As mentioned in the About This Site page, improving the messaging and framing around progressive issues is the primary, purpose of this site. To that end, this page will have links to posts written exclusively about messaging. And to get us started off right, I have jotted down ten quick rules of effective messaging. You can find lists like this almost anywhere, but this is quick and dirty for those who do not want to take a communications 101 class at their local college. Of course, it has politics specifically in mind. It is not as directly applicable to other forms of communications, say, between you and your significant other. Thus, do not ‘message from the middle’ if you are trying to convince your partner that sleeping with their best friend was just a drunken, spur of the moment act that meant nothing. I cannot help you in that case.
1) K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Of course this is cliche, but the simpler your message the better people will understand it. People realize that policy is complicated. That is why they elect other people to do it for them. They simply want to know the gist of where you are coming from. Make it easy for them.
2) Use Moral Language
As above, people want to know how you will govern, and that means they want to know what drives your thinking, why you support the policies you do, etc… That means they want to know the moral basis of your positions. People vote on what they feel is right, so you have to make them feel your positions are right. That, my friends, is entirely done by appealing to their moral sensibility.
3) Message from the Middle
Most people think of themselves as moderate; they do not like what they perceive as extremism. Thus, always cast your views as mainstream. Do not move your issues to the center, the people will smell a rat a mile away, instead, move your messaging to the middle.
4) Your Opponents are Extreme
For the same reasons mentioned in #3. If you are mainstream, your opponent must be extreme. If you can convince the public they are on the fringe, only the fringe will vote for them.
5) Stay on Topic
So obvious, but so rarely done, especially by progressives. Studies show that people need to hear a message nearly 10 times before it begins to sink in. For exhibit A, witness the “Head On” commercials. If “Apply Directly to the Forehead” popped into your mind, then you can see the power of this rule. If you learn one messaging rule, learn this one. If people cannot immediately think of what you stand for when asked, you have failed.
6) Answer the Question You Wished You were Asked
Seems rude, but this is how you stay on topic. Always redirect the question to the issues you want to talk about.
7) Create a Positive Vision
This is tough, and closely relates to moral messaging. People are susceptible to negative campaigning, but they are inspired by positive vision. People support politices that give them hope and passion. In the end, it is the only true antidote to Republican fear based messaging.
8) Stay Unified
Everyone pushing for the same policy must be on the same page. Personal differences are great behind closed doors, but once the public is watching and listening, everyone must march to the beat of the same drummer. If you cannot govern yourselves, you cannot govern others. People will not vote for chaos. If you cannot all support the same policy, then there is no way the public will either. People like order. Show it in your messaging.
9) If it Does not Concern You, Shut Up
Related to staying on message. Do not get dragged into extraneous controversies that do not concern you. Do not pontificate for the sake of pontificating. Then you end up sounding like idiotic Rush Limbaugh.
10) We Needed Ten Rules Because We Cannot Have only Nine
What can I say? No one has a top nine list, so neither can I.