The Circus and the Big Tent
Why Democrats keep losing, and what to do about it
Think about clowns. Think about high wire balancing acts, and tigers balancing on balls under big tents.
Think about trapeze artists flying through the air, being caught by their partners. Now, don’t think of an Elephant.
I bet you couldn’t avoid it. In fact, I bet you thought of a specific cartoon elephant with big ears, and his little mouse friend - assuming you’ve seen Dumbo.
The elephant represents a policy, or a candidate. The circus is a world view. It frames the elephant. The features of the elephant are values. If I had described the Serengeti instead — the sand, the sparse vegetation, the dry air and open skies — and then asked you not to think of an elephant, you’d have pictured something entirely different. A real one. Standing in Africa.
Republicans sell the circus by describing the features of the circus, so you’ll understand the elephant a certain way. Democrats describe the elephants - their policies, or their candidate - as if the plains of Africa are already understood, and wonder why no one buys their policy. Worse, they chase the Republican lead frame in to the circus.
This is how Republicans dominate discourse. It’s not flooding the zone, or better messaging - it’s not even the money advantage. It’s a simple strategy. Sell the circus, so you’ll buy the clown.
This reality is so simple that Democrats seem pathologically incapable of accepting it, despite being utterly crushed by it for more than half a century: Republicans don’t sell policy. They sell a world view, and then drift the policy in. Change the culture, change how voters understand the world, and the policy seems obvious. No specific election required. No specific bill to pass. Just relentless, patient, well-funded promotion of a set of values — through institutions, media, churches, think tanks — two new ones per year for fifty years.
That’s it. That’s the whole strategy. I just described it in a paragraph.
I recently watched Jon Stewart interview Ken Martin, the DNC chair, for an hour. Martin hinted at values, expressed a few, but then — and this is the part that made me want to put my foot through the screen — claimed it’s easier for Republicans to have values because they have a consistent ideology, and Democrats don’t. He demanded that Democrats need to avoid values to be a “big tent” party.
He’s wrong on all counts. Republicans don’t have a more consistent ideology than Democrats. Democrats aren’t somehow more thoughtful or more diverse in ideological thought than Republicans. And a desire for a “big tent” (indicating openness) is already a values based assertion. None of what he said is what’s happening.
What’s happening is that Republicans know what they’re doing. That’s the entire difference. And what they’re doing is breathtakingly simple, scientific, well documented, and completely reproducible. Democrats are too arrogant, too ignorant, or too captured by donor money to replicate it. The clearest evidence? They don’t even bother justifying what they actually do. They promote specific policies. They back specific candidates. They chase Republican-led data and call it clever things like “moving to the center.” They congratulate each other for having “solved healthcare.” And then they lose. Again.
Yes, seriously. Democratic Party insiders really believe they “solved healthcare” with Obama Care, and they’ll tell you that with a straight face…
How do you fight back?
First: accept that you already have a valid values-based world view, and figure out what those values actually are. Empathy. Empiricism as righteous. Fairness defined by what maintains the system, not just what feels flat. The sanctity of science. Loyalty to the spirit of the law, not just the letter. The protection of individual expression — not sacred victim groups, but actual people. We have better values. Say them. Promote them. Fit them in to a world view to structure just outcomes.
Second: stop pretending Republican operatives are arguing in good faith. They aren’t. They are hard line, on a mission, and they will not meet you halfway. Not ever. They’re hitting you with values statements and moving the goalposts when you get close, and you just chase. It’s reactive. It’s why arguing with them feels like arguing with a wall — because it is. They are never going to compromise with you. Accept it and make other plans.
Third: build institutions that promote a world view. Not to win a Senate seat. Not to pass a bill. To change what feels obvious to voters. Two a year. For fifty years. That’s the playbook. It works. We’ve watched it work. It’s what Republicans have been doing - unchecked, the entire time.
“Don’t Think of an Elephant” is a book by George Lakoff that explains all of this in more depth. Its main lesson — the one I’ve described above — gets missed in favor of the simpler tactical takeaway. The simpler lesson is useful. But the main point is that they are selling a world view, and the elephant invokes that whole world view. Which is why repeating right-wing talking points to refute them actively helps your opponent - and they ARE an opponent. Stop thinking of these bad faith actors as your friends. You’re helping them sell their circus.
Sell the Serengeti.
If we do that, we win. If we keep reactively chasing data the Republicans lead, we lose everything.
It’s that simple. Do you hear me, Ken Martin?
I’m building a tool to make this visible in real time — to surface the world views embedded in political media, so more people can see the game being played. More on that soon.