WHY THE RETRENCHMENT AFTER MUELLER?
Dr. Common Good
News reports seem to be saying that the Mueller testimony was a setback to Democratic impeachment goals and there is a retrenchment underway. Why is that? Why is the Democratic Party so poor at taking advantage of what it has and communicating well about it? Regardless of what kind of witness Mr. Mueller was, if you pull out key soundbites they are powerful and damning:
- Trump is NOT EXONERATED, period.
- The Russia investigation is NOT A HOAX. Anything but. In fact, Mr. Mueller was highly animated in describing it as a systematic threat to our democracy that continues at this moment.
- The Mueller investigation was NOT A WITCH HUNT, period.
- The president COULD BE CHARGED WITH OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE AFTER HE LEAVES OFFICE. There is a clear message in that statement.
- Trump’s conduct in inviting cooperation from WikiLeaks and from Russians is, in Mueller’s words, “problematic…that’s an understatement. It’s criminal.” Yes. No doubt about it. And unethical, as he also agreed.
- Mueller confirmed that Trump refused to testify in person and that his written responses (to only some of the issues) were generally FALSE.
- While a lot of this was likely confusing to many viewers, Mueller confirmed everything stated by Democrats (from the report) about at least five of the obstruction instances, and confirmed the many contacts with Russians and Trump campaign officials and lies about those contacts.
So, I ask, what is the problem? Democrats should be jumping up and down! There are more than enough soundbites to counter almost every lie Trump and Barr have put out on this matter. Yet there is hand-wringing, disarray. Right now, if not two days ago, Democrats should be blasting clips of the above segments on every possible social media channel, and linking with every Democratic-friendly organization across the country to coordinate dissemination of those clips. It should be coordinating a media strategy in which those clips are transmitted in short, easily understood form everywhere possible, each one directly contrasted to Trump/Barr lies. Is that happening? If it is not, Democrats do not deserve any better.
As noted in previous posts, Democrats cannot seem to get a handle on the basics of effective communication. They should never have relied on the Mueller testimony in the first place to get the message out to the American people. They should have mounted an effective counter campaign the minute Barr mischaracterized the report. (Do not, I repeat, do not rely on hearings.) But now that the hearings are done and there is so much to work with, get it out there! In order to even consider impeachment, Democrats need to pull in the public, and so far they have been highly ineffective in doing so.