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Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
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This "identity politics and labeling" stuff happens on both sides, they just do it in different ways and do so in ways that make the appeals seem more effective depending on the audience. The psychology behind this is pretty complex, but can also be distilled down to bite sized concepts for people to follow. Basically, this boils down to framing. The right is extremely good at framing, because those who ascribe to that ideology are driven by simplistic (mostly binary) choices and will align easily behind messages framed in this way. The left is extremely poor at framing because their take a much more complex and nuanced approach to processing information, both before message formation and then during interpretation.
I will agree that the right does benefit more because the messages that appeal to them are very simplistic in narrative, and their consumers are more likely to accept the message if framed properly. We see this with the quick adoption of Trump as the standard bearer for the conservative cause. Trump is the antithesis of the archetype long held as the standard for conservatives, being more like someone they would reject in the past for all of his "sins." But the RW has managed to spin Trump as a solution to the long held anxieties of these people, making them accept his weaknesses, so long as he addresses their immediate fears. The RW has had to compromise their core principles to accept Trump, but they have readily done so because of the message design, many of which rely on these supposed identity politics conservatives hate.
The left, OTOH, sucks at narrative development and, worse, finding the core values that will activate people's emotions to get behind their cause. They continue to work on complex messages and flood the consumer with inconsistent information which prevents their target from adopting the narrative. The left is horrible at simple, but that is the rub. The problems facing us are anything but simple and require some level of complexity and nuance to understand. These issues require more information, not less. But that is not the left's biggest problem. Too much information can be handled, so long as it is presented consistently.
This is where the battle is won and lost. Message discipline is the key to any of these campaigns. Conservatives have a simple message and they maintain message discipline to the nth degree. This is their strength and always has been. Liberals have always been poor with message development, even when many of the core values they are pushing align with that of the vast majority, and even worse with message discipline. The differences between Sanders and Clinton were not that massive, but it was enough to make the narratives inconsistent and confuse consumers. The DNC should have worked with both candidates (like the RNC does with everyone in their party) and demanded message consistency and discipline. This was a major failing and why the libs lost. The lib message was a mess and continues to be a mess, even though identity politics rages on throughout all campaigns.