Always start with the ending.
Because if you don’t know the ending, you can’t identify the smartest, most cost-efficient path in its direction. And really, that’s all a PR plan is: a roadmap from Point A to Point B.
The better you visualize the ending — the more detailed, precise, and specific you are — the better your plan. Vagueness is your enemy; precision is your friend.
So ask yourself, “Now that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have successfully infiltrated the Democratic Party, what’s the best possible thing that could happen for the conservative movement?”
Today, a civil war rages amongst the donkeys: liberals versus commies.
It’s a battle between libs who “only” wanted to socialize healthcare and raise taxes, versus DSA absolutists who want to socialize everything, tax everything, deconstruct the U.S. Constitution, and “seize the means of production.” (Plus flip sides against Israel, open our borders, abolish the police, and tons of other fun stuff.)
The libs still control the party’s infrastructure, but all the grassroots momentum is with the commies. That’s no exaggeration: There’s ZERO grassroots excitement for ANY establishment Democrat.
So the libs have an advantage in money, infrastructure, and historic (heritage) knowhow… and not much else.
The DSA’s advantage is its passion and enthusiasm, which explains its success in low-turnout primaries — especially ones in bright blue House districts. (And even more so in bright blue House districts that are non-majority blacks/Hispanics: When race isn’t the dominant factor, the DSA is virtually unstoppable. The DSA’s sweet spot is ANY population pool filled with highly educated, economically unsuccessful white voters.)
Which is a fascinating wrinkle for the party of “personal identification” and race-based politics, where blacks have long been the Dems' most loyal voting bloc. Much to the DSA’s frustration, black voters have largely rejected its message. (Turns out that you’re not gonna think “seizing the means of production” is a good idea without a fancy-schmancy college degree.)
Fun fact: A 2021 survey of DSA members found that 85% were white and 80% had college degrees.
It used to be that establishment Democrats were safest in bright blue districts. Not anymore. Now, many of those districts are DSA strongholds, especially when at least half the voters are white. (And if you wanna argue, “Well, what about Mamdani and New York City?” keep in mind that, yes, just 37.5% of the Big Apple is technically white, but according to exit polls, 50% of all voters in Mamdani’s election were white.)
As a result, the DSA is gettin’ cocky. When James Carville, a long-time Democratic thought leader and the architect of Bill Clinton’s ’92 presidential campaign, said he didn’t feel comfortable sharing his party with communist numbskulls, Sen. Bernie Sanders — an INDEPENDENT from Vermont (!) — told Carville to take a hike.
"So when someone like James Carville says he doesn't want to be in the same political party as Hasan Piker, which one are you going to take?" CNN's Abby Phillip asked Sanders Tuesday night.
"Well, that's not much of a choice," Sanders said. "If Mr. Carville doesn't want to be in my party, the party that I belong to, that Piker, that El-Sayed belongs to, he can start his own party."
Isn’t that oddly poetic? Sen. Sanders is claiming ownership of a party he didn’t build, STILL hasn’t joined, and STILL refuses to identify with. But since it serves his agenda, it now belongs to him.
And if anyone should leave, it’s YOU!
“What’s yours is mine. Shuddup, don’t complain. Hooray for socialism!”
So the DSA radicals are emboldened — and the liberals, albeit weakened, still have access to donors, dollars, and oodles of establishment weaponry. A conflict is inevitable.
May the best man non-birthing person win!
How should the Republicans play it? What outcome would be best for the conservative movement? What strategy should we pursue?
Let’s discuss…
PRediction: It’s a slam-dunk guarantee that the GOP will use the DSA to tar-and-feather all Democrats. Let’s call it “playing the communist card.”
Sadly, that won’t be good enough.
We know it’s coming. They know it’s coming, too.
That’s the problem.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a prominent Democrat who lost the presidency to Donald Trump in 2016, has warned of one Republican attack on progressive members of her party that will be “very effective” in the midterms.
After progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s victory over centrist congresswoman Haley Stevens in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, Clinton suggested that Republicans will baselessly label him as a “communist,” and it will work to dissuade voters.
As Admiral Ackbar would say, “It’s a trap!” (Whenever Hillary tells you to do something, do the opposite.)
Because the Dems already have a rebuttal to the “commie card”: It’s mock, deny, and blame.
First they mock: “You’ve called every Democrat a commie for 80 years! Yawn! This is just more of the same!”
Then they deny: “We’re not extremists; we just want a better social safety net. Y’know, like Sweden!”
And finally, they blame: “All your hardships are because of late-stage capitalism, corporate greed, and a rigged economic system. Capitalism has failed. Socialism is the only solution.”
Sadly, 99% of the people who’d be activated by the “commie” invective are already on our side. It won’t work to win over the undecideds. (And it definitely won’t work on Millennials and Zoomers, who’ve only read about the Cold War on Reddit.) Hillary Clinton wants us to focus on “commie” because the word has lost its sting.
The menace and dread have been sucked dry.
Once upon a time, a “commie” was pretty much the worst thing you could call an American politician. Now, it’s met with blank stares and eyerolls.
PRojection: Which is why we’ll have to define what a communist is. (Our target audience honestly doesn’t know, because our schools never taught ‘em.) We’ll also have to define socialism, oppression, freedom, and liberty.
If we don’t define the terms of the game, the other side will do it for us.
This isn’t an insult campaign. It’s an educational campaign. Think of it as such.
And the best way to educate someone is with an emotional building block.
By all means, call a commie a commie. I’m not saying not to. All I’m saying is, you’ll also have to define what a commie is, why it’s bad, and whose future is being imperiled.
And the best way to do that is via emotional storytelling.
Speaking of which…
PRaise: To small businesses! According to the polls, Americans love small businesses more than just about everything else.
Forbes (July 14, 2026): Poll: Small Business Only American Institution With Bipartisan Support
Small business has kept the trust of Democrats, Republicans and independents, the only such “institution” in the nation to have managed such a feat in this partisan age, according to a new Gallup poll.
The survey of just over 1,000 voters, conducted June 1-15, found that 67% of respondents - including 79% of Republicans, 65% of Democrats and 62% of independent voters - still have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in small business, making it the only institution to garner majority support from all three political registration categories.
So don’t debate the DSA over the benefits and liabilities of “capitalism.” That’s playing into the DSA’s hands.
Passionately — and forcefully — defend the virtues of small businesses instead.
Personalize the American Dream. Use specific, concrete examples. Tell a story that’s emotionally gripping. Make the audience identify with the hopes and goals of the small businessman.
The DSA is hair-trigger hostile to capitalism in all its forms, of course. But not all PR targets were created equally. Left to its own devices, the DSA would prefer to focus on large corporations, billionaires, and “the one percent.” It’s smart PR.
But that’s not the DSA’s only target.
Switch the media focus from large corporations and billionaires to small American businesses. Because, when the DSA attacks big corporations, it has the upper hand.
And when it’s attacking the rights of small businesses, it loses in a landslide.
PRedators: A boo and hiss to the enemies of small businesses!
In fact, I’d make it a go-to line in my stump speech: condemning the DSA’s “war on small business.”
And all we’d have to do is quote from the DSA’s own 2026 platform, which includes such radical ideas as letting noncitizens vote in U.S. elections, abolishing the Senate, and “collectively own[ing] the key economic drivers that dominate our lives.”
The GOP should showcase sympathetic small business owners in ads, where they speak directly to the camera, explaining point-by-point how DSA madness would bankrupt their businesses, destroy neighborhood jobs, and impoverish the American people.
Build it into a far-reaching, multimedia PR campaign. Use small business owners who are white, black, Hispanic, Asian, male, female, old, young, gay, straight, trans — you name it — all of whom are begging and pleading with the American people to reject the DSA’s “war on small business.”
Transform the GOP into the party that protects the rights, dreams, and opportunities of small businesses!
We began this article with a tactical PR recommendation: Start with the ending. Visualize the outcome. Then work backwards.
And the outcome we want is obvious:
- The American people should perceive the Republican Party as defenders of freedom, liberty, and the American Dream. (Personified by small businesses, which a supermajority of voters still support.)
- The DSA should be seen as enemies of small businesses — as opposed to how they want to be seen: modern-day Robin Hoods in class warfare with evil, greedy billionaires. Define the DSA’s enemies for it!
- The GOP should also set the terms of debate. Reject the DSA’s language by popularizing our own phrasing.
- The best way to do all this is with an emotional (first-person) story campaign, so the message is persuasive, instructive, credible, and powerful. Emotional storytelling is our objective.
A multimedia PR campaign featuring America’s small business owners accomplishes all the above. It creates a “stress test” within the Democratic Party, weaponizing the DSA’s own language against it. Suddenly, Dem candidates are forced to choose between defending (popular) small businesses — and angering grassroots DSA activists. Suddenly, it’s no longer about the billionaires; it’s about everyone with a dream.
It sows Democratic Party division, galvanizes undecideds, defines the terms, and mobilizes freedom-loving Americans who already believe in free markets.
Not a bad PR outcome, eh?
