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May's avatar

This was a fascinating read - thank you, Rachel for conducting and sharing this interview.

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Rachel Karten's avatar

Thanks for reading it!

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Dejaih Smith's avatar

“how you interpret the weather report” this is why I also think you need to be careful and thoughtful with how you encode messaging for content because how exactly do you want it to be decoded.

this was so nice to read even months later! still very evergreen

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Yoav Perry's avatar

18 months out from the midterms, and they’re still lost—no responsibility, no moral clarity, no soul-searching. You can’t pander to the youngest, most reactive voters and not expect polarization—especially while using the same campaign to try to court older, more pragmatic voters. You can’t excuse terrorists and antisemites while counting on the Jewish vote. You can’t abandon bread-and-butter issues that affect the majority and focus on divisive symbolic ones. And you can’t parachute in a candidate who’s been absent for 3.5 years, pair her with a polarizing running mate, skip the primaries, and then blame “social media strategy” on macro level while ignoring all surrounding factors when it collapses.

The confusion online isn’t the root problem -it’s the mirror. The right thrives on message unity. The left fractures into endless variations of the same truth, splintering its base and eroding any chance of building real critical mass. Ironically, the right, with its aging candidates and supposedly out-of-touch base -has mastered digital engagement through discipline and clarity. Whether we agree with it or not, it worked. Time to take the loss, eat some humble pie, and learn something

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Alex for Candide Today's avatar

We need real heroes! The Democrats through Harris acknowledge the crisis is here; yet, the Democrats’ solution is to follow the very rulebook Trump just threw out. More congressional acts. More court filings. More paper tiger “filibusters.” This is either ignorance or by design. https://candidetoday.substack.com/p/searching-for-heroes

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Nicola Johnson's avatar

I appreciate hearing Rob's perspective - but I'm also interested in learning about the strategies from the other candidate's digital communications team. Not suggesting you reach out to that particular team, but there are bound to be people in the industry who've studied the winning campaign and could offer some valuable insights.

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