Subtle Messaging vs. Direct Action: Lessons from the 2024 Campaign

The 2024 U.S. presidential election underscored a subtle, but growing gap in communication strategies between Republicans and Democrats. Donald Trump — perhaps the least erudite national politicians in decades — leaned heavily into a subtler, multi-layered messaging, connecting social issues to broader economic concerns and being confident enough that voters would be able to extract the desired messages from his campaign’s adverts.

On the other hand, Kamala Harris’ campaign attempted something similar; often relying on abstract appeals about democracy and moral imperatives, hoping — but ultimately failing — to connect with voters on an immediate, tangible level. Both shared the same level of confidence in their audience, but one campaign’s was deeply misplaced.

This might sound very harsh, but it illustrates why Democrats might benefit from lowering their intellectual tone to more directly resonate with the electorate. This is, after all, not a post-grad seminar where we all gather to discuss the specific semantics of what it means to be fascist, or a republic, or a democracy.

Republican Subtlety: Social Issues with Economic Overtones

One of Trump’s most discussed campaign ads targeted transgender issues. On a recent episode of Pod Save America, a bunch of…