's out today with an article explaining that President Trump is "winning the media war" regarding the Russia Trump collusion story. That's not big news; anyone observing the polling, seeing the news reports and understanding events gets that the whole Russia Trump collusion story has collapsed. What is worth discussing, however, is Corn's announced reasoning for the Trump success. According to Corn, Trump is pushing a simple, albeit phony story about the Russia Trump collusion. Trump calls it a witch hunt, a hoax, a sham, and a generally dishonest and disreputable move by the Democrats and their soldiers in the special prosecutor's office. According to Corn, the "truth" is too detailed for the public to grasp fully, and the Democrats and media have done a poor job with explaining that truth. Once again, the Democrat blames the messaging and not the message.
There are certain truths about Russia Trump that remain clear. First, there is no evidence of any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. There are conspiracy theory type bits of information that the media and Democrats get excited about, but no real evidence. For example, we know that there was a meeting between the President's son and a Russian lawyer in 2016. We also know now that the lawyer was involved with Fusion GPS which was spearheading the Democrats' creation of the phony Trump dossier. It's a pretty good indication that the meeting was a set up put in place by the Democrats. Still, we know that the meeting while promised to be about "dirt" the Kremlin had on Hillary was actually about adoption of Russian children by Americans. It's not a smoking gun showing collusion. It has nothing to do with collusion. It's the message that fails, not how it is conveyed.
Still, it is important to look at this latest "blame the messaging" moment for what it really is. David Corn is demonstrating that even the most strident Democrats realize that Russia Trump is over as a real issue. He's out there trying to explain to the base how they lost, even though he's still assuring them that they were correct. You see, were the base of the party to determine that their leaders pretty much lied to them and led them on a two year wild goose chase, that base might stay home in 2018 or even switch to a different party. Certainly, the base would be in favor of replacing the leadership. So, it's back to the old standby: the messaging was poor.
Some day people in the Democrat base will ask the key question: why is it that our leaders are so poor at messaging? When that day comes, there will be a true reckoning for the feckless heads of the party.
The 2016 blame for messaging was not the first time that the Democrats lamented their failure in that regard. During the Obama years, we kept hearing that one agenda item or another was failing due to poor messaging. Just Google "Obama Poor Messaging" and you'll surely see a whole host of articles on point. It was the go to excuse. Obama's policies were never poor or misguided. It was always the lack of complete or effective messaging. For those seeking an excuse, the messaging was the medium.
Now they are back at it. David Corn is about as strident a Democrat leftist as there is. He writes at ultra-left Mother Jones. He's out today with an article explaining that President Trump is "winning the media war" regarding the Russia Trump collusion story. That's not big news; anyone observing the polling, seeing the news reports and understanding events gets that the whole Russia Trump collusion story has collapsed. What is worth discussing, however, is Corn's announced reasoning for the Trump success. According to Corn, Trump is pushing a simple, albeit phony story about the Russia Trump collusion. Trump calls it a witch hunt, a hoax, a sham, and a generally dishonest and disreputable move by the Democrats and their soldiers in the special prosecutor's office. According to Corn, the "truth" is too detailed for the public to grasp fully, and the Democrats and media have done a poor job with explaining that truth. Once again, the Democrat blames the messaging and not the message.
There are certain truths about Russia Trump that remain clear. First, there is no evidence of any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. There are conspiracy theory type bits of information that the media and Democrats get excited about, but no real evidence. For example, we know that there was a meeting between the President's son and a Russian lawyer in 2016. We also know now that the lawyer was involved with Fusion GPS which was spearheading the Democrats' creation of the phony Trump dossier. It's a pretty good indication that the meeting was a set up put in place by the Democrats. Still, we know that the meeting while promised to be about "dirt" the Kremlin had on Hillary was actually about adoption of Russian children by Americans. It's not a smoking gun showing collusion. It has nothing to do with collusion. It's the message that fails, not how it is conveyed.
Still, it is important to look at this latest "blame the messaging" moment for what it really is. David Corn is demonstrating that even the most strident Democrats realize that Russia Trump is over as a real issue. He's out there trying to explain to the base how they lost, even though he's still assuring them that they were correct. You see, were the base of the party to determine that their leaders pretty much lied to them and led them on a two year wild goose chase, that base might stay home in 2018 or even switch to a different party. Certainly, the base would be in favor of replacing the leadership. So, it's back to the old standby: the messaging was poor.
Some day people in the Democrat base will ask the key question: why is it that our leaders are so poor at messaging? When that day comes, there will be a true reckoning for the feckless heads of the party.
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