Democrats race to embrace swearing and angry comebacks but will it work?

"Things are really fucked up right now, Democratic congressman Robert Garcia said in a TikTok video with the influencer known as the Regina George liberal, who has built a following demanding Democrats get meaner. With party approval ratings at decade-lows and their base increasingly alarmed by what they fear is America's authoritarian slide, Democrats are racing to revamp how they talk and how they resist."

"Democrats' wider embrace of swearing, trolling and scorched-earth comebacks is part of a broader mission to sound more like normal people and less like a party of poll-tested talking points and white papers. From campaign rallies to TikTok vent seshes, the characteristically buttoned-up Democrats are taking more risks and punching back harder at Trump and his administration."

"We are tired of being seen as weak and out of touch, and are really trying to make the point that it's some bullshit that the Republican party and all the big corporations that support them continue to try to frame us as [such], said Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic party and head of the DNC's association of state Democratic parties."

Democrats have shifted from calibrated messaging to angrier, rawer, profanity-laced rhetoric and confrontational tactics across rallies, social media and congressional responses. The change responds to decade-low party approval, base alarm over a perceived authoritarian slide under Trump, and losses among rural, working-class and some Black voters. Elected officials and organizers embrace swearing, trolling and scorched-earth comebacks to sound more like normal people, energize the base and punch back harder at the Trump administration. Party leaders portray the approach as a necessary, aggressive recalibration of tone and tactics to reclaim authenticity and voter support.

Read at www.theguardian.com