Last time, I cited a textbook example of how Democrats lose elections by campaigning as bureaucrats instead of leaders.
This time, I’m happy to point to a textbook example of the opposite: Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow’s powerful denunciation of a false and hateful attack on her by a GOP colleague.
You may very well have seen it, since it’s gone viral. If you haven’t, I hope you’ll watch it now. It’s fantastic.
Why? Because McMorrow shows how you answer the all-too-pressing question of what Democrats stand for: You stand for it.
This wasn’t “messaging.” It was presence.
Too many educated but alienated Democrats, from left to center, struggle to conjure this simple but elusive phenomenon.
It isn’t McMorrow’s policies that are so persuasive here, the packets of information being transmitted from her brain to our brains. It’s her obvious, full-body, bone-deep commitment to the values behind those policies.
I’ll bet there are plenty of voters who disagree with some of her policies who would still vote for her. Most voters don’t actually care about much about policies, or even understand them very well. They care about what McMorrow showed them.
I sure hope the many Democratic politicians studying her video right now can see what that is.
Fantastic! From the heart!