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Not Overlooking Our Side’s Most Powerful Framing And Messaging Strengths…And The Critical Importance In 2022 (And 2024) Of the Democrats Highlighting (Not Hiding) Their Relationship With Unions And Millions Of American Workers
A Special Message To Labor, The Democrats And Other Progressives…From Vic
My Labor, Democratic and Other Progressive Colleagues and Friends,
This advisory is a link to an interview that lays out -- without rose-colored glasses -- the situation facing our side in the final 60 days of the current campaign – and what very specific issue and message frames we must employ to maximize our vote in 2022.
This is no time for illusions…and while the last month has seen gains of as much as two to four points in the national generics (largely the result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and a cessation of the steep rise and partial reversal in gas prices), we are still a long way from home.
And while it sounds small, an increase of two to four points is very significant in an electorate where the latest authoritative figures (Gallup and Pew) have the number of self-identified Democrats and Republicans at or near parity.
However, despite these gains of the past six weeks, we still have not made any measurable dent in the huge bloc of non-college-degreed working people (both men and women) who started taking leave of the Democratic Party, even before Trump, in the 2014 mid-terms.
In fact, the very latest polls continue to show that the millions of non-college-degreed working people (now including some minority voters) are still planning to deliver margins of 20-30 points for the GOP against the party of FDR!
As a result, the national generics still show a hair’s-breadth outcome like 2016 and 2020, at best.
But we do have powerful strengths in the views (and persisting preconceptions) of the American electorate, including the critical swing voters, to counter the GOP.
These strengths, and how to frame them in the next 60 days, are the reason for sending you the following linked video: an updated version of the widely used and successful 2020 advisory.
Click here to view Vic's Interview on how to beat Trump and the Republicans
Like the critical healthcare issue mentioned continually in advisories that most of you have repeatedly received from me over recent years (and are probably sick of), there are other issue frames and messages that have strong enduring pro-Democratic valences and that work for us among swing voters.
But we must use them.
They are also covered in the linked interview, which was produced at almost this same point in the 2020 presidential election, when the same sense of (perhaps a little premature) optimism was taking over our party.
And finally, there is one of the most repeatedly underused elements in Democrats’ positioning and campaign messaging: the party’s relationship with the labor movement.
In 2022, this is a massive misfire.
All the latest polls clearly show that labor and labor unions are now more highly rated and popular than the political parties – including the Democrats!!
Besides the issue framings that have allowed us to rally millions of votes for the Democrats in past elections, the video highlights the importance of not only listening to labor rather than the national media elites in New York or Washington…but pushing to the fore the Democratic Party’s long association with labor and labor issues.
Let me put it as clearly (and bluntly) as I can…
For six decades, the double-digit Democratic majority in America enabled us to win control of the U.S. House for 60 of 64 years by winning 30 out of 32 national elections between 1930 and 1994.
According to pathfinding findings by the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan – which pioneered the study of the basis of party identification of the American electorate – that six-decades-long Democratic majority was based overwhelmingly on the fundamental perception that “the Democrats represented ordinary working Americans…and the Republicans didn’t.”
No single factor (or poll finding) tested and measured in my entire career in advising or shaping campaigns for left-of-center political parties or unions has been as important as this one.
Or even close.
And, interestingly, that is true for political parties both here and overseas.
Sadly, this once clear determinative political perception on our side -- which enabled the Democrats to trump (no pun intended) decades of a wide array of GOP competing issues and images -- has been lost.
The GOP, remarkably, given its terrible history in this regard, is not only challenging the Democrats for the title of “the party that best represents American working people,” it has clearly gained the edge on us.
The above-cited massively pro-Republican 2022 vote intentions of non-college-degreed working people should make that painfully and perfectly clear to every one of us.
But there are things we can do to undermine GOP strength here (and restore some of ours)…and that’s what this interview is all about.
The Final Purpose of this Effort: Winning the Close Ones in 2022
NOTE: Maybe only a handful out of every 50 readers who receive this advisory will open and listen to the linked interview. But even if only a few do…and share it -- particularly with folks involved in your union or campaign messaging, media or communications – it might just change the handful of votes needed to win a close election in 2022.
Everyone to whom this is sent….every union…every Democratic Party campaign…and every other group on our side…has the free use of this advisory as well as the right to reproduce and share it…with or without attribution.
If you think it has any merit, please use and spread it as widely as possible.
Our side has a large number of deeply ingrained historical perceptual strengths the Republicans simply don’t.
But to impact the election outcome, we have to use them!
And as Vic’s own Campaign and Elections award-nominated radio and online video spots illustrate, putting these strong pro-Democratic messages and symbols in a 60-second spot is not only possible, but fairly easy to do.
Click here to see Vic's Advisory: Award-Cited Media Donated for Final Democratic 2021 Push
Best of luck…
Vic
PS. If you know Vic or have been receiving our advisories for some time...you can just skip the following comments about Vic’s help from labor and political folks from both here and overseas.
They are included not to show how “smart” he is (he just hangs around with labor folks and listens to what they say), but so that new readers of Vic’s advisories will take his suggestions and guidance seriously.
A lot is at stake in 2022.
Thanks!
Defining a Winning Democratic Message…
“Vic has been way ahead of the curve for decades, arguing for a Democratic progressive populist message that takes the needs of regular working people into account. If the Democrats had been listening to Vic over the past 30 years, they'd be in a lot stronger shape than they are in now.”
…And Winning The Tough Ones for Labor…
“Vic is also well-known in the labor community for his skilled and creative work in media production. Just one example was his powerful radio and television spots on behalf of the United Mine Workers that turned public opinion in an entire state (Virginia) in support of the UMWA during our union's battle with the Pittston Coal Company to protect the health care benefits of retired miners and their spouses.”
-- Phil Smith, current National Political Director, United Mineworkers of America
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Providing Innovative and Widely-Received Messaging Advice…And Donating Nationally-Cited and Nominated Radio and TV
Spots to Critical Democratic Campaigns Nationwide…
“Vic Fingerhut has been a good friend and valuable resource for (national) Democratic Municipal Officials. He has played an active role on the DMO Political Council, joining our national meetings and providing pro bono messaging resources. The radio spots Vic donated for use by all democratic campaigns just before the 2016 (and 2020) General
Elections -- featuring research-based messaging to sway Independents to vote for Democrats -- were among our top most viewed.”
- Nils Robbins, Communications Director, Democratic Municipal Officials
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In Canada…
“As the long-time political director of the Canadian Labour Congress, I am very familiar with and grateful for the great help Vic has lent to progressive forces in Canada. He has always been willing to come up here -- often on short notice -- to share his immense store of political insight and strategic wisdom.
Vic has provided innovative polling and media help to both the Canadian labour movement and our associated political party -- the New Democratic Party (NDP).
Vic knows that the left in any country must get the support of the average working family if they are to succeed. His wise advice related to this strategy quite literally saved the national
NDP from irrelevance. When campaigns ignored his advice, they did poorly. I have and will continue to recommend people work with Vic to craft a winning strategy.”
-- Pat Kerwin, Veteran Political Director, Canadian Labour Congress
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…And in Australia…
“My company, EMC, is the leading research and communications company for trade unions, the Labor party and progressive organizations in Australia.
In 2004, I met Vic Fingerhut on a trip to Washington. It was immediately obvious to me that Vic's insights and ideas would be most valuable in Australia and his views were very much aligned with what we were finding in our research. A year later, our firm was hired by the ACTU (the national union peak body) to run a three-year campaign against the conservative government's plan to do away with Australia's industrial relations system.
We quickly hired Vic as a consultant to the campaign. His insights and advice were instrumental in us winning that fight and defeating the Howard Government. So comprehensive was the victory that the Prime Minister lost his own seat and Australia's IR Laws were re-instituted. Vic’s thinking is very much a part of our approach to winning campaigns for the Labor movement in Australia.”
-- Tony Douglas, Founder of Australia’s Largest Progressive Communications Firm
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And Back Home… Again
“I've worked with Vic in many campaigns, including my own, and read his thoughtful and data-driven analyses of American politics over the years. He's a great campaign tactician and message guru.
But more importantly, Vic has done more opinion research and provided more insightful and practical strategic advice on how to rebuild Democratic Party ID than anyone I know.”
-- Senator Jim Rosapepe (D, Maryland), Ranking Member of the Democratic Leadership in Maryland Senate, National Vice Chair, Italian-American Democratic Leadership Council, and Co-Chair of the 2020 Biden for President Campaign In Maryland
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Vic’s Design Of The “Populist” Media Strategy That Produced The 15-Point, Eight-Million-Vote Humphrey Rally In The Final Three Weeks Of The Campaign
“A month before the [1968 presidential] election, when Hubert Humphrey found himself trailing Nixon by 12 points, Vic Fingerhut, one of the Humphrey campaign’s pollsters, sent a memo to its high command advocating a strategy that concentrated on partisan differences on economic issues, particularly on which party fights for working people.
“In the final weeks of the campaign, Humphrey took Fingerhut’s advice.
“By election day, Humphrey had so narrowed the margin that he lost by only seven-tenths of a percentage point. Humphrey had gained eight million votes in the final three weeks of the campaign.”
– Quoted from Speaking American: How the Democrats Can Win in the Nineties by former chief White House speechwriter David Kusnet (1992)
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