Dear Friends,

Next Wednesday, January 18^th, NDN is co-hosting an event with Future Majority with 4 really exciting new media organizations – MeidasTouch, Courier Newsroom, Resolute Square and DSR Network.  I wanted to do this event to help jumpstart a conversation in the pro-democracy, center-left family on the urgent need for us to “get louder” to more effectively counter the very capable right wing noise machine here in the US.

As an old War Room guy and former television news producer and writer, I’ve been working on ways for the center-left to be more effective and better communicators for a long time.  But it was my work in this last election cycle that really brought home to me how important it is we all get a lot louder in the next few years.  So much of the past cycle was dominated by right wing memes, often shouted one word indictments – Inflation! Red Wave! Recession! Afghanistan! Socialist! Fentanyl! CRT! Woke!.. it goes on and on, relentlessly, defining the terms of our national discourse, forcing the center-left to begin every debate in a Fox dug hole.  In my more than 30 years in the game I’ve never experienced a national discourse that so favored the right, without merit.  It’s a big problem for the center-left and democracy more broadly.

During my own journey these last few months I came across a whole new set of institutions who are working on what I call the loudness problem.  Some of them are organic grassroots organizations which have sprung up in recent years, organized over Zoom, many affiliated with Swing Left or Indivisible.  But the groups we are bringing together on the 18^th are media organizations, with large ambitions to reach many people, and help bring our voices, sensibilities, arguments to millions of more people, every day.  All of this work – small self-organized grassroots groups, and these larger media orgs – are part of a much bigger wave of innovation happening on our side than many understand.  Proud patriots are stepping up across the country, building new capacities of various sizes and ambitions, to help ensure MAGA does not prevail, that our democracy is there for future generations as it was for us.  Some of those patriots ran for office these past few cycles; others raised money, knocked on doors, wrote postcards to swing voters; others are building these new, exciting media organizations – MeidasTouch, Courier Newsroom, Resolute Square, DSR Network – and their leaders.

So this event will be the first of what I hope is a series of events this cycle exploring ways we can get louder.  I hope you will join us next week, and think of ways you can do your part to spread the good Democratic word, be yourself an information warrior for our democracy.  That idea – all of us becoming info warriors, doing our part in making us louder every day and overwhelming the right wing noise machine – is something we will be discussing much more in the days to come. 

Onward, Simon

                                                                                                                                                                   

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