Politics

Democrats' new national hero, Mallory McMorrow of Michigan, is credited for 'an instructional video'

April 23, 2022, 8:07 AM

Salutes keep on coming for Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak in a week unlike any the first-term state senator has known.

Fresh fallout from her floor speech seen 'round the country includes a Politico news site roundup on how she prods political allies nationwide to "rethink their 'culture war' strategy."

Many Democrats — particularly those in vulnerable seats — either avoid engaging on those topics altogether or privately beg their colleagues to avoid overly "woke" rhetoric or policy prescriptions they believe could hurt the party politically.

Enter Mallory McMorrow, who is turning that conventional wisdom on its head this week. ...

In D.C., McMorrow’s speech has triggered a conversation among Democratic strategists about whether it's a model for how the party can hit back on "culture war" issues. There's a sense that the right has overreached on issues like abortion and LGBTQ rights, and that in doing so, they’ve provided Dems with an opening in an otherwise grim midterm cycle.

Even Democrats who have long argued that the party should avoid hotly partisan culture issues altogether — or focus its energy on pocketbook issues — are starting to see the outlines of a new approach using McMorrow's playbook.

As an example, Politico cites veteran Democratic campaign guru James Carville, who last year said "wokeness is a problem and we all know it" and ridiculed some campaign messaging as "faculty lounge bullshit." Now he calls McMorrow's five-minute Tuesday remarks in Lansing an "enormously effective piece of communication."

In a Washington Post interview, Carville said: "I'd show this clip as an instructional video." Politico calls that a quip, but we're not so sure.

And in The New York Times on Saturday, columnist Jamelle Bouie singles out the Royal Oak legislator in her first elective office as one of the few exceptions in a party that "has been conspicuously quiet as these [culture war] panics metastasized." 


Ben LaBolt: "We can fight back." (Photo: LinkedIn)

Politico also hit up prominent political communicator Ben LaBolt of San Francisco, who "who praised McMorrow for leaning into her personal story and framing these issues around defending basic human rights and a more inclusive society."

He noted that many conservative "culture war" arguments are built on the premise of a foreign idea or set of values invading a local community or family unit, threatening what they hold dear. But McMorrow turned that narrative upside down by accusing the GOP of being the ones threatening values held by most people in the community. ...

Red state after red state has enacted laws restricting abortion in anticipation of a major ruling on Roe v. Wade, banning transgender children from school sports and so on — issues that LaBolt thinks Democrats can win on if they start talking more like McMorrow.

"It's been sort of written off for years that Republicans fight and win culture wars, and I don’t think we should accept that," LaBolt said. "Republicans are passing this legislation at a state level and viewing it as a messaging opportunity that they think rallies their constituencies, and I think we can fight back against it and we can fight back with the numbers behind us."

Even a non-admirer acknowledges a job well-done. Ingrid Jacques, deputy editorial page editor at The Detroit News, writes in a column:

The Democratic state senator from Royal Oak turned another senator’s bad choices into a fundraising and publicity bonanza this week.

McMorrow also showed just how easy it is for Republicans to start losing the culture war.

Earlier:


Read more:  Politico


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