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At donor retreats and in pitch documents seen by The New York Times, liberal strategists are pushing the party’s rich backers to reopen their wallets for a cavalcade of projects to help Democrats, as the cliché now goes, “find the next Joe Rogan.”

[...]

The first out of the gate has been Chorus, a well-publicized liberal nonprofit group co-founded by the Democratic influencer Brian Tyler Cohen.

But others have stayed under wraps until now. In November, Ms. McBride and other liberal operatives gathered in Washington for a series of meetings to survey the election wreckage. At the headquarters of American Bridge, one of the largest Democratic donor networks, they eventually hatched a plan for a for-profit media company called AND Media, which stands for “Achieve Narrative Dominance.”

The company, incorporated in March, says it is aiming to raise $45 million over the next four years. The group hopes to have a $70 million budget over that time frame based on predictions of $25 million in revenue. It says it has raised $7 million so far. Ms. McBride and Christian Tom, who led digital strategy for the Biden White House, have pitched the company to American Bridge donors as a broad cultural project.

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[-] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 11 points 5 hours ago

They can probably just pay Joe Rogan.

[-] BodyBySisyphus@hexbear.net 6 points 5 hours ago

I take it the Pod Johns' star has dimmed

[-] hotcouchguy@hexbear.net 3 points 4 hours ago

Trying to retool the Pod John Biogenesis Facility to produce an authentic-style Pod Joe, but they all either go feral or go full wonk.

[-] MineDayOff@hexbear.net 1 points 54 minutes ago

Like the Montage when they're trying to create RoboCop 2 and every one fails

[-] Cimbazarov@hexbear.net 15 points 6 hours ago

Democrats are just a fundraising corporation. That is why they will never change their politics.

[-] sexywheat@hexbear.net 8 points 5 hours ago

They have politics?

[-] ShareThatBread@hexbear.net 11 points 6 hours ago

Smug insufferable online neolib that thinks they have all the answers that appeals to smug young neolibs

That’s D*stiny

[-] WizardOfLoneliness@hexbear.net 15 points 7 hours ago

they could simply have told reddit not to ban the chapo traphouse if that's what they wanted

[-] iie@hexbear.net 6 points 6 hours ago

They are going to grow him in a vat like the giant warriors from Nausicaa

[-] chauncey@hexbear.net 46 points 10 hours ago

Reminder that Rogan endorsed Bernie in 2020. They had a Joe Rogan, it was Joe Rogan.

[-] hotcouchguy@hexbear.net 6 points 4 hours ago

Yeah that's even worse though

[-] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 49 points 11 hours ago

They already have these people. It's Bill Maher, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, etc. They're just on cable TV which nobody under 50 watches anymore. Not to mention, they're insufferable to everyone except establishment dems.

Republicans realized this a decade ago, so they gave Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, etc. large online platforms in addition to their cable appearances. Then, they had a slew of talking heads like Candice Owens and Milo Yiannopoulos branch out further into online spaces while the original grifters kept their distance. People like Kirk maintain plausible deniability if they need to burn anyone who steps out of line or becomes too controversial (as was the case with Milo).

It's why the conservative outrage machine grows and keeps its momentum going, while dems sit around with their thumbs up their asses wondering if some D-list celebrity can topple Joe Rogan.

[-] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 22 points 8 hours ago

It also doesn't help that the dems don't have any sort of coherent message beyond "We aren't those guys." They struggle to stay relevant because their entire thing is being "republican lite" and no one wants that or likes that.

[-] duderium@hexbear.net 20 points 11 hours ago

I think the lib characters you mention also have online presences, but they don’t really appeal to anyone under the age of fifty.

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[-] BynarsAreOk@hexbear.net 9 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

It's Bill Maher, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, etc. They're just on cable TV which nobody under 50 watches anymore. Not to mention, they're insufferable to everyone except establishment dems.

When I was back watching some Hasan streams last year I think IIRC even at the height of that mini donor revolt and Biden dropout, the problem was that these are not even all that bad, there was some good reaction from both Hasan and his type of viewers(chat) to that stuff when they were(I think John was best?) consistently shitting on both candidates but specialy Biden.

I'm going from memory but from the clip segments Hasan would watch on stream, it didn't even look that bad if they had all kept that consistent at least appearance of indignation and revolt towards the situation. They could have managed to pull some younger viewers through that sort of pipeline, even if just temporarily. But once Kamala's campaign got underway and that brief moment she was up in the polls etc it was all back to normal then it was realy over.

So I'd even argue the issue is not necessarily just its old cable shit since you know you can find these clips on YT later etc. It realy is more of the shit content. They're so old and disconnected etc. But if they all even tried to shift there is already a sort of pipeline ready for them.

[-] Stolen_Stolen_Valor@hexbear.net 45 points 11 hours ago

They’re trying to find someone likable with smug liberal politics? You’re better off paying millions for the capture of Bigfoot.

[-] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 26 points 11 hours ago

Pod Save America, but with $2k tickets for shows subsidized by the US Petroleum Institute of Genocide. I'm sure many people who aren't already fully in the liberal tank would tune in!

[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 14 points 10 hours ago

That’s the entire alumni of the Daily Show and they’re all insufferable to listen to. Jon Oliver is okay but god his jokes are annoying.

[-] SevenSkalls@hexbear.net 6 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I like him, although I haven't watched him in awhile. He has the occasional bad takes (an episode on Venezuela and China for example) but usually every episode is an explanation of why capitalism sucks, which I think needs to be the beginning of every lib to leftist pipeline. They don't use those words, but it's obvious when the cause of the problem of the episode is something being privatizated, deregulated, and/or some corporation or CEO.

[-] barrbaric@hexbear.net 4 points 1 hour ago

Part of the reason his foreign policy takes are all dogshit is (IIRC) because his wife is a republican and was a US army medic at a torture camp.

[-] MaoTheLawn@hexbear.net 41 points 11 hours ago

Crazy that their idea is to completely manufacture a guy rather than engaging with any already popular left winger on the internet

that's why it's not possible

say what you like about Rogan, he got to where he is very organically

[-] GnastyGnuts@hexbear.net 16 points 9 hours ago

There's nothing inherently special about Joe Rogan, he's just a popular media figure who repeats generally right-wing talking points and presents a right-wing aesthetic, and thereby funnels his audience into that mode of thinking.

Liberals have several of their own equivalents of this figure on various talk shows and news stations, but people don't like them because they're smug dickheads who exist to cough up the same tired lib-shit that people are only ever more burnt-out on. And young people don't really watch television media anymore.

There are popular liberal / left figures online that democrats could tap into, but the most popular tend to be too far left of the party leaders to support. The democrats ultimately do not want leftists or even just "progressives", they want the moderate republicans -- the dragon they can't stop chasing -- and only tolerate the left flank of their party at best.

They literally just need better politics, and they're hellbent on rejecting that change, unless it's moving rightward and becoming a wussier version of republicans. So (god willing) they will die as a party, and they will deserve it.

[-] Cimbazarov@hexbear.net 8 points 6 hours ago

There are popular liberal / left figures online that democrats could tap into, but the most popular tend to be too far left of the party leaders to support.

Almost as if the democrats' political stances literally represent no one other than a portion of the bourgeoisie which is a problem if you are a political party that relies on votes. At least the republicans know how to grift their base.

[-] Adkml@hexbear.net 36 points 11 hours ago

It's hilarious that the dems, supposedly the adults in the room, are dummer than Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan doesn't convince people to think like him he says what people already think.

Hassan is your Joe Rogan of the left.

But they want a liberal Joe Rogan. Aka a neoliberal who appeals to populist.

Not an internally coherent political movement.

[-] Ishmael@hexbear.net 24 points 11 hours ago

The "hall monitor" image, as they put it, is inherent to liberalism. Because you always have to make excuses for terrible shit everyone can tell is terrible but then also pretend you care about a bunch of smaller social issues on the side that doesn't affect most people. "More black women cops!" just feels artificial, and always will no matter how much money you throw at it.

[-] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 1 points 10 minutes ago* (last edited 9 minutes ago)

"More black women cops!" just feels artificial, and always will no matter how much money you throw at it.

"More black women overseers!" — that same liberal in 1825

[-] D61@hexbear.net 15 points 10 hours ago

Fuck... its gonna be Contrapoints innit?

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 1 points 3 minutes ago

Dem elites do not fuck with Trans people

[-] Poison_Ivy@hexbear.net 7 points 4 hours ago

Contrapoints is too divisive when we really need a common sense progressive leader with progressive values with experience in politics

I’m of course talking about Brianna Wu

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 12 points 9 hours ago

I liked Chris Wade's quip about how he's spent 10,000 hours editing the left wing version of Rogan that the dems are looking for

[-] Zuzak@hexbear.net 28 points 12 hours ago

I mean, they do desperately need to do something about things like the fact that virtually all the top politics streamers are right-wing. But rather than trying to artificially promote someone whose message they can control (which people will easily see through), they should probably start by buddying up with the one big politics streamer who isn't on the right, Hasan Piker. But that would require engaging with someone who doesn't perfectly pass their shitlib purity test, so they'd rather pour money into tame mouthpieces that everyone will ignore because it's not how the current media environment works.

They're almost certainly going to lose in 2028, unless Trump nukes the economy and maybe even then.

[-] Lussy@hexbear.net 29 points 11 hours ago

they should probably start by buddying up with the one big politics streamer who isn't on the right, Hasan Piker.

Piker would honestly play ball if the Demonrats reached out, acted in good faith, and were not brainless.

But they are the biggest losers on the planet so there’s no way they’re digging themselves out

[-] Zuzak@hexbear.net 17 points 11 hours ago

Absolutely. These people have no interest in negotiation or compromise, they're just gonna keep throwing their weight around (whether it's in domestic politics or the world stage) and by the time they realize they're not strong enough to do that (if it ever happens) it'll be too late.

[-] sexywheat@hexbear.net 8 points 8 hours ago

They do love to compromise with the republicans though

[-] Zuzak@hexbear.net 4 points 1 hour ago

Is it really a compromise if you want the same things thonk

[-] Diva@hexbear.net 4 points 1 hour ago

'collaborators' has a more appropriate connotation imo

[-] Ishmael@hexbear.net 26 points 11 hours ago

It's sort of funny how they just can't understand that you can't have "independent organically-developed Democrat-aligned media" that is also simultaneously 100% palatable to big money donors.

[-] Zuzak@hexbear.net 22 points 11 hours ago

It's wild how much better the right is at playing the system, despite both sides being filled with out-of-touch, soulless geriatrics. From what I can tell, every right-wing personality has their own "brand" and many of them aren't "ideologically pure" at all, but still break right where it matters and pipeline people in that direction. But I guess at the end of the day, dems don't want people getting pipelined to the left in a way they don't 100% control, because then they might start getting funny ideas about "having healthcare" or "not killing people."

[-] Ishmael@hexbear.net 11 points 7 hours ago

Well there is something to be said about how much simpler right-wing politics is, and how the audience susceptible to the messaging is less critical. The problem for big money corporate Dems is that the majority of Americans who don't vote Republican are either too far left to agree with Democratic positions or too skeptical of politics in general to fall for focus-grouped big-donor-funded BS shoved in their faces. That's why Bernie gained so much more momentum than any other Dem in 2016 and 2020. He had principles and a history of sticking to them. Hell, Obama was the last Democratic presidential candidate who vocally opposed the Iraq War.

[-] Adkml@hexbear.net 19 points 11 hours ago

Trump is currently nuking the economy and facing zero consequences.

I'm not sure democrats win another election without a serious change of course.

Even if things are as bad as they were from 2016-2020 I really dont think the general p7blic will give the current democratic party another shot because of how bad they fucked up last time.

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[-] corvidenjoyer@hexbear.net 9 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

But rather than trying to artificially promote someone whose message they can control (which people will easily see through), they should probably start by buddying up with the one big politics streamer who isn't on the right, Hasan Piker.

So uh they did actually react out to him...

...

...

...

To ask him for advice on how to create a "Leftwing Joe Rogan". hasan-smash

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[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 22 points 12 hours ago

GOOOOOD, I hope they find this "lib" Joe Rogan and I hope he immediately tears into the "progressive caucus" and somehow mind tricks the DNC into expelling them all

That would be the best thing that ever happened to the American "left" in the 21st century

[-] fox@hexbear.net 8 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Ms. McBride and Christian Tom, who led digital strategy for the Biden White House

Anyone else remember 10 cent savings on your 4th of July bbq for a family of 4? That the official white house Twitter twote?

Give those people seven million dollars

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this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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