The Friday Brief

October 11, 2024

INSIDE: Don’t Drink The Poison, Suburban Battleground, The Podcast Presidency, The Nebraska Sleeper Race, The Ad I Can’t Make, Scenes From The Home Front and much more!

The Big Picture

Don’t Drink The Poison

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received was a simple phrase: don’t drink the poison. Toxic people in our lives depend in part on our cooperation with their toxicity. They expect us to take the bait, engage with their arguments, and drink the poison they offer. It’s always the wrong move, but sometimes it takes a while to figure this out. This goes double in politics.

Don’t drink the poison.

In the next 20+ days, you’ll be offered poison many, many times. It will come from the Trump campaign, the mainstream media, fellow Democrats, and friends and family.

The poison, in this case, will be that of electoral despair. The purpose of negative campaigning is never to change of mind or to alter a vote. The purpose of negative campaigning is to suppress votes and force you into a cognitive frame where staying home seems like a valuable and viable alternative to political engagement.

Don’t drink the poison.