The Right Supports a Network of Conferences, Podcasters & Rallies; the Left has MSNBC

It's time for Democrats to rethink their approach to grass roots organizing.

Imagine every week, somewhere in America, there is an event featuring nationally prominent Democratic elected officials, TV personalities, celebrities, artists, state and local officials, candidates, podcasters, journalists, and social media influencers. A one-day or weekend event, sponsored and hosted by different organizations, each with their own group of speakers, in different states, all year round. That is what the Republican Party has had in place for a decade to recruit, build, inspire, organize and motivate their base. 

The Democrats have MSNBC.

Since I have attended, watched and covered these events on the Right for years now, I am often asked why the Right has embraced these so enthusiastically while the Left has virtually nothing equivalent. My theory always was that Republicans enjoy doing things in groups and Democrats are more individualistic. But every time I would mention that while speaking to a group of activists, their response was always the same - 'I would go to something like that!

Democrats do some of this in the final few months of major election campaigns, but it is nothing like the network that the Right has created. Sure, we have all made fun of these events. Many of the speakers at right-wing conferences are nutty conspiracy theorists, christian nationalists, charlatans and grifters, and people who attend them can be fairly culty, but they are effective. While Democrats laugh at them or criticize them for what is taking place, they are doing nothing of their own to counter it.

Let's say, in a few months after the mourning period is over for 2024, a major conference was announced in a major city of a swing state that featured Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, Andy Beshear, Eric Swalwell, Jared Moskowitz, Jasmine Crockett, AOC, along with a few celebrities of the entertainment industry, TV news commentators, journalists, podcasters and social media influencers. Would you go if that was in your state?

Although the formats vary, most of these conferences on the Right play out a similar way using the CPAC / Turning Point USA model pioneered by Matt Schlapp and Charlie Kirk. Early on they feature panels of 3-4 speakers discussing a specific topic for 30-60 minutes, taking questions from the audience. Then speakers begin with local officials, then podcasters/influencers, then TV hosts, then celebrities, then the headliner politicians being featured. They talk about what is on their mind, what they think people need to do, propose new ideas and vision.

Panel topics for one of these conferences on the Left could be: Why Are We Losing Men under 40? Why are Latino Voters Disillusioned With Democrats? How Can We Talk About Abortion in a Way That Doesn't Alienate Christians? Democrats Need to Articulate a Border Policy, What Should It Look Like? Trans Athletes and Competitive Sports. I'm sure we each could think of many more. And the panelists could be chosen who are experts in these areas, but also have diversity of thought on them

It would be critically important for every attendee to feel that they can share their thoughts and ideas without being shouted down or attacked. Honestly, that is a serious problem on the Left. If you step out of line with a certain orthodoxy, people are often branded racist, misogynist, transphobic, homophobic, or that they don't care or empathize with a particular person's group or plight because they have a different opinion about an issue that person is passionate about. 

These conferences need to be a safe space where orthodoxies and conventional wisdom can be challenged and debated. People can disagree, argue their points passionately, hash things out, and still part as friends. Those kinds of debates happen on the Right, not so much on the Left where people have great ideas, new approaches, different perspectives, but are afraid to share them for fear of being shouted down, scorned, ostracized, or tagged with a odious label.

The Right invests in these conferences and events. Spends millions of dollars on them on advertising, venues and speaker's fees. But over time they have been so well attended, with attendees buying tickets and advertisers and sponsors lining up, that they now turn a healthy profit for the people who run them. While you don't have to pay for an elected official or candidate who just wants face time with activists, speakers lower down the food chain need their travel paid for and modest fees for their time. 

People don't even have to attend in person anymore. These events are all livestreamed on X, Instagram, Facebook Live, Rumble, YouTube, and get lots of coverage from Fox, Newsmax, Real America's Voice, Right Side Broadcasting and other right-wing channels. Hundreds of thousands of people on the Right watch these conferences from home and on their phones, week after week after week

In addition to providing a forum to hash out ideas and policy, these conferences also provide amazing organizing and networking opportunities. Podcasters and social media influencers gain new viewers, listeners and followers so they can continue to maintain the messaging every week long after the conference is over on their own platforms. They can meet each other, help each other, and start to coordinate their efforts. Politicians and celebrities can meet these influencers and grass roots activists in attendance, get to know them, exchange emails or phone numbers.

These conferences, rallies and events are how the Right has built a powerful network of activists all over the country. They meet each other, get to know each other, coordinate, and help each other. New email and donor lists are compiled. New voters are registered or brought into the party. People are convinced to switch parties, get off the fence, or become more active. 

The Harris Campaign alone spent over $1 Billion dollars in 4 months. That is only one candidate, in one race. The Democratic Party is stuck in a time warp where traditional models of reaching voters are increasingly less relevant and effective. TV ads, direct mail, door knocking, emails and digital ads are great, but they only go so far. Often, by the time Democratic campaigns start throwing ads at people, those people are already lost to them.

Imagine if billionaire Democratic megadonors took 0.0001% of the money they throw at PACs to build another beach house for a consultant and spent that on a dozen of these conferences.

Where do Democrats go to get their news and information besides a few follows on increasingly toxic social media platforms? MSNBC is certainly a primary source. But even I stopped watching it. Why? Because I found it to be largely GroupThink - one show after another, one guest after another, the same topics, same takes, and same opinions, with few exceptions. I also found that what I was hearing from the hosts and commentators was taken word for word from someone's social media post I read earlier that day. Often my own.

The MSNBC and CNN hosts/commentators were also often, sorry to be so indelicate, old. Fossils, dinosaurs, long past their expiration date when it comes to relevance or originality. While I certainly value wisdom and experience, and while these Boomer commentators sometimes offer great insights, a steady diet of them is simply not going to turn on Gen Z or millennial activists. Or get them to continue to watch. 

How often do you see liberal podcasters, activists, or social media influencers with huge followings on MSNBC? Almost never. They gained huge followings for a reason - without any promotion, fame or support - but for some reason MSNBC and other networks would rather have a 75 year old journalist, professor, campaign consultant, pollster or 1990s politician on to share their lukewarm takes. I am not saying this because I want to be on TV - because I don't. But I would like to see others on there besides the same people over and over.

With that said, the main point of this article is that we can't look for cable news channels to be our thought leaders or the vehicle for grass roots organizing. They don't exist for that purpose. That is not their mission. Their mission is to entertain, while hopefully also informing, while achieving ratings to bring in ad dollars. But the problem is, too many Democrats are camped out in front of MSNBC as their central organizing instrument. 

We need to wake up, and we need to do it now. I am certain that we have better ideas, are more sane and rational, less narcissistic, less conspiratorial, less grifty, and care about other people more. Don't get me wrong, we have plenty of issues, characters, grifters and BlueAnon conspiracy theorists - but not nearly as many and it is more of a bug than a feature, unlike MAGA.

If these conferences started to happen, I would attend - especially if they were in my area. I would speak if asked. I would love to meet many of you reading this, and other people who do what I do. I would watch a livestream if I couldn't attend.

How about you?