Anat Shenker-Osorio returns to tell us about what to say about D.C., why we assume the country is further right than it is, and how to keep fighting for a Free America
Re question of what mantra/slogan/tagline to put on a hat, I am wondering if Free DC Free America would work: Free America by itself being too general, but the two phrases together conveying the sentiment we intend - ?
Everywhere I go since January I wear one of many t-shirts that I have that say things like, "No Kings in America", or "We The People Means Everyone" etc. Once in a while I get someone tell me they like my t-shirt, but most of the time, crickets and I see NO one else (except for one guy) wearing similar messages. And, like was pointed out in this interview by Anat, most people are essentially behaving like nothing untoward is going on. It's really quite remarkable.
Crime: this is like saying in the last election that "the economy is good" when people objectively were suffering economically. It depends on your neighborhood and where you work. It depends on the kinds of crime. The carjacking incidents are very disturbing. Maureen Dowd had a good column in the NYT on how disruptive and expensive carjackings are for people. The question is, what reduces crime. Not having National Guard troops in the Mall.
I live in a mixed income area (meaning Working and Middle Class families) and I respectfully have to disagree that Americans see the Democratic Party as too weak but not too "Woke". The Working Class people I know in my neighborhood and in other areas of the country see the Democratic Party as both. Please also reference the recent New York Times essay about Asian, Hispanic and Black American voters who switched their vote to Trump in 2024. This essay included remarks by many of the people it profiled concerning the Democrats being too "Woke" and ignoring basic issues of safety and affordability.
if I could ask Americans in a mixed income area like yours and mine which party they could see more likely waking up to the most urgent priorities of everyday life in America (roof over our heads, food on the table, being safe to carry on with our lives, a certain autonomy along with harmony, respecting others and not needing everyone to think and act in lockstep, saving our energies for values that are genuinely helpful to living in communities)… wouldn’t the Democratic Party, as it is constituted right now in this moment, be the more likely party to wake up and understand this?
I appreciate your comment. I'll add to this that I am a life-long Democrat and that my Dad, who was a Laborer, (I was raised Working Class) never did become a Reagan Democrat. So I understand what you are saying. But I respectfully reply, nonetheless, that much of Democrat Party leadership, and a measure of its activist base, no longer seem to understand the realities of Working Class life. Many of us don't know what day-to-day existence is like for Working Class families from all backgrounds. I'm a retired Social Worker, and I witnessed so many of my former clients increasingly struggle with affordability over the past decades as better-paying Working Class jobs disappeared. Beginning with Vietnam, extending through Globalization and then into the Pandemic, a near-chasm has opened between the experiences of Working Class and Middle Class/Upper Middle Class/Upper Class persons in our country. Class is a profound, powerful, and often unrecognized experience in American life.
Agree. You’ve nailed it! My mom (single mom, her parents, my maternal grandparents, working class, as were my neighborhoods growing up) might have used the expression ‘best of a bad lot’… 🙁 —or better of the two by a hair, which is enough to think of them as worthy of fixing. Huge amount of fixing needed though.
Or to phrase my question more specifically, wouldn’t the Democratic Party as constituted right now *be seen as* the more likely party to wake up and understand this?
Not as long as electeds keep taking billionaire and corporate money. The fight isn’t red vs blue, it’s people on the top against people on the bottom economically.
Yes. If the entire Democratic caucus were to use their collective power as legislators to uphold democratic principles/values/norms, that would be one thing. Is it foolish to challenge them to do so?
The women of the House, in that iconic NY Times page 1 photo on the steps of the Capitol, October 9, 1991; the headline read, “7 Congresswomen March to Senate To Demand Delay in Thomas Vote”—they were too few, arguably too reticent, the effort failed; and then-Sen. Biden blocked additional witnesses who were present and ready to testify a few days later—all of that, but I see *no* sufficient reason why the House Democratic caucus cannot redeem that moment and act in unity now. Political and personal risks notwithstanding. Gotta do it.
Anat, you are brilliant! Thank you so much for your valuable research and leadership on messaging. Everyone should be paying attention here.
Re question of what mantra/slogan/tagline to put on a hat, I am wondering if Free DC Free America would work: Free America by itself being too general, but the two phrases together conveying the sentiment we intend - ?
(h/t to someone else if this suggestion already appeared in the live comments and I missed it)
What about a cap that says US. No acronym. No message. US. People who wear them are US. (Not them, aka maga)
I like the quote, "Illegal Immigration Started in 1492."
I virtually ALWAYS wear my "White Dudes for HARRIS" cap.
Everywhere I go since January I wear one of many t-shirts that I have that say things like, "No Kings in America", or "We The People Means Everyone" etc. Once in a while I get someone tell me they like my t-shirt, but most of the time, crickets and I see NO one else (except for one guy) wearing similar messages. And, like was pointed out in this interview by Anat, most people are essentially behaving like nothing untoward is going on. It's really quite remarkable.
It'll happen though, a groundswell of people figuring this out...
I love the movement Free America from ………….. and the hats!!! I at least would feel my side was fighting!!!
Crime: this is like saying in the last election that "the economy is good" when people objectively were suffering economically. It depends on your neighborhood and where you work. It depends on the kinds of crime. The carjacking incidents are very disturbing. Maureen Dowd had a good column in the NYT on how disruptive and expensive carjackings are for people. The question is, what reduces crime. Not having National Guard troops in the Mall.
⚔️ America’s 5th Gen Civil War isn’t fought with muskets —
🕵️♂️ Sabotage and social media replaces bullets.
🎭 “World Honesty Day” becomes a battlefield.
🧠 Even Washington’s favorite shrink is dragged into the shadows.
https://doctorsofcourage.org/on-world-honesty-day-sabotage-meets-insurgency/
I live in a mixed income area (meaning Working and Middle Class families) and I respectfully have to disagree that Americans see the Democratic Party as too weak but not too "Woke". The Working Class people I know in my neighborhood and in other areas of the country see the Democratic Party as both. Please also reference the recent New York Times essay about Asian, Hispanic and Black American voters who switched their vote to Trump in 2024. This essay included remarks by many of the people it profiled concerning the Democrats being too "Woke" and ignoring basic issues of safety and affordability.
As a party though, and as an organization—
if I could ask Americans in a mixed income area like yours and mine which party they could see more likely waking up to the most urgent priorities of everyday life in America (roof over our heads, food on the table, being safe to carry on with our lives, a certain autonomy along with harmony, respecting others and not needing everyone to think and act in lockstep, saving our energies for values that are genuinely helpful to living in communities)… wouldn’t the Democratic Party, as it is constituted right now in this moment, be the more likely party to wake up and understand this?
I appreciate your comment. I'll add to this that I am a life-long Democrat and that my Dad, who was a Laborer, (I was raised Working Class) never did become a Reagan Democrat. So I understand what you are saying. But I respectfully reply, nonetheless, that much of Democrat Party leadership, and a measure of its activist base, no longer seem to understand the realities of Working Class life. Many of us don't know what day-to-day existence is like for Working Class families from all backgrounds. I'm a retired Social Worker, and I witnessed so many of my former clients increasingly struggle with affordability over the past decades as better-paying Working Class jobs disappeared. Beginning with Vietnam, extending through Globalization and then into the Pandemic, a near-chasm has opened between the experiences of Working Class and Middle Class/Upper Middle Class/Upper Class persons in our country. Class is a profound, powerful, and often unrecognized experience in American life.
Agree. You’ve nailed it! My mom (single mom, her parents, my maternal grandparents, working class, as were my neighborhoods growing up) might have used the expression ‘best of a bad lot’… 🙁 —or better of the two by a hair, which is enough to think of them as worthy of fixing. Huge amount of fixing needed though.
Or to phrase my question more specifically, wouldn’t the Democratic Party as constituted right now *be seen as* the more likely party to wake up and understand this?
Not as long as electeds keep taking billionaire and corporate money. The fight isn’t red vs blue, it’s people on the top against people on the bottom economically.
Yes. If the entire Democratic caucus were to use their collective power as legislators to uphold democratic principles/values/norms, that would be one thing. Is it foolish to challenge them to do so?
The women of the House, in that iconic NY Times page 1 photo on the steps of the Capitol, October 9, 1991; the headline read, “7 Congresswomen March to Senate To Demand Delay in Thomas Vote”—they were too few, arguably too reticent, the effort failed; and then-Sen. Biden blocked additional witnesses who were present and ready to testify a few days later—all of that, but I see *no* sufficient reason why the House Democratic caucus cannot redeem that moment and act in unity now. Political and personal risks notwithstanding. Gotta do it.
Brown shirts are in our cities now.
Alice Paul was the first to protest in front of the White House.
ie suffragists: "silent sentinels"