Bad Political Messaging: AFP Quotes Brad Chase

If you’re a TL;DR person, here’s the scoop: one of the most prestigious news wires in the world quoted me today on political messaging. Click here to read the story or read my expanded take below, then read the story.

Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, communism was the big bad in America. There were certainly more hurtful names you could call someone, but it was the ultimate insult to suggest someone was a threat to their home nation. Of course, the Red Scare was largely overblown and the Soviet Union was burning cash and resources into oblivion, ending in its disbandment three decades ago.

If you’re under the age of 40, you have no memory of the Cold War. And if you’re between 40 to 50 years-old, you only have vague memories of the Berlin Wall falling and Gorbachev and all that came during that rapid disintegration.

And yet this week, it’s the choice word of the most powerful person in the world. He who shall not be named is railing against Democrats as communists. But it’s largely falling on deaf ears to all but the oldest Americans. No one really makes the same mental connection anymore between communism and the (supposedly) most evil threat of that time. Plus, no one outside the political science community can even tell the difference between communism and socialism.

But now that Democratic Socialists are infiltrating the party, calling someone a “communist” is a leading line of attack for Republicans. The only problem is that the 80 year-old is no longer taking counsel with professionals. When Laura Loomer and her type of extremist, uncouth, soft-brained loyalist are calling the shots, there’s no real strategy on audience, channel and message.

Calling someone a communist in 2026 is moronic. It’s a dated term. It’s meaningless to most people.

And so we get yet another example of a U.S. President increasingly detached from reality, both in mental health and in political acumen. Make what you will of that, but it’s striking to see someone who’s had immense success with communications now on a long streak of losing on the narrative front.

That’s a long-winded expansion of my quotes in today’s story from Agence France-Presse — read the full story here

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