What Story About Republicans Do You Want Voters to Have in Mind in 2028?

Inflation was decisive in 2024. Why did voters believe the false Republican story about inflation rather than Democrats’ accurate story?

Republicans won that issue—and the 2024 election—50 years ago. In the 1970s Republicans blamed inflation on Democrats and government spending. Ever since, Republicans continually attack Democrats on these grounds. They even did it after the 2008 global financial crisis when the economy was deflationary. Through repetition, Republicans framed inflation in the minds of voters and the press as Democrats’ fault. When postpandemic inflation struck, voters were predisposed to blame the Biden/Harris administration.

If Democrats want to win in 2026 and beyond, they must frame stories about Republicans ahead of the reality. That way, when bad things happen, voters will blame Republicans.

Don’t base these stories around the specific issues of the day. Republicans didn’t keep blaming Democrats for 1970s inflation. Instead, they sketched inflation as a general tendency of Democratic policies. Likewise Democrats should base their stories on perennial themes that will still be relevant years, even decades in the future and that will color voters’ perception of the day’s issues whatever they happen to be.

Democrats should pound home that Republicans are:

• Incompetent—Republicans have a history of mismanagement, from the Iraq War to Hurricane Katrina to the pandemic. Trump has mismanaged organizations his whole career, and now he’s placing unqualified people in senior positions. Of course, chaos and disaster will ensue. If Democrats emphasize the long track record of incompetence, voters won’t just blame Trump or view it as a one-time problem; they’ll blame Republicans in general.

• Unchristian—Evangelicals, the biggest segment of the Republican base, claim to be Christian, but they mistreat the poor, mothers, immigrants, and other vulnerable groups. Attack them for disobeying Jesus’ commandments to love thy neighbor and do unto others—and ask Republicans to repent. Whenever Republicans bring up their “faith,” voters will think “sin.”

• Corrupt—I don’t need to list all the ways in which Republicans line their pockets, flaunt conflicts of interest, and buy off regulators. Don’t just say, “Republicans broke the law.” That’s too abstract. Drive home that corruption comes at voters’ expense. When laws are weak or Republicans break them, disasters happen, banks steal people’s money, or something blows up in their town.

• Delusional—Republicans are so far inside the right-wing media bubble that they’ve lost touch with reality. They refuse to deal with the actual challenges that voters face. For example, People are losing homes and jobs to hurricanes, wild fires and other natural disasters supercharged by climate change, but Republicans don’t believe global warming is real and won’t help. Call out Republicans for being too cowardly to face the truth—they’d rather let people die than admit they’re wrong.

• Dishonest—Republicans gaslight us, saying they’re not doing what they’re obviously doing. They swear allegiance to sacred principles only to betray them when it’s politically convenient. They believe one thing this week and the opposite thing next week. They’re probably even lying to themselves. Point out that voters can’t trust Republicans to defend anything or count on them to deliver on promises

What story do you want voters to have in mind when they vote in 2028? It will be what Democrats start saying now and keep saying for four years. Or, if Democrats can't sustain a disciplined message, they’ll again cede the ground on which elections are won to Republicans.

Please forward this to your contacts and urge them to sign up for free to this Substack.