Rules for Dealing with Autocrats - Part II
Speak Truth to Power!
Over the next two weeks I’ll be laying out my friend Trygve Olson’s Seven Rules for Dealing with Autocrats and Their Enablers.
From Tryg: “I wrote these when I was working with those worldwide fight for Democracy in their nations, and they are just as applicable today with what we’ll face in America in the coming months.”
You can read Part I below.
Rule 2 of 7: Speak Truth to Power
“Always speak truth to power because you never know the tipping point. You must confront the Big Lies of illiberal forces by speaking truth to their base of power - the people. There is a tipping point where either your Truth or their Big Lies prevail.”
If you’re reading this, you’re probably reading a bunch of other Substacks that occupy a similar space to The Home Front. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of prominent pro-democracy advocates, thinkers, writers, and correspondents who are reporting, commenting, raising alarms, and pointing out the worst of what’s happening (and what could/would/will) happen in the first days of the new Trump administration.
And for all that incredible effort and thinking, we’re too often speaking truth to the wrong people: Each other. No one in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin cares about Trump did to The Kennedy Center. They’ve never been and probably aren’t planning to go. It doesn’t affect their lives!
I am guilty of this, too. We should not stop, nor should we give up any (more) turf voluntarily. We must discuss, though, how we reach those people who’ve chosen to sit it out, at the expense of everyone else.
Let’s first break down how we got to a place where Republicans are able to claim the mantle of the little guy, the populace, and taking on ‘the man.’
Fifty Years in the Making
I’ve written before that the conservative/MAGA/Republican message machine didn’t begin with Joe Rogan. He is decades downstream from Rush Limbaugh (and local talk radio,) Fox News, the blogosphere, and now podcastland (check out the Home Front on the air, too!)
While Rush bloviated four hours a day, he didn’t care about what he was telling his listeners, so long as he kept them listening. If he needed to be the entertaining, Bulky Knight taking it the Libtards and the Demoncrats, he was happy to squeeze into the armor.
His preeminence gave rise to the normalization of some pretty kooky stuff, such that it was repeated on local radio, by Republican candidates, and in conservative outlets.
“Now, the powers that be don’t want you to know this…”
“Can you believe they spent YOUR hard earned money on THAT!”
“They’re elitist and look down on you!”
Sound familiar? None of this is new. It’s recycled every so often but at its core remains the same: Pit the heroic “truth-tellers” against the evil “Establishment.”
For years now, conservative media has been the normative force in American news. If Donald Trump say something crazy, it has to be covered and raged about. The key, though, is that it has kept Trump and his disciples both driving the conversation, and keeping themselves at the middle of it.
More importantly, though, the Conservative Echo System provides a 24/7/365 information pipeline from the worst people in the world to the voters and supporters they MUST inside the bubble.
How About We Be Fun and In Touch?
Last fall, as I’ve written, I went door-to-door on behalf of Democratic candidates. From North Carolina to Michigan, my colleagues and I knocked on hundreds of doors.
Here’s what has stuck with me: If you’re canvassing a working-class neighborhood on a Saturday your success rate is going to be low. Why? Because many of those you’d speak with are at work!
Trying to build the “liberal podcast network” or find the left’s Joe Rogan is a fool’s errand. The non-Republican media space is decades behind our competition. What’s more, too much of what’s on offer from Democratically-aligned outlets fails to accomplish key goals: Keep them interested and entertained.
“Meet people where they are” is a trope because it’s accurate. We need a constellation of smart, dedicated, trusted messengers talk to Americans (and voters) about things they care about in the manner in which they can best and most easily consume it.
What’s more, if we’re antogonizing our listeners, their walls will go up. We must earn the trust of the people we’re trying to communicate so that they see us as legitimate arbiters of information (and not write too many more sentences like this one.)
What the Trump regime is undertaking will 100% harm all Americans, and those who can least afford his insanity will be hurt the most. The answer is not to tell them how bad it is for them. We must show Americans, without bugged eyes and foaming mouths, what is happening and why.
Here’s an example:
Trump just announced a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum. Let’s talk about what this means for regular human beings. Per an ABC report, about 60% of a car’s weight comes from steel. If the price of steel is up by 1/4, auto companies will raise prices to account for it (and they’re already working at narrow margins.) Now, I don’t buy a new car, I go looking for a reliable used car, but so does everyone else. The used car market, as it did during the pandemic (that was microchips) spikes. The result? People who need cars to get to their service job everyday (they can’t work remote) could now be priced out or have to go with a lower cost, less reliable option. Of course most of the people needing these cars live in places where public transit is a travesty.
This story has nothing to do with USAID or the Department of Education, or the Kennedy Center, or trans kids in sports. It appeals to Americans, more of whom are falling further behind, in a way that allows them to shed their belief that “Trump alone can fix it” or the “at least he’s doing something” mindset. It’s an issue that drives a value proposition: You’re being lied to.
Information and reporting such as this is important for Americans of all demographics. Trump didn’t run on Issue A, B, C. He ran on ‘you’re getting screwed’ and he’s right. We must now show those 15 million Americans who stayed home last fall, why he’s full of shit in a direct and understandable manner delivered by people they will trust, ie, people in their communities.
There are a number of people and outlets already working in this space and they need our support and encouragement (I’ve included a number of them below.) Those of us not in the media space must begin to grow our networks outside our circles. We must get together in person, with folks in our community and identify those neighbors who can carry a message to others.
Like so much of what we need to do, building these networks is not easy, it will not be ‘one size fits all’ and sometimes it will be difficult to scale. This work is crucial to our collective future and, most important for so many of us right now, gives us something useful and tangible to do other than rage against the machine. We must push, push, push everday.
As Fay Weldon said: “Nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens.”
Folks You Should Know, Follow, and Support
Civic Media: Based in Wisconsin, Civic has built a network of stations that cover news, sports, and music that blankets the entire state. I travelled with them late last year (read the story here) and they are doing incredible work ensuring that their listeners get up to date state and local news that matters to their communtities.
Courier: Launched in 2022 by long-time Democratic strategist Tara McGowan, Courier now operates local newsrooms in 10 states and nationally. It’s perspective is liberal, but it makes no secret of that, and does not allow said viewpoint to diverge from the facts in their reporting. You can find Tara’s writing below.
from : Founded by former CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin, NNN lives by the mantra, “News should give you information, not a panic attack.” Boasting a newsletter and nearly 750,000 followers on Instagram, Yellin has proven that there is absolutely a market for solid news, facts, and reporting without the clickbait.
Heidi Pryzbyla: Heidi was at the forefront of mainstream media recognizing the underlying illness in our democracy as local communities were being fed by partisan and malign actors. Last year after 25 years in television and digital news, she left to focus on the problem of shepherding local communities back to credible sources of information. She’s devoting all her time to identifying local pain points and taking action to address them. You can find her work at Heidi Reports.
There are more to be sure. If you know someone who is doing great work in this space, send me a message!
News and Notes:
Read Part I here:
