Friday Sketchpad: AI Is Here, Biden Engages Freedom Caucus, New Agenda for Women/Families
On Fridays, will share a sketchpad - things I'm thinking about, noted during the week
AI Is Here. We Aren’t Ready - AI is here, and its going change politics. A lot. Not sure how yet but man oh man do we need to talk about it. Look at what Trump posted this week. This is going to come at us very fast now.
More Bad DeSantis Polling, Trump Surging in Polls - In my big DeSantis piece last week I talked about how bad the polling had been for the bumbling golden boy governor, raising an age old political question of whether a candidate can crash before they launch. Our friend Bill Kristol has a sharp take on some of this new data:
It is my sincere belief that the epic awfulness, criminality and extremism of both Trump and DeSantis is a central reason why Democrats should be strategizing on how to expand our coalition and get to 55 this year. GOP becoming among most unappealing political parties in American history, and we should try to re-imagine what is possible with voters in 2024.
Notes on TikTok, Twitter and Something Better Then Social Media - Pleased to see the focus this week on TikTok, but we need a much broader conversation about the many, ongoing challenges to the integrity of our daily discourse. Our nation’s discourse has been degraded by foreign manipulation, by the decades of lying from Fox “Swen,” (news spelled backwards), by social media itself. It is a core belief here at Hopium Chronicles that our policy makers have to do far more to reclaim the integrity of our discourse, and that we also need to keep working to innovate together to get to a better place beyond the current social media age (why I am here on Substack).
Yes we have to get loud, become info warriors for democracy, but we also cannot accept any longer a media landscape where a few people - Mark Z, Elon, the folks at Google - have some much power, and make their money by surveilling us and selling that info to others. It’s hurting us, our democracy and we have to find a better way, together. One of my goals here at H/C is to help lead this conversation in the coming months.
I also think this work can get connected to a broader project I’ve been thinking about in recent weeks and is still in an early form - a new agenda for women and families - something that can tie together things like improving our domestic discourse, limiting gun violence, codifying Roe, improving health outcomes and providing more people insurance (esp in FL and TX). The contrast between this approach and the R approach of banning books, stripping women of freedoms, etc could become a very powerful contrast for us in the months ahead.
Biden Engaged the Freedom Caucus Budget This Week - The White House spent the week talking about the extreme Freedom Caucus economic plan, and working to create a contrast between their forward-looking, people-first economic approach and the lunacy of what the Rs are putting forward. It’s was a good week for team Biden as this is smart stuff.
As folks here know it’s my belief that creating this basic contrast on the economy:
Dems = growth, lower deficits, American progress
Rs = recession, higher deficits, American decline
is one of our highest narrative and message priorities this cycle. Chris Cadelago and Lauren Egan have a new Politico piece about this effort and quote me:
Hear You On More Digestible Content - Gotten a lot of feedback about needing to make our content here simpler, more digestible. Hearing you on this. Need some time to figure this out, as for years I’ve been talking to political and policy professionals and not voters. My content was designed for more expert audiences, and it’s going to take me some time, perhaps a few months, to figure out how to take my work and make it easier for people to access and use.
Honestly I have learned a lot from all of you already. Have gotten really terrific and constructive feedback. One thing to keep in mind - the more paid subscribers we have the more time I can spend here. It’s not a pitch, just a reality. So the faster we grow this community the faster I can start developing a new, more digestible content stream.
Two weeks in am really pleased with how this is going. Keep working hard, keep offering good faith advice, and let’s keep growing this community together. Thanks so much for being part of these early days.
Onward, Simon
I would like to see no photos of 45. So many of us are truly burned out, exhausted and in panic mode. The front pages of NYTimes and WashPost are so full of news about 45, the freedom caucus etc. it’s too much. More cherry blossoms please 🌸🌸🌸 Maybe photos of historic of memorials such as the FDR Memorial with the Four Freedoms. The challenge of getting to 55 is brilliant. Thank you.
The Meidas Touch Network may provide some examples. They have longer livestreams but do a series of short (10-15 min) single issue spots throughout the day. You might want to post some excerpts from the hour long videos.
Otherwise- for 2 weeks in, you are doing well!