Dear Elizabeth Warren

I have some policy questions, and I’m not sure who to address them to now that WhiteHouse.gov looks like it was hacked by the marketing team responsible for promoting Tony Robbins. It even includes a rolling list of advertisers, I mean private and foreign investors.

My first thought is, Dear Elizabeth Warren. Her brand is very, I’m-just-like-you-and-we’re-in-this-together. Then I realize she’s far too busy trying to keep things on the rails in DC and posting videos that makes me worry she's been abducted.

Then I think, who has communicated with me the most from the party on my voters card? Act Blue! Wait, that’s the same group who only communicates about money…the need for me to give them more of mine and apparently the answer to every question I ask including, “how can I help?”.

Next thought, Pod Save America! They’ve just finished some of the most interesting conversations I’ve heard about legislative policy at their event in DC. Let’s try that. They aren’t politicians per se, but they have experience with one of my favorite Presidents who has demonstrated enormous capacity helping people find their way to impact change. Though my new favorite is James Garfield, thanks to the Netflix series, Death by Lightning, but I digress. 

Dear Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan,

Hi, I’m Lisa. Long-time listener, first-time caller. 

I’m a native Oregonian with minimal experience with governmental affairs. I vote sometimes. I respect my Senator, Jeff Merkley from Myrtle Creek, a rural town in Oregon even smaller than the one I grew up in. He fights for the things I care about including economic policy around financial and housing legislation and tax reform. In 2008, I served on a panel of people he interviewed when the mortgage and housing crisis was heating up. He’s curious and kind and he and his staff respond when I send him questions about current issues, most recently impact of the government shutdown on the SNAP program and insurance costs. 

I have some questions and a couple of suggestions, ya'll seem to know people, maybe you can help? 

As a marketer and communicator, I pay attention to messaging:

• What's the goal?

• How effective is it?

• How consistent is it?

• Who’s the messenger?

• Do I trust them? 

Here are just a few of the recent interactions with policy makers, politicians, and an actor I've received on behalf of the Democratic Party from Act Blue:

Act Blue Text

My response to Act Blue text

Maxwell Frost text

My response to Maxwell Frost text

Chris Deluzio text

My response to Chris Deluzio text

John Hickenlooper text

My response to John Hickenlooper text

Tina Kotek text

My response to Tina Kotek text

Tina Kotek follow-up text

My response to Tina Kotek 2nd text

AOC text

My response to AOC text

Alec Baldwin text

My response to Alec Baldwin text

Colin Allred text

My response to Colin Allred text

Democratic Governors text

My response to Democratic Governors text

Elijah text

My response to Elijah text

In this moment, I’m trying to better understand the story of us and my place in it. The parties' most frequent messengers are making people like me question their abilities to serve as believable, much less trustworthy. This feels like an important time to take a larger role in politics and policymaking. When a representative of the party reaches out, I should be able to respond to that outreach. Current state, that response is not only ignored, but doubled down on. 

I have taken to adding these messengers to my phone contact list by name and tried communicating with them directly by responding to text to no avail. I even tried to call the numbers associated with the texts. Dead end.

You'll notice three types of responses:

1. No response.

2. The response is a new and different request for the same thing.

3. One exception is from Elijah, not answering my question directly, but acknowledging me with a simple, “Thanks for your support!” God bless Elijah. Who is he and how can we get him helping other folks look and sound like real people interested in other people in these texts?

   
   

On behalf of millions of people inundated with these messages, what is up?

In my world we call this type of communication all push and no pull. When you engage with your audience, it's good to let them respond back to you. This is the very bottom of the barrel of outreach tactics. It demonstrates how little questions matter and how little you value the recipient's time and perspective. It's essential to both share your message and listen to theirs. Seems like table stakes, but sometimes the best ideas are simple ones. Common sense is a super power. And not for nothin', this is damaging to personal individual brands. These are predominantly committed civil servants doing amazing work. This kind of communication sullies good work and good names.

Questions: 

1) Who is responsible for governance here? Assume it’s the DNC. Has anyone asked the question, “Do we care more about money than honest engagement with our constituents?” Also are you being held captive by Russian oligarchs and how can we help? (That would have been funnier if we didn't have our own oligarchs now). I’m not naive to the impact of Citizens United, but values only mean something if we support them when it’s hard. 

2) Where is the Act Blue money going? Thank you for your coverage about this issue, Crooked Media. Is there data that’s shared and updated regularly that folks can access? If we follow the money and see where it goes, are there ways we can reduce the need for this fundraising and focus efforts that don’t alienate engaged constituents? 

3) Where is the Democratic plan equivalent of Republicans plan documented in Project 2025? I am from rural Central Oregon. I don’t just vote along party lines. Where I’m from, you apply the policy to your life and define the positive or negative impact and then vote. In this moment, the party I often vote with and root for has made that nearly impossible. Companies and countries, big and small have plans. Where's ours?

Suggestions: 

1) Talk to us like real people. Please respond to constituents and engage with us. We, the people, have some pretty fine ideas.

2) Share a plan and give us something to do. As Ken Burns says, our history is complicated. His documentary, The American Revolution, is helping many of us realize how much was given for us to have the best democracy in the world. How can we help fight for it? Thank you to Indivisible.org, VoteSaveAmerica, and other orgs that helped galvanize our country. I am grateful for the opportunities that No Kings Day provides regular citizens. However, there seems to be a considerable gap in strategy between fundraising and peaceful protesting.

3) Hire reputable messengers who see the big picture, not just the need for money to fight another day. I'm sure Dan Pfieffer and Elijah Cone have floated this in board meetings. "Hey team, any chance we could help the DNC and Act Blue better understand that we should give people an opportunity to respond to their messages with something more than their credit card numbers?" You might get something more valuable than money, hearts and minds.

PS I love Tony Robbins.

PPS The consultants that are benefitting from these efforts are the same ones charging the party to invest in AI. Maybe now is a good time to use the technology to improve both engagement and fundraising. Should the ethics and governance of the technology be guided by the same folks who created these complex shenanigans? Asking for a Friend of the Pod.