We've seen Democrats successfully Do The Thing before but where they usually get hung up is feeling that The Thing is not working right away so they stop doing it when what you need to do is continue talking about until everyone is sick of hearing about it.
They usually stop when they are sick of talking about it, which is well, well short of "everyone is sick of hearing about it." Keep going. Don't shut up about it until people on the street are automatically filling in the next three words when you say "convicted..."
A way you'll be able to tell this is working by the way is that someone like Brett Stephens or Jon Chait will write a column like "I'm worried that Joe Biden doesn't seem to have a message beyond saying 'convicted felon Donald Trump' over and over." That means you're drawing blood. Keep going!
I've given this some thought, and I think the optimal configuration is always saying "Convicted ____ Donald Trump" and varying the second word between "felon" "criminal" "fraudster" "rapist" etc. Gives you a chance to reinforce and repeat while also adding flexibility. bsky.app/profile/pwna...
So you might say "Convicted Fraudster Donald Trump" in a post about his upper class tax cuts while saying "Convicted Rapist Donald Trump" in a post about abortion, while reverting to "Convicted Felon" in general interest posts or off-hand mentions
Ya add in some "reach" descriptors that are technically wrong to see if you can get them spreading them by whining about them. "Convicted traitor" or "convicted insurrectionist" or whatever. "Oh he's merely an ALLEGED traitor how dare you" thats good for you too bsky.app/profile/brad...
No, “convicted fraud.”
The sweet spot is when you get chiding fact check coverage “Joe Biden keeps calling Donald Trump a convicted fraud. Actually his fraud trial was civil, while his criminal convictions were for falsifying business records”
i don't disagree but prob best for the biden team to not get cocky and try to time the market when just getting the meme into the public consciousness at all is an unsure proposition. don't overthink it and just go as hard as you can for as long as you can bsky.app/profile/bord...
My only suggestion would be maybe to keep it warm but on the backburner and slowly bring it to a full boil about 3 weeks before the RNC and maybe turn the whole thing into a debate about whether he needs to be replaced.
Yeah, if they're having to lecture on the nuance of his rape trial they've already lost. It's like a libertarian being really specific about ephebophilia vs pedo.
And they are constantly doing a version of this to us, just with straight up lies.
Even better is to pick one that is wrong, and let the Republicans/centrists start arguing that it was election fraud not business fraud that got him convicted, and the sexual assault was a different case entirely.
I think convicted felon or criminal are best because that’s just a fact about him now and it carries enormous negative connotations.
I’d hammer away at the other ones as well, but it seems like they carry less weight to people because they’re civil as opposed to criminal findings.
No, “convicted fraud.”
The sweet spot is when you get chiding fact check coverage “Joe Biden keeps calling Donald Trump a convicted fraud. Actually his fraud trial was civil, while his criminal convictions were for falsifying business records”
Also "convicted rapist" because Cons will explain "no it was just sexual assault" and Trump himself will probably pick up another round of defamation charges.
Stretching the truth slightly in order to compel the other side to defend themselves by repeating 90% of your attacks is a classic GOP tactic that Democrats need to try more often.
Convicted fraud, drop the -ster. Fraudster is an older term, less commonly used today, with a hint of being less serious or even humorous with the slight anachronism and informality. Saying e.g. "that guy's a fraud" is how you emphasize it plainly with disgust, an insult, with unambiguous contempt.
They don't mean the same thing tho. A "fraud" is colloquially someone who lies about being better than they are; not the same as pointing out smn literally committed fraud.
AFAIK the point of these exercises is to find words that aren't parsed as just "he's bad" but bring the actual reasons to mind.
I mean, the ability for any Democrat running against a Republican to say "my opponent, Fraudster supporting Republican [insert any Republican here]" is pretty good!
After all, we don't want to elect convicted felon and fraudster, adjudicated rapist, and serial business failure Donald Trump. Biden is orders of magnitude better than the opposition.
Not just the squishes and the centrists, a whole bunch of people, including those who just got done saying that Biden needs to hammer on TFG being a convicted felon, will start saying "how can you just campaign on 'orange man bad', you have to give people something positive to vote FOR".
the one thing the soft drink companies learned early on was not to mention their products or brands too much, like, just do only the tiniest, most unobtrusive ads for Coca Cola, they didn't want their message blaring at people from every direction high & low, indoors and out, nosiree
Beyond the conviction, there are lots of interesting questions to be asked:
Did your wives know you were cheating?
Were your kids upset to learn you were banging women while their moms were pregnant?
Which wife/mistress gave the best head?
Will you cheat on your 4th wife?
Are you hung like Hunter?
make fun of his hands being tiny so they can reach into everyone's pockets, just on the side in case it makes his brain ragequit seeing that in the news every day
i'm hoping they're able to afford some good media people that hammer this into them
especially since one party definitely isn't hiring any good media people on shoestring budgets rn
I'm just not sure this is the best way to counter convicted felon Donald Trump's reelection campaign. Surely there must be something positive to say about President Joe Biden compared to the convicted rapist Trump?
