More clarity in communication
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
— George Bernard Shaw (or not?)
Retirement has provided me with a lot of time to reflect, and I continue to be amazed by the amount of information we’re now absorbing. There’s been a lot of doom-scrolling, and it’s hard to keep everything straight. Today, I wanted to clarify the intended messaging behind this weekend’s Hands Off protest against the Trump administration’s dismantling of institutions. Wednesday, I wanted to reflect on the news cycle for tariffs.
Started before “47”
This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. My issue about erratic communication is not an issue exclusive to the 47th presidential administration. Even during Biden’s 46th presidential administration, there were plenty of misleading pieces of information floating about. Some examples:
Debt. Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told us in January 2024 that the debt load is “in a reasonable place.” At over $34 trillion (growing by about $6 trillion since Biden took office at the time), it was hard to believe that to be true! By the end of the year, she had already reversed course, even though the interest rates were lower at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year!
“Well, I am concerned about fiscal sustainability, and I am sorry that we haven’t made more progress. I believe that the deficit needs to be brought down, especially now that we’re in an environment of higher interest rates.”
— Janet Yellen, former Treasury Secretary, December 2024She just realized that in December? Today, we’re spending 14% of our federal budget just servicing the debt. For the first time ever, debt service expenses exceed the defense budget.
Biden’s Decline. Democrats, including first lady Jill Biden and senior advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, misled the American public about Joe Biden’s word-finding difficulty and lapses in memory. In truth, while this decline may not have affected Biden’s ability to manage the back-office decision making role of the President, it certainly impacted his ability to manage the performance aspect of the Presidential duties and his re-election campaign. CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson recently authored a book on this subject. (I haven’t read it yet!)
Inflation. Despite its name, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act had very little to do with reducing inflation. While there was good stuff in there, including clean energy, Medicare drug pricing, and improvements to the tax system, there wasn’t really anything in there targeted to reducing inflation in general. Even at the time, the Congressional Budget Office indicated that the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on inflation would be negligible.
Perhaps the news was more normal under Biden, but it was certainly far from perfect.
Things got much worse
Of course, the current discourse right now in communication relates to what is happening with the current dismantling of our institutions by Trump and Musk. The communications dynamics with the current administration are fresh in my mind.
Some examples:
“Flood the zone” is a legitimate strategy that Steve Bannon is willing to not only accept but make public.
“The Democrats don’t matter…The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
— Steve Bannon
Trump's lies being a “feature, not a bug” is widely accepted. Even statements like running for a third term were historically viewed as jokes. And now he’s not joking? What are we supposed to believe?
“The big lie” of the 2020 election being stolen is one that Trump appointees are willing to perpetuate in front of Congress.
Call me “old-fashioned,” but I missed the days when the politicians, the media, and the public all worked to hold one another at least a little bit accountable to one another.
A peaceful and patriotic protest
Locally, we participated in the Hands Off protest in Portland yesterday, and overall, I was impressed with the number of people that were there. I was among the thousands that were estimated in presence. The news media covered what the protest looked like from above. Here’s what it looked like on the ground to me. There were a lot of us, and it was very peaceful!
We had to leave to go to a wedding that afternoon, so we didn’t stay for the march through Portland, but we were able to hear the speakers at the beginning.
Hats off to “Teacher Tiffany” for a great talk on FDR’s executive order 9066 taking away rights of her relatives through Japanese internment and the effect it had on her family and on our history. It was very relevant given the current fears of legal residents.
Still, I believe a couple of the other speakers had some issues staying “on message.” As I understood this event, the core messaging was around expressing support for the American system and the preservation of it. The demands that I understood were:
End to billionaire takeover and corruption of the Trump administration
End to cuts for federal funding to Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that working people rely on
End to attacks on immigrants and other under-represented communities
The signage of the attendees was well-aligned with this messaging. You’ll notice the presence of the American flag, and the clear reference to the last 76 days. (“Are we better off than we were 76 days ago?”)
Don’t get confused
Even though the crowd was very peaceful, I must admit that a couple of the speakers expressed some rhetoric with more of a “burn down the house” type of ethos. Without giving too much air time to the alternate messages conveyed, these speakers used their platform to express progressive positions on foreign and domestic policy that do not have mainstream appeal.
This tendency to advocate too far beyond the mainstream is one I have a lot of interest in, and I think Matthew Iglasias’s Substack does a good treatment on this topic. His basic thesis is that many advocates are not intentional tent-narrowers but have a tendency to believe that a “55/45” issue (55% for and 45% against) to be an “80-20” issue. I think it’s important for this movement to invite followers into a bigger tent, without alienating those who don’t necessarily agree with some of these other positions.
I do believe that in the past, our parties had a better ability to manage bigger tents, embracing broader swaths of people. We should stay focused on the core messaging.
Focusing on what matters most
As such, I think that we need to remain focused on using our voice to stop the dismantling of our institutions.
As a review, these are the messages for now:
End to billionaire takeover and corruption of the Trump administration
End to cuts for federal funding to Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that working people rely on
End to attacks on immigrants and other under-represented communities
I am also supportive of the Fighting Oligarchy Tour by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They aren’t coming to Portland, but they may be coming to a city near you. They are drawing huge crowds. PBS featured an interview with some good video clips. You’ll notice that Bernie is staying “on message” here with big tent issues that most Americans care about and is not using terms like “democratic socialism” anymore.
Some news is already emerging that Republican congresspeople are getting concerned. They should be.
Of course, there are secondary messages related to current actions (e.g., tariffs) that fall under these points, but I’ll cover more on Wednesday!