The System Is A Script

"Here are the lines they don't want you to read"

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If you are a DSA candidate or a campaign staffer for a DSA candidate. It’s important that you understand what is coming for you and our movement as the months get closer and more candidates begin making more noise. "This is the playbook they don't want you to read. It's about political warfare, and it starts with learning to speak their language."

What We Can Expect: The Establishment Playbook

When a movement that speaks to the material reality of the lives of working-class Americans begins to gain traction, the establishment incentive mechanism and the opposing (GOP) party, along with the establishment-entrenched wing of our party, will respond with a predictable, well-worn playbook. This is that playbook laid out bare. Their goal here is not to debate ideas but to neutralize a threat to their funding mechanisms. They will not engage on substance; they will attack identity, process, and fear.

1. The Labeling Attack: “The Scary Ideologue

We have seen this since Mamdani won his seat. This is their first and favorite weapon. Ignore the candidates’ talk about life, rent, healthcare, and childcare. Instead, they slap a label on our candidates: “Socialist,” “Nazi,” “Radical,” “Extreme,” “Far-left.” “Not a good candidate,” they will say. These labels are designed to short-circuit thought. It’s a pre-packaged scare tactic meant to trigger fear of the unknown, fear of chaos, and fear of losing what little one has if you vote. They will run ads with ominous music, trying to make the candidate seem like a foreign asset sent to destroy the American way of life. They will show you images of fear, single out statements out of context, and show their candidate is stable.

2. The “Un-electability” Attack: “The Risk to the Party and Its Donors”

This is the internal party attack, the one they worked on behind the scenes, whispered by consultants, and echoed by every strategist and centrist part-time journalist in their op-eds as they use their pens to attack. We have seen this with Mamdani, Platner, and Talarico. They will argue that a movement candidate might be popular with the “base” but can never win a general election. They will point to polls and warn that the candidate is too toxic and too unknown for moderates, independents, and suburban voters. The underlying message is a threat. “If you choose this person, you are handing power to the enemy; they will hold up policies they support but never passed. They will use the word “patriotic” dustily to be pragmatic and support our safe, boring, electable, establishment, donor-funded candidate instead.”

3. The “Gotcha” Attack: The Hypocrite”

The establishment wing will dispatch an army of consultants and strategists as well as opposition researchers to dig through the candidate’s life and pluck out a single take, an old tweet; they will find an old relationship, an old interview, or an old association. Again, looking for a single thing they can weaponize even on a minor issue that can be twisted into a pattern of “extremism” or “hypocrisy.” The goal here is not to prove the candidate is wrong on the issues of “higher wages” or “better healthcare” but to make them seem like you cannot be trusted and are not like us. “They want to create a cloud of doubt that follows that candidate everywhere.

4. The “Distraction” Attack: “The Culture War Gambit

When they are losing trust on things like the economy, housing, and healthcare on the establishment candidates’ turf, pivot and change the subject. They will try and drag the fight into culture wars. Tom Souza: “They want to tear the whole thing down.” Think about this for a moment. This is an elected Democrat, a former Arthur Andersen accountant who lives in a world where working-class Americans are being denied healthcare in his district, and leaders are talking about rent and drug prices. And he is calling that “Burn the whole thing down.” Once again these establishment strategists and consultants and their elected leaders will find a single vote, a single tweet, or a decisive social issue and attempt to blow it up into a controversy. They will rally and spend weeks talking about ANYTHING except the price of prescription drugs, wages, or labor. They will do this because they can win a fight about flags and pronouns. They know they will lose the fight about whether constituents can afford to retire so that donors get a nice provision included in the next bill.

How To Fight Back: The Movement’s Counter Playbook

We don’t win this fight by playing this game. We stay focused; we don’t beat a scare tactic with a fact sheet. You don’t counter a whisper campaign by issuing a press release. You fight back by pointing to the lives of the people in the area, and you keep the fight focused on what matters. That’s how we keep the fight focused on what’s important. Remember how and why we got here. Speak Language Of American.

1. Let them label you a socialist; either defend or don’t defend the label. You stay focused on the premise of your campaign. A better life for the people you represent, people who are being extracted from while the incentive system benefits the 1% who use socialist programs for profit, tax breaks, subsidies, and contracts. But they are calling you and your candidate a socialist because you represent a better way of living, while their donors need to keep the status quo.

“Say, so what? Let them call me whatever they want. I am not worried about labels. I am worried about the people in my district who can’t afford to live. The senior who has to choose between groceries and her prescription. I am worried about the teacher, who can’t afford to live in the city she teaches in. If fighting for working-class people makes me radical, what does it make the establishment Democrat? You make their abstract attack about a real person; you take that person, and you make them your champion.

2. Turn “Un-electibility” into “Unstoppable.”

Don’t ever quote polls. “The polls show I am competitive with independents. Don’t say shit like that. (Political Warfare)

Say: “The insiders of the establishment and its opponents, the GOP,” will tell you my campaign is unelectable. They do the same thing about healthcare, the same thing about an 8-hour-workday, the same thing about Social Security, and wages. Every time the local people demand change, the establishment and the GOP call it impossible. “This campaign and others like it are not about what’s possible in their system that they control. This campaign is about what’s necessary for the survival of the people I represent.”

3. Make the “Gotcha” a Badge of Honor

When they come at you with an old quote, an old tweet, or some past association, don’t apologize or run. You use that difference to define reality and your authenticity and their cynicism.

Don’t say, “That comment was taken out of context and I regret it’ Fuck that.”

Say, “Yeah, I said that.” And at the time I meant it. Unlike my opponent, I don’t say things because some consultant told me to. I am human, and my views and thoughts change as I grow. I am here now to represent the people of this district, and I have spent my life watching these working people fight for change and get left behind. My opponent has spent their life raising money from the people of this district and has not passed a single bill that benefited the people in this area, not to mention they are funded by corporate PACs. They should be the ones explaining their record, not me.

4. Steer Every Single Conversation Back to the Kitchen Table. The System Is Broken.

Every culture war argument is a distraction. The only way to win is to refuse to take the bait no matter what they throw at you. Pivot back to the kitchen table on issues that define your campaign.

If they ask about a decisive social issue: You say something like, “That’s an important conversation, but you know what the people in my district are asking me about at the grocery store? “Why are their groceries more expensive every time there is an election? They are asking me why they can’t afford to buy a home. That’s the crisis I am focused on solving; my opponent can focus on the culture issues. They are great at that!

If they attack you on foreign policy, say: “My opponent wants to talk about problems overseas. Problems that happened while they were in office. We are focused on the problems here at home; we need to focus on veteran homelessness and veterans sleeping in the street. “That’s where our priorities should be.”

Here’s the thing about foreign policy as a candidate for federal office. You need to win before you can even contemplate what’s happening on foreign policy. And right now as I type this, there are two bills inside being passed around. Another aid package for Israel, and a merger of Israel’s military industrial complex with ours. Focus on the Housing Bill that didn’t get signed.

My entire point here is this is the basic counter playbook. Remember this: they are a machine optimized for contact rate and raising money. They have the same tired old talking points. And you have lived experience. We never let them make the fight about anything other than that. Every Centrist journalist and strategist with nothing at stake will write attack articles like the one below. They will flood the zone with attacks and bullshit to keep reach change from happening. Nothing is more important to these people than keeping their donors and incentives working the same way. It’s just not for Americans. America is under threat, from a system working against the very people it’s supposed to serve. Unleash Fetterman 🤣🤣, he’s voted more with Trump and against Americans at every turn since being elected. His time comes in 2028.

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