Words matter. Pick them carefully. Deliver with conviction. Amplify your message through supporters.
This guide from ASO Communications and We Make The Future explains how to tell our winning story so that all Americans have our freedom to vote respected and our voices heard. We must capitalize on this moment of possibility, desire for change, and openness to progressive solutions by flooding the debate with a shared, irresistible message. Energize our base and persuade the middle.
LEAD with one of the following shared values to claim and hold the moral high ground:
- Freedom: Freedom to vote
- Voices: Ensuring every voice is heard
- Inclusive Democracy: For democracy to work for all of us, it must include us all
- Choices: Voters pick our leaders, our leaders do not pick their voters
FREEDOM TO VOTE messaging guide
Newscasters, performers and politicians use teleprompters to keep eye contact with their audience. Teleprompters used to be expensive and require hardware, but now free software such as the BigStage Teleprompter enable anyone to present better. The BigStage Teleprompter runs on phones, tablets and laptops without having to instal any software.
Defend our democracy
"This past November, despite the pandemic and deliberate barriers from day-long lines to attempts to eliminate dropoff locations, voters turned out in record numbers to have our voices heard and elect leaders who will govern in our name. In the months that followed, certain politicians peddled electoral lies that fueled a deadly attack on our Capitol by armed right-wing militants. Having lost both the election and the attempt to undermine it, many of these same leaders have doubled-down on attempts to silence us by erecting new barriers to voting and thwarting attempts to make ours a true democracy." - ASO Communications
Frame messages better
- CHARACTERIZE the opposition as erecting deliberate barriers to silence specific voices and name these in order to render clear the role that race plays
- POSITION voters as the protagonists who, by acting together, can move us forward as a country -- in contrast to how our opposition is determined to set us back
- FOCUS on the creation of good (e.g., create a process where every American can safely and freely cast their ballot) rather than the amelioration of harm (e.g., fix our broken system)
- HIGHLIGHT the tangible, positive outcomes voting can deliver (e.g., pandemic relief, jobs, healthcare, and funding for infrastructure, schools, and communities)
- AVOID the opposition frame (e.g. fraud, security) and PIVOT to our frame of freedom
- DO NOT REPEAT accusations, even to refute (e.g. do not say “there is no evidence of fraud…”)
Amplify your message
Getting your message is hard against billionaire owned TV channels, radio stations and online bots. Amplify your message with the power of your supporters by sharing talking points so they stay on point in presentations and social media posts.
This link packs the FREEDOM TO VOTE talking points in a free BigStage Teleprompter app. Clicking on the link or scanning the QR Code launches the script scrolling in a teleprompter that can be used on a phone, tablet or laptop. Change the script at any time, and all your followers immediately have the new version.
Pause the teleprompter to answer questions. Use TAGs to move to different talking points which appears in a different browser window, so you can go back to your original script at any time. In this example the script moves from the FREEDOM TO VOTE to the FOR THE PEOPLE ACT script with one click.
Teleprompter scripts
Scripts courtesy ASO Communications. Click on any link to launch the free teleprompter.
Online presentation resources
- Speak truth to power, but first practice your lines
- Answer tough questions on Zoom without breaking a sweat
- Keep it real
- Zoom fundraising goes better with a teleprompter
- Canvassing for H.R. 1 over Facetime
- Zoom interview? Make your answers easy to find and read
We Make The Future
We Make The Future (WMTF) is building a multiracial movement across age, class, and faith to re-instill hope in our democracy and build a brighter tomorrow while countering cynicism and despair — a movement where everyone is safe and free, with a care system and economy that works for us all. The future is the sum of the changes we demand, the courage we display, and how we stand with and for each other.
WMTF combines strategic communications and coalition building to develop a shared narrative that motivates our base and persuades the middle. Working in partnership with researchers, content creators, labor and community based organizations, we aid in the implementation of messaging research by building the capacity of communicators, organizers and spokespeople. It is home to the Race Class Narrative (RCN).
Race Class Narrative
The Race Class Narrative neutralizes the use of dog-whistle racism to win on the issues we care about. Our opposition regularly uses racial fear as a tool to exploit economic anxieties and turn people against one another, even when their economic interests are aligned, and turn them against a government that works for all. In doing so, they regularly scapegoat communities of color for problems that have been created by self-interested politicians and their greedy corporate donors. The Race Class Narrative messaging anatomy fights back at these attacks to build cross-racial solidarity and support for issues.
TakeAway: Americans deserve the freedom to vote and have their voices heard. Share this message to energize our base and persuade the middle.
Deepak
DemLabs
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels