The Elephant Is In The Room
The Elephant is in the Room
By Laura Dawn, Founder, ART NOT WAR
George Lakoff’s Don't Think of an Elephant! was meant to be a roadmap for the progressive movement—an intellectual breakthrough that would allow Democrats to frame political debates in a way that reinforced their values, rather than simply reacting to conservative narratives. And yet, nearly two decades later, the Democratic Party’s approach to messaging is obviously in need of of a deep rethink.
From my vantage point as a 22 year communications & content leader, campaign after campaign left me with an uneasy conclusion: Democrats took one core insight from Lakoff’s work—that you shouldn’t reinforce your opponent’s frame—and turned that valid insight into a rigid, poll-driven messaging protocol that has driven voters away from us.
Look: not reinforcing your opponent’s frame is smart. If Mayor X is called a crook by his opponent, and then goes on TV and says “I am not a crook!” Lakoff rightly points out that the only thing anyone remembers is that Mayor X is a crook. But somehow that critical advice turned into a rigid protocol of outsourcing messaging to professionals, testing and refining talking points, and then repeating the talking points in ad buys, media appearances and stump speeches. The result? A sterile, overly calculated approach that lacked authenticity and failed to engage voters in an era when people crave raw, unfiltered connection.
Meanwhile, the right wing has been playing a completely different—and far more effective—game.
The Right’s Playbook: Worldview, New Media, and Parasocial Influence
The far right’s success doesn’t come from better policies—it comes from a decades-long, multi-pronged investment in shaping a cohesive worldview, building new media infrastructure, and leveraging parasocial (a one way relationship, such as Joe Rogan’s audience has with Joe Rogan) relationships to maintain trust and influence.
1. A Cohesive Worldview
Billions of dollars have been spent on embedding a conservative worldview into American life, one that connects politics, culture, and religion into a single, internally consistent belief system. At its core, this worldview argues that morality is rooted in an inerrant, biblical foundation—an objective truth that must be upheld to prevent society from spiraling into chaos. Anything that deviates from this “natural order”—including secularism, progressive social policies, and government intervention—is seen as dangerous and destructive.
This framework extends seamlessly into right-wing economic and political ideology. Free-market capitalism, hierarchy, and individualism are woven into their worldview as natural extensions of moral order. The right-wing movement doesn’t just push policies; it sells a vision of how society should function—one that is deeply appealing to many Americans who crave structure, certainty, and belonging.
2. A Dominant Right-Wing Media Ecosystem
Right-wing media isn’t just a collection of news networks—it is the essential delivery mechanism of their worldview. Over decades, conservatives have built a vast media empire that reinforces their ideological framework, cross-pollinating their message across television, radio, social media, and digital platforms. It is relentless, repetitive, and omnipresent, ensuring that their audience is constantly immersed in their worldview.
3. Parasocial Influence Over Traditional Advertising
Perhaps the most significant shift in conservative messaging has been their investment in media companies and influencers over traditional advertising. Rather than relying on expensive, outdated ad buys, and increasingly ineffectual 15 and 30 second ads, the right has cultivated a forest of digital personalities who feel authentic, human, and complex. These influential people and brands don’t just talk about politics, but fire on a wide range of issues and interests, maintaining deep parasocial relationships with their audiences, creating an emotional bond that fosters trust and loyalty.
This strategy works because people don’t trust institutions anymore—but they trust people. They trust the influencers they follow, the podcast hosts they listen to daily, and the YouTube personalities they engage with. These figures don’t just deliver a message; they create an experience—one that feels intimate, organic, and, most importantly, real.
Meanwhile, the traditional advertising model that Democrats rely on is rapidly decaying. People have become allergic to being advertised to. The rise of "Ghost Time"—a phenomenon where our brains fail to properly encode information due to the sheer volume and speed of digital content consumption—means that simply getting a message in front of someone's eyes isn’t enough. Did they really see it? Did their brains log it as something to remember? The answer, increasingly, is no.
Democratic campaigns still lean on 15- and 30-second ads, hoping that repetition will make them stick. And occasionally there ARE breakout ads that go viral and help change a conversation—it’s not completely a dead medium, and there are good reasons to still invest in targeted ads.
But the reality is, these ads are competing with an ever-widening stream of content, where short, isolated clips rarely break through or build lasting engagement. Yes, they might rack up views, but do they actually persuade? Recent studies suggest a measurable decline in their efficacy.
We now spend a third of our waking hours staring at screens, bombarded with content. To cut through the noise, we don’t just need a message; we need a direct human-to-human connection. And the deeper the conversation, the deeper the potential for persuasion.
Longer-form content is where the real engagement happens. A recent Patreon study found that 52% of fans prefer long-form content over short-form, and 49% said they’d be more likely to pay for it. That’s because people value substance, depth, and conversation—not just quick-hit political slogans. If we want to build trust, we need to move away from transactional, ad-driven content and toward immersive, trust-building storytelling.
The left is barely on the playing field when it comes to this new media landscape—and the few influencers that have received funding are solely about politics and thus can’t compete with the robust forest of influence funded and flourished by the right.
But the good news is that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel—we just need to catch up.
The Missing Piece—Moral Complexity
Beyond failing to adapt to new media, progressives have also lost ground because we refuse to engage in conversations that acknowledge moral complexity.
Too often, Democratic messaging sounds like a lecture—a series of didactic, scolding pronouncements that tell people what they should think, rather than inviting them into a conversation. We fall into blame-and-shame rhetoric, shutting down difficult discussions instead of engaging in them. The result? People tune out.
Take the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study. The left’s messaging around vaccines was largely authoritative and moralistic: “Get vaccinated. It’s your duty as a good citizen.” While this was factually correct, it failed to acknowledge very real concerns. The vaccine had been developed at an unprecedented speed—was it safe? Could there be long-term effects?
Rather than making space for that conversation, progressives dismissed these fears outright. The right, on the other hand, validated the fear—and then used it to manipulate and mislead. Instead of countering misinformation effectively, we abandoned the conversation entirely, pushing uncertain people further into the right’s ecosystem.
This same dynamic plays out on abortion, immigration, climate, and beyond. We demand that people immediately align with our values, rather than meeting them where they are and engaging with the fears, doubts, and personal experiences that shape their beliefs. If we want to move people toward a progressive worldview, we have to listen first. We have to create human-first conversations that validate concerns before shifting perspectives. We have to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
A New Approach: New Media, Authenticity, and Trust
If Democrats want to reframe political discourse in a way that actually resonates, we need to stop marketing like it’s 2010 and start embracing the way people actually consume information today. This means moving beyond rigid, poll-tested slogans and adopting a New Media Strategy that mirrors the most effective persuasion technique we know: deep canvassing.
Traditional deep canvassing—one-on-one conversations that create genuine persuasion—is labor-intensive. But after 20+ years of making and testing content, we believe the principles of deep canvassing can be scaled digitally by following a few basic guidelines:
1. Vibe and Tribe
People respond best to messengers they feel an immediate vibe with, and people who feel like part of their tribe (or ideally, both!) Whether it’s regional accents, cultural touchpoints, or personal backgrounds, messengers matter as much as the message. We need more diverse, relatable voices leading the conversation. This also means creating content with the direct input of those authentic voices. At ART NOT WAR, all of our scripts begin with deep conversations with those closest to both problems and solutions.
2. Acknowledge Discomfort
Ignoring difficult topics doesn’t work. Respectful, open debate is key. We need to stop shutting down conversations just because they’re uncomfortable and instead lean into the complexity of real issues. We’ve conducted tests that show that acknowledging resistance or complexity first opens ears and minds that can then be nudged towards a more expansive position.
3. Be Human-First
People don’t want to hear a polished political speech—they want to hear from real humans. Content should feel natural, unscripted, and conversational. It should cover a wide range of topics, not just politics, to build trust and authenticity.
4. Validation Opens Ears
The best way to change minds isn’t to tell people they’re wrong—it’s to first validate their fears and frustrations. When people feel heard, they are more willing to engage in deeper conversations.
5. Invest in Parasocial Influence
We need to stop thinking of messaging as ads and start thinking of it as relationship-building. Influencers and digital storytellers should be at the core of our strategy—not an afterthought.
6. Talk to People Who Disagree With You
This is a big one–we have to stop funding strategies that only speak to a liberal echo chamber. Allowing ourselves to be complex, messy human beings and also recognizing the humanity of other complex human beings can build bridges that allow deeper conversations to happen.
The right has spent decades perfecting their communication strategy. They play the long game. They invest in media ecosystems, fund cultural influencers, and reinforce their worldview across every platform imaginable. And because of that, they dominate the narrative.
But here’s the good news: we can do this, too.
Our own persuasion experiments with Bold Rethink have shown that progressive messaging CAN move moderates and conservatives. By using authentic voices, deep canvassing principles, and worldview-based storytelling, we were able to shift registered Republicans 10–17 points toward progressive views on a host of tough issues: climate, immigration, union support, systemic racism, critical race theory and more. We committed to a No Blame/ No Shame approach, validated concerns up front, and centered multi racial / pro democracy as the foundational worldview of every video.
And it worked. The potential is there. The audience is ready. But we need to step up.
It’s not just about framing anymore. It’s about authentic, complex, sometimes messy human connection. And until we recognize that, the elephant will remain in the room.
Yes, yes, and yes. We can't focus only on messaging - it's all about relationships!
Great post! I just included it on a list of good perspectives on what Dems need to do now: https://epolitics.substack.com/p/ten-good-perspectives-what-democratic