Here’s How to Do It Right
Rachel Bitecofer at The Cycle:
Everywhere you look, Democrats are talking about affordability. That’s good — they should be. The bottom eighty percent of Americans can’t see a dentist. and pay $2,000 a month for rent. People are right to be pissed off but they also deserve to know who they should be pissed at. If you want to run on affordability and actually move voters, you have to do it the right way — the way that aligns with the negative partisanship model. That means telling a clear, villain-vs.-hero story. And in that story, the villain is the Republican Party.
Step One: Find the Villain
Voters don’t process politics in spreadsheets. They respond to narrative — simple, emotional stories that explain their pain and offer a solution. If you want voters to trust Democrats on affordability, you have to give them a clear enemy to blame for why life is so damn expensive. And guess what? The villain is obvious: the Republican Party. Donald Trump/Republicans promised to lower prices on Day One. What did they do? He slapped tariffs — a double tax — on Americans that nobody asked for, and nobody likes. Its on video. Over and over. The ad writes itself.
Those tariffs raised the cost of groceries, clothes, appliances, cars, you name it. Tariffs that he’s still defending as “good for America” even as voters get hammered at the checkout line. Promises made. Promises broken. Prices up. But the affordability story isn’t just about tariffs. It’s about decades of Republican economic malpractice — starting in 1980, when Ronald Reagan sold America on a scam: cut taxes for the rich, and the benefits will “trickle down” to everyone else. Fifty years later, here’s where that got us:
Wealth inequality back to Gilded Age levels.
Eroded Middle Class and social mobility
Corporate profits skyrocketing while rural hospitals close and teachers buy supplies out of their own pockets.
Housing no one can afford can afford so investors can make cash off our crushed dreams.
The rising tide lifted exactly one boat — yachts.
Step Two: Tell the Big Story
This is where Democrats have failed for decades: refusing to tell voters the full story of how Republicans rigged the economy. That ends now. It must. The message has to be simple, repeated, and relentless:
Republicans didn’t just fail to make things better — they intentionally made things worse with Trump’s tariffs.
Elon and Trump got rich while you got stuck with closing schools and no healthcare.
Every time they get power, they cut taxes for the wealthy, balloon the deficit, and then demand cuts to schools, hospitals, and infrastructure to “balance the budget.” The “beast” Republicans ended up starving was the American working class.
Meanwhile, Democrats are the only ones who ever invest in working families — from FDR’s New Deal to Obamacare and Biden’s infrastructure, the ONLY party with tangible deliveries for working Americans is the Democratic Party and no one knows it.
You can’t just say, “We’ll make housing more affordable” or “We’ll bring down prices.” You have to set the frame first: Trump + your Republican opponent caused this mess, and you (candidate) + Democrats will fix it.
Step Three: Make It Emotional
This is where most Democratic messaging goes flat. They want to talk about policy, BIG NUMBERS, and policy plans instead of anger and accountability. No. Make your ads personal. Use real people who lost their businesses to Trump’s tariffs. Use people who now have to drive their kids to school and hour away because Republican vouchers closed their local schools and now they live 40 miles from a hospital while living with heart disease. People don’t feel numbers, they feel people. Here’s the reality: people are angry. They’re angry that they can’t afford to go to the dentist. They’re angry that they’re drowning in debt while billionaires shoot themselves into space. They’re angry that their kids’ schools are underfunded, that they can’t buy a starter home, that the economy feels rigged — because it is rigged.
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Step Five: Repetition Wins
This strategy only works if you stay disciplined. That means no deviation from the message. No hedging. No apologizing. Just a relentless drumbeat of accountability and action:
Trump’s Tariffs are a tax on you
Trump got paid, we got played
Promises Made, Promises Broken
Repetition builds salience. Salience drives votes.
This Rachel Bitecofer column is right on: Democrats needs to run on affordability, something that Zohran Mamdani is doing in his NYC Mayoral race.
