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Maybe the Internet is real life?
We all know that Congress has the same energy as your grandparents when they call you to help them reset their Internet router for the tenth time. But in today’s digital world, when even your grandparents are getting their news from an AI bot account on Facebook and posting on TikTok, we need Congress to catch up.
The reality is, a large part of why Donald Trump won in 2024 is because he won voters who don’t pay attention to political news by a +19-point margin (yikes). And when we asked those voters where they spend their time, YouTube and Facebook rank at the top.
From Danielle Deiseroth, Executive Director of Data for Progress:
In today’s media landscape, members of the low-engagement cohort that showed strong support for Trump aren’t watching a Democratic member of Congress on CNN or ABC. Rather, they’re engaging with posts and videos on social media, often determined either by an algorithm based on their digital habits or by what their friends share to their feeds.
But while low-engagement voters distrust social media influencers to give them accurate information by a -50-point margin, they trust their family members and friends by a +64-point margin. To reach the feeds of those who don’t pay attention to political news, Democrats need a viral message — one that will not just resonate, but spread organically among social networks.
It may be easier said than done to replicate the energy of Jools Lebron’s Demure monologue. And we promise we’re not asking Senator Dick Durbin to attempt the Tate McRae leg challenge.
But it’s worth trying to be bold — the campaign event voters heard the most about before the election in October was Trump’s stunt at a McDonald’s drive-thru. This year, Bernie Sanders, Jasmine Crockett, Robert Garcia, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have all gone viral calling out Elon Musk for ripping off Americans to fund tax cuts for himself and his billionaire friends (does Elon actually have friends?).
Read the full DFP Insight here.
Here are some other highlights from DFP this week:
Friends don’t let friends buy bitcoin
Everyone knows that one dude who keeps trying to get you to invest in the latest blockchain decentralized NFT metaverse crypto coin. Even though he’s lost all his money on the latest rug pull scam, all the podcasters he listens to are basically running the government now.
Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order to establish a crypto strategic reserve, which would use federal government spending to acquire and hold cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. It’s like if the federal government decided to invest your tax dollars in LuLaRoe leggings or the Fyre Festival, or if they appointed Elizabeth Holmes to lead the Federal Reserve.
Only 10% of voters believe the U.S. should increase federal funding for cryptocurrency and blockchain development — far below priorities like Social Security (65%), Medicare (64%), roads, bridges, and transportation (63%), Medicaid (53%), public education (52%), and renewable energy (45%), and also lower than space exploration (24%) and artificial intelligence (20%).
What’s next, the government cutting Social Security and Medicare to pay for Fartcoin, the Hawk Tuah coin, or $Trump? Those are actual cryptocurrencies that have raised millions, even billions, of dollars — so we understand why voters might not consider the crypto reserve a safe investment of their taxpayer dollars.
Read the full poll here.
Call me tweet me when you wanna reach me
For all of our newsletter subscribers who never log off, this one’s for you.
In a new survey, we took a look at the effectiveness of digital organizing at mobilizing voters to take political or social action. The result? A higher percentage of voters have attended an action that was organized digitally than one that was organized through in-person communication.
While digital platforms have certainly made it harder for us to tune out our relatives’ insane conspiracy theories, or pay attention to any piece of media for longer than 30 seconds, voters agree that they can be an important tool for political organizing.
Half of voters (50%) say that online platforms have made it easier for them to engage in political and social issues, while only 17% say they have made engagement harder.
Read the full poll here.
DFP In The News
Boston Globe: Will the next leader of the Democratic Party please stand up?
Politico: We Dug Into the Polls. Democrats in Congress Should Be Very Afraid.
The 19th: ‘A dark day’ for American children: Trump issues order to kill the Department of Education
Tampa Bay Times: Fighting Florida’s floods and California’s wildfires from the classroom
On Social
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