Veteran progressive PR strategist David Fenton says Democrats are guilty of “unilateral disarmament in message war with Republicans.
Democrats and progressives are bringing policy papers to an information war—and veteran activist and public relations strategist David Fenton says they are getting clobbered.
After more than 50 years helping progressive causes win public attention and political support, Fenton has a blunt diagnosis: Democrats too often use complicated language, assume good ideas will sell themselves and fail to communicate with the mass audience in a way people can easily understand.
“We are practicing, in my opinion, largely a form of unilateral disarmament in the information wars,” Fenton said during an interview on the Lean to the Left podcast.
While conservatives have invested heavily in media outlets, social-media personalities and carefully tested messages, Fenton argues that progressives have neglected the basic work of winning hearts and minds.
His prescription begins with a simple rule: Use words ordinary people understand.
How tough can that be? Seems like common sense, to me.
Fenton says many liberals suffer from what linguist George Lakoff calls the “enlightenment fallacy”—the belief that a brilliant policy or a scientifically accurate argument will naturally spread through the public and become law simply because it is correct.
That is not how politics works.
“We should always tell the truth. We should always use the facts,” Fenton said. But Democrats also must recognize that explaining and promoting an idea is not dirty or manipulative. It is necessary.
Many Republican strategists, he noted, study marketing, cognitive science and repetition. They understand that voters absorb messages when those messages are simple, emotional and repeated consistently.
Progressives, meanwhile, often resist simplifying an argument or repeating it. That leaves them delivering complicated explanations that sound like a college thesis while their opponents dominate the conversation with memorable slogans.
To wit: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
The result, according to Fenton, is that Democrats are often right on the policy but ineffective at persuading the public.
Fenton pointed to climate change as a prime example.
Terms such as “net zero,” “carbon emissions” and “climate justice” may be familiar to activists and policy Experts, but they can sound vague or confusing to many voters.
The word pollution, however, requires no explanation.
Everyone understands that pollution is harmful, Fenton said, and nobody wants to defend polluters. Instead of relying on scientific terminology, he suggests describing climate change as a blanket of pollution surrounding the Earth and trapping heat.
That gives people an image they can immediately understand.
He also favors the phrase “Make Polluters Pay,” a message that identifies both the problem and those responsible for it.
Fenton’s broader point is that Democrats must stop asking voters to decode their language. Effective political communication should clarify an issue, not turn it into a seminar.
Fenton believes Democrats have a powerful argument to make against Donald Trump and his allies—but only if they connect national policy to the daily struggles of ordinary Americans.
His recommended message centers on two words: cost and corruption.
People are struggling with food, electricity, gasoline, housing and healthcare expenses. Democrats should explain how tariffs, fossil-fuel favoritism and policies benefiting wealthy donors raise those costs, Fenton contended.
His advice on climate policy follows the same approach. Rather than beginning with atmospheric science, Democrats should explain how suppressing wind, solar and battery development protects expensive fossil-fuel interests and leaves consumers paying more.
Start with the financial consequences, he said. Then explain the corruption behind them.
Independent voters may disagree over ideology, but few will defend corruption.
Fenton also warns progressives against language that separates voters into increasingly narrow groups.
Individual identities deserve respect, he said, but political communication aimed at building a governing majority must emphasize shared needs and common interests.
The central conflict in America, he argues, is not simply left versus right. It is top versus bottom—ordinary people against the enormous concentration of wealth and power held by billionaires and corporations.
That framework can unite voters across racial, regional and cultural differences because it speaks directly to affordability, opportunity and economic fairness, he argues.
Democrats should talk less like academics and more like the people they are asking to represent.
Fenton’s advice comes from an extraordinary career in activism and communications.
He dropped out of high school during the 1960s and became a photographer for an underground news service covering the antiwar and counterculture movements. He worked alongside activists such as Abbie Hoffman, his mentor, and helped organize the campaign that freed marijuana activist John Sinclair after a 10-year sentence for possessing two joints.
That campaign culminated in a benefit concert featuring John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder and Bob Seger.
Fenton later worked for High Times and Rolling Stone, helped organize the 1979 No Nukes concerts and founded Fenton, the first public relations firm devoted exclusively to progressive social change. The episode includes some hilarious moments.
His campaigns have addressed apartheid, environmental pollution, marijuana laws, human rights, fracking and the climate crisis. The National Journal once called him the “Robin Hood of public relations” for applying corporate communications techniques to public-interest causes.
His book, The Activist’s Media Handbook, combines stories from that career with practical advice for advocates seeking to influence public opinion. It is available here.
Fenton believes better messaging is not merely about winning the next election. It is essential to creating the mass movements that have repeatedly changed American life.
Civil rights, women’s suffrage, Social Security, the five-day workweek and Marriage equality did not arrive because powerful institutions voluntarily surrendered. They came from organized citizens demanding change.
“We do have the ability to create mass movements that overwhelm and defeat them,” Fenton said.
But movements cannot grow unless people understand what they stand for, why the cause matters and how they can become part of it.
That may be Fenton’s most important advice to Democrats: Stop assuming voters will come to you because your policy is better. Give them clear language, a shared purpose and something worth joining.
The post David Fenton’s Prescription for Democrats: Simplify the Message, Fight Corruption and Build a Movement appeared first on Lean to the Left.
