Where o where has the DNC gone...

We must make sure it's a different DNC, if and when they show up

TAT readers,

As we head into the weekend, we must address the elephant in the room regarding the DNC. They are MIA in any real manner. A handful of tireless, courageous congresspersons are doing remarkable work, but where the hell is their support from the party? Other groups and movements are also fighting back against the ongoing GOP coup but apparently, the DNC has chosen to ignore them as well. The DNC remains uninformed and antiquated when it comes to, campaigning.

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Introduction

First, a disclaimer; As many of you already know, I despise political parties. This is due to my deep appreciation for one of my top tier heroes, President George Washington. He warned America in the most pointed manner in his Farewell Address, September 17th, 1796. If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend the book by John Avalon, Washington’s Farwell. I’ve referred to my copy so often, that its pages are now lovingly worn and tattered. It’s the story of how our brilliant and pragmatic first POTUS, came to warn future Americans of the pitfalls to liberty, should they not act on the principles of our founding principles. “Factions” as most called parties in those days, received particularly pointed and unflattering attention.

In our current situation, pragmatism alone, requires pushing the DNC to support all in the opposition, regardless of party. The problem… they don’t know how. Only all of us pushing them to evolve urgently will make a difference. This is because they are the only entity with a big-enough checkbook and network to make a difference. I have long said that, “if we follow truth, our constitution and true American values, the politics will sort themselves out properly. Unless they learn, we are as they say where I was raised, “in a heap of trouble.”

As most know, I’m am by trade, primarily an ethical influence operator in support of US and allied national security. My experience has encompassed several combat deployments, research, training, mentorship and a cutting edge approach to influence. I also learned this on my own and with a very small team of true operators. The rest of the US national security community for influence, is a four-decade-long failure and who I blame most for not protecting the cognitive resilience of American citizens from a combination of Russian and American/ GOP influence operations. So my friends, there is no hope in my former professional community. Like the Minutemen at Lexington Commons and the North Bridge at Concord, it is us who must do the the work. In fact, I named my latest book, Modern Day, Minutemen and Women.

Now, I will offer insights that the DNC must heed if they wish to remain relevant and worse, if all of us, regardless of party wish to hold onto our constitutional republic.

Onward

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Point by point DNC, “must do” tasks

1. Take charge and operate, but first remember that this an influence campaign based on Narrative Warfare, not any of the other BS they have wielded while losing for decades. Had Obama and Clinton not been powerful, charismatic orators, today’s unprincipled, insurrectionist, oligarchical and cruel GOP, would have been in office since the end of H.W. Bush’s term. Joe Biden, who did a terrific job righting our ship of state, came on the heels of abject failure by the first Trump/ GOP administration. Had it not been for Trump’s disastrous first administration, the party would have failed again. They failed VP Harris as well. We must get their collective heads out from where they won’t need a haircut.

   Narrative Warfare
   
   Narrative Warfare is the employment of influence campaigns, revolving around connecting to audience's identities, better than your opposition. In short, a war of influence for the control of the identities of all relevant audiences. It is our identities that control the meaning of all that we experience, whether true or not. 
   
   Today's GOP has had their identity conditioned over 30 + years by right-wing media, especially FOX News. Conspiracy theories are key elements of their identity. That identity is no longer patriotic by traditional standards, but has been converted into a reality that only allows them to believe in the fake-patriotism of their narrators, such as Trump, elected representatives and all right-wing media. This is precisely why that Republican voters are completely dethatched from our truth and reality. To them, whatever their narrators say, is reality. 
   
   - Cobaugh - July, 2025

   

2. When they take charge, they MUST tell the progressive, far-left wing of the party to get in line and stop dividing the party. The fight is for moderate middle voters, even Republicans, disgusted with their MAGA party. So much of the 50501 protests have focused on far-left issues that are distressing to moderate voters. It’s not that I don’t care about them expressing their own interests but they are clueless that their personal agendas are devastating to the party as a whole. Let me explain.

   1. The false narratives they use to support the Palestinian people are driving the party apart and which played a devastating role in the 2024 election, especially in swing states, like Michigan. Don’t get me wrong, the rank and file Palestinians, especially in Gaza deserve all the support they can get, but lying will only hurt everyone in the long run while denying us any chance of ousting the fascists. These prominent players in the 50501 movement are just as brainwashed with largely Iranian, Russian and some Gulf State, false narratives about Gaza, as Republicans are about; stolen elections, inflation, a Biden border crisis, high crime rates, their “woke BS” and especially their false narratives that support their fake-patriotism.

      

   2. Then, there are those that show up in their bright red socialist tee-shirts. I don’t give a damn about the Bernie bros and their democratic socialism agenda right now. First of all, the US has been a tiny bit of a democratic socialist nation since the Great Depression, so they must “get over it!” If they want more, work within the system, not sabotaging the opposition. The MAGA GOP has built a whole dishonest narrative against, “socialism, Marxism and communism” and if the Bernie followers don’t stop shoving this into everyone’s face, it’s curtains again for the midterms.

   3. Finally on this topic, the Bernie democratic socialists and those dishonestly supporting Gaza folks must realize that ousting the insurrectionist and fascist thugs controlling our government, is priority one, not their selfish self-interests. If we oust Trump, they are then free to pursue their own selfish interests, but not until they play as a team with the rest of the opposition, regardless of party. The leaders of these far-left movements have one task and one task only… learn to be part of the opposition team, not selfish destroyers of unity.

      

      Dick Wright, PoliticalCartoons.com

3. In Narrative Warfare, step one is to know your audience (s). This is something the Dems have long since forgotten. They no longer understand their audiences and this means, none of their narratives will succeed. In NW/ Narrative Warfare, the identity or in narrative terms, their NI/ narrative identity is the key component of success. They are clueless and at a distinct disadvantage against the right. Trust me, the right doesn’t understand either so they did the next best thing, they spent over 30 years having FOX News build the identity of the right by conditioning them slowly.

   1. Conditioning was proven long ago by that guy we all learned about in middle school science classes, Dr. Pavlov and his now famous dog. In other words, the right is brainwashed and can be easily controlled by their influencers or “narrators.”

   2. Meanwhile, the iconic American entertainer, Will Rodgers was right when he said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” In other words, keeping Democrats focused on team play is about as effective as “herding cats.”

      

4. Narrative Warfare as the name indicates, requires “narrating.” Operationally, this mean acquiring interest from your audience and then becoming a persistent, proactive voice in the narrative space. The Dems are reactive only and in NW, this equates to LOSING. Losing is the one thing that they are good at. Trust me as a Texan, this is why they fail each and every election. The right is relentless with the false narratives that they have curated in their zombie-like party. Once false narratives take root inside of audiences, they are extremely difficult to dislodge. In current terms, we are light years behind the GOP who is operating on a combination of Soviet/ Russian styled Active Measures and Hitler’s Nazification/ propaganda strategy. We all know how this turned out!

5. Learn how to create enduring and resonant narratives from professionals with deep operational experience in Narrative Warfare. All messaging should then refer to the well established and consistently narrated narratives, even if only obliquely.

6. Campaign, campaign and then campaign some more. The DNC is currently absent from the national conversation.

   

7. Stop trying to be effective with the same nonsense and people you’ve been using for years. The evidence of failure is in results. Let those that actually understand influence guide you. It’s not just about tech, AI, social media or otherwise. Influence done well, requires employing new, innovative thinking quite far from the work that even scoundrels like the infamous Brad Parscale are using. There is no tech solution but tech can play incredibly powerful roles in the right hands.

8. Finally, stop bombarding everyone with ad nauseum solicitations for campaign contributions until you have some progress to show. You’re building up some bad blood in your base. I get multiple per day and also from the GOP. My response to you is always, delete and report junk. To the MAGA GOP, my response is considerably less polite. I tell them; ____ off traitors.”

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Summary

Well all, a lot of today’s essay gets down into the weeds of Narrative Warfare, the most essential element of all influence campaigns. Ours and NATO’s national security communities are still clueless about how it works and have zero operational experience. What they claim to be NW, is utterly a false claim. Influence defines all campaigns and Narrative Warfare is the core of all influence. What we need as a nation, is to promote a narrative of true patriotism that isn’t just left or right.

The only thing that I have seen from any opposition group is a handful of Congressmen and women fighting back brilliantly and narrating the cause (s). These are usually on short little videos, from Facebook but not in our feeds. Where the hell is the DNC in supporting these courageous warriors? My multiple news feeds from credible news sources, are full of the opposition narratives. Where are the DNC contributions? Where is party leadership in sustained narration of what the DNC is offering all resisters? Where is your support for true principled conservatives fighting back on the side of Democrats? Where the hell is your outreach to every American in opposition to our current fascism? Well, you get the point… don’t you?

Narrative Warfare takes time and the DNC is nearly absent in any meaningful way from the battlefield. The core, oversimplified narrative that matters is, “fighting to defend and restore our constitutional republic from fascism.” It is that simple but also requires more, in-depth narratives that articulate what the components of such a narrative entail. Our Declaration of Independence has a lot of clues and stop thinking that raw, unfettered patriotism is “corny” or any other pejorative.

When Joe Biden said that “we are in a battle for the soul of our nation,” he nailed it. The GOP competing narratives are pure, fake-patriotism. This campaign is about “who we are as a nation,” not your usual campaigning on policy. Policy doesn’t touch people’s emotions. Patriotism framed properly, does. In fact, you may wish to revisit Biden’s speech because there are plenty of clues in his Philadelphia speech as to what Americans care about. You dropped the ball then and you haven’t ever recovered. Much as I hate to say this, it’s up to the DNC to underpin the resistance. Will they fail us again or will they learn from professionals? Time will tell.

Our job is to put so much pressure on the party that they begin taking action and with a whole new and effective approach. I have never included a video in my essays before but I implore you to watch the one below. It is Senator Cory Booker giving Senate Democrats hell, for their lackluster fight against the GOP regime. It’s worth every second of watching. I have watched three times now. Please watch until the end. This is the passion, leadership and “truth to power” courage, completely missing from the DNC and the Democratic Party as a whole.

Today’s essay should give everyone some sobering food-for-thought over the upcoming weekend. Take a breather and dig up the phone numbers and emails of the DNC and your democratic congresspersons. That is our most immediate tasking.

Let’s do this my fellow citizens. Let’s all be Modern day Minutemen and Women and answer our nation’s call… together.

Paul