Since the election, I, like many people have been trying to figure out what the f*ck just happened. And throughout my month of reflection, historical reading, news watching, and documentary watching, I realized that Conservative Republicans stuck to their number one winning strategy this election, which they’ve successfully deployed for the past 100 years. Their #1 winning strategy to the White House has been utilizing all forms of media for public fear mongering. They are excellent at telling stories and painting fear-inciting visuals in the minds of middle- and working-class White identifying Americans in particular. And the shit works. They know Americans are easily duped by a good horror story.
Over the past years and months, I’ve watched some compelling documentaries and docudramas that depict American culture, politics, players, media, and key events that shaped the White American electorate and history. I think the following are excellent political education tools that lend deep insight into the dominant narratives that have shaped White American voting trends over the last century:
Campaign strategists, organizers, and social scientists know that voting trends are not coincidental, but rather orchestrated as much as humanly possible. But watching these films and thinking about the elections of my lifetime, also led me to memories of my own childhood, upbringing, and family dynamics.
As an 80's baby who watched the news on television every.single.morning while getting ready for school - I grew up hearing about US-Russian relationships and national politics. I grew up watching films with my mom - who by the way, is a white woman born in 1952 who remembers doing nuclear bomb drills in her elementary school - where it always seemed like some white American heroes were defending innocent people from some evil Russian villains like in The Hunt for Red October, in Air Force One, or Crimson Tide starring one of my favorites - Denzel Washington. Then by the ‘90s and 2000s the bad guys in American blockbuster movies changed from Russian to Middle Eastern… from action comedies like True Lies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger to docudramas like American Sniper with Bradley Cooper.
And these stereotypes and narratives weren’t just in the news and in movies I saw. It was Jack Ryan city up in my mom’s apartment! Anyway, I was never into that repetitive espionage story with a white male macho savior shit - probably because as a Black child in Maryland, I had already felt the injustice of false racist and sexist stereotypes being put on me by the second grade. I ain’t never drank the “America, Fuck YEAH!” juice, ever. But my mom loved those types of stories then and still loves them today. She is 72 years old now and probably has every Tom Clancy novel ever written on her bookshelf right this instant. Think about all the other white women voters in love with the tough guy white archetypes…. Ugh, ok enough about that.
My point is about the dominant narratives on repeat in American media, the corresponding white feelings of fear, confusion, and righteousness, and the reactionary behavior. Fear is one hell of a motivator, especially for older white electorate who have been told lies, half-truths, dis and misinformation their WHOLE LIVES about “others” AND drinking the movie Kool-Aid too?! TV actors like Donald Trump and his advisors KNOW THIS and BANK ON IT.
So, what are Progressives and Democrats to do?
Stoop to the Republican Party’s level and create sensational lies to counter their lies and misinformation? Censure conservatives and right-wing media with more fact checking?
No.
I mean, maybe?
I mean, NO!
What is in alignment with our values though, and what is a winning strategy - is telling the real-life inspirational stories of the underdogs and connecting with others without judgement, about our common fears but more importantly about our common values that guide us through the darkness.
I’m thinking about some of the underdog moments that instill the most pride in me as an American.
It was f*ckin’ Alexander Hamilton’s life… or at least Lin Manuel Miranda’s adaptation of it.
It was Indigenous and Black people who found/find ways to live, escape, fight, organize and still love through genocide, the middle passage, slavery, Jim Crow and mass incarceration.
It was Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, “I have a dream” and inspired the nation.
It was Shirley Chisolm when she ran for president unbought and unbossed!
It was Barak and Michelle Obama’s audacity to share their “Hope” with us all.
It’s the noble fight inside of leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Justin Jones, and the very necessary eye rolling of Maxine Waters while reclaiming her time.
It was when Kamala said “Mr. Vice President, I’m Speaking” during the Vice Presidential Debate, and when she boldly stepped up to shake the hand of her opponent during her Presidential Debate earlier this year.
It was when Disney finally f*cking made a cartoon movie about organizing working class people. Don’t get me started singing songs from the Wish soundtrack yo, because I will with my whole heart! My 6-year-old kid knows this, and I’ve annoyed the hell out of her already.
WE LOOOOOOOOOOOVE a great underdog story.
As organizers, strategists, and communications experts - we must think about how we share and frame our inspiring underdog stories with the masses through media, through individual 1to1s and group spaces - constantly.
Nobody wants to cheer on or buy the t-shirt repping the Supreme Chancellor and the Empire. We all want the t-shirt repping the power of the underdogs whether it was the Rebels Luke, Leia, and Han then, or Rey, Fin, and Poe of the Resistance today.
Deep down, I believe all of us Americans are more Skywalker than Sith. As a Black woman raising my family in America, I have to believe.
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