What to Say to Voters: Crime, Immigration, and the Border
2024 Talking Points for Canvassers and Candidates
Framing can be simple. It’s about getting people to see the same thing from a different point of view, one based on our values. You can be “tough on crime” or invest in crime prevention. Immigrants can be an “invasion” or essential to our culture and economy. Here are the best things to say to voters to get them to see the big issues of this election cycle from our perspective.
Online Training: The Science of Messaging
I will be discussing framing strategies for these and other top issues in:
PART 2: What to Say: Verbalizing Our Values and Top Talking Points for 2024 on Wednesday August 14th and again on Thursday, August 29th.
Learn more here: Training: The Science of Messaging
Framing can be simple.
The public debate is a competition between two sets of values, and the party with the winning values gets to run the country. FRAMING is how we get people to see situations, judge candidates, and make political decisions from the perspective of our values.
How does this work on face-to-face? Whether you are canvassing or in a debate, the best way to win people over is to stop arguing about the way our opponents see things, and get voters to think and talk about the way we see things.
Often, at the door or in a debate, we don’t have control over which issue or topic we talk about. That’s okay. Regardless of the topic, our job is to get people to see that topic from our perspective. To do that, we have to prepare in advance for the topics we are likely to encounter, by:
Making sure we know what our values-based perspectives are,
Learning the best words and phrases to express those perspectives, and
Practicing how to redirect a conversation.
How to Talk to Voters
When you are talking to voters, your MISSION is to make a strong empathy-based value statement: something that expresses what we believe to be right and wrong. Hopefully, this will engage the listener in conversation or at least give them something to think about.
Your ASSIGNMENT is to create an opening in the conversation where you can insert that statement.
If the person you are talking to is pushing our opponents’ perspective, don’t try to refute it. DEFLECT it. Start with something like, “Well I don’t know about all that,” or “Hmm, none of the Democrats I know think that,” or “I don’t think I’ve ever heard (candidate) say anything like that.”
Then REDIRECT it by saying something like, “All I know is…” or “All the Democrats I know believe…” or “Kamala Harris / your-candidate-here says that…” followed by your strong values-based statement.
Let’s start with some statements on crime, immigration and the border.
CRIME
Investing in Crime Prevention
“Tough on Crime” versus “Serious About Safety”
The group Vera Action developed two different ways to frame the debate about crime, tested them in the field with real candidates, and showed huge results. Compared with Republicans using a “tough on crime” message, Democrats lost when using a “tougher on crime” approach. However, Democrats won, and by a large margin, with messages about being “serious about safety,” getting away from the political posturing and working to keep neighborhoods safe.
When it comes to crime, our opponents frame the situation in terms of their values: toxic ideas about male hierarchy, obedience to authority, dehumanization and punishment.
We frame the debate in terms of our values: people’s inherent worth and fundamental right to safety, and our shared responsibility to use government to take care of each other.
WHAT TO SAY: “All I know is that…
“Everybody deserves to be able to walk through their neighborhood (to go to school or church or the grocery store) and feel safe. Not live in fear of crime or gun violence (or even policy brutality.)”
“If we are serious about making neighborhoods safe, we need to invest in preventing crime, not just deal with it after it happens.”
“The main thing that prevents crime is people knowing that they will get caught, and people only get caught when police and people work together. Police need the trust of the communities they serve.”
“There is no excuse for tolerating police brutality. These are American citizens. This is supposed to be a free country. It’s abuse of power and it needs to stop.”
“We ask police to do so many things that are not their job and they aren’t properly trained to do. It’s not fair to them. We ought to take those things off their plate so they can spend more time keeping neighborhoods safe.”
Ask them what they think is the most effective way to prevent crime and keep neighborhoods safe.
KEY PHRASES
Serious about safety
Safe neighborhoods, safe communities
Investing in crime prevention (as opposed to defunding the police)
Gun violence, common sense (not “commonsense”) gun safety laws
Police brutality (as opposed to qualified immunity, etc.)
Abuse of power
Dealing with Misinformation
It’s hard to correct misinformation without triggering people’s defenses. First, do not dismiss people’s genuine feelings. As my friend Josh Tanzer recommends, you can talk people down from Fox talking points by asking them how they have been personally affected by what they are talking about.
“Have you had a lot of crime in this area recently? I hope nothing has happened to you!”
Introduce facts separately from assigning political blame or credit. Don’t make it about Trump or Biden.
“Interesting. From what I have heard, crime spiked during Covid, but now, violent crime is at its lowest in fifty years. I wonder why that is.”
Then provide a plausible explanation that gets people to think.
“I think some people turn to crime because they don’t have better options. The thing is, when unemployment gets this low, people on the fringes have a chance to do better.” (This re-humanizes people who commit crimes and allows us to bring up great unemployment rates.)
If they persist, engage them in finding the facts with you, rather than telling them that they’re wrong. Say:
“Well, that’s what I heard. Let’s Google it!”
Then whip out your phone, open Google search, click the microphone and say, “Are violent crime rates really the lowest they’ve been in fifty years?” Then look at the results together!
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IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER
Immigrants Are Essential
When it comes to immigrants, our opponents frame the situation in terms of crime, invasion/safety, economic competition, “replacement,” and threats to cultural “purity.”
We frame the debate in terms of human decency, patriotism, the central role of diversity in American culture, and recognition of our economic interdependence.
WHAT TO SAY: “The way I see it…
“Immigration has always been an essential part of our culture and our economy. Our people come from everywhere. We get together and create new things! That’s what makes America so creative and strong.”
“Immigrants are the new ‘us.’ Most Americans (including me) are immigrants or descended from immigrants, people (like my great grandmother) who took the initiative and risked everything to come here to make a better life for their families, just like these people are doing now. They’re just the latest version of us.”
“Immigrants are essential workers. This country couldn’t function without millions of immigrants who do a lot of the essential work that keeps this country running.” [Like picking produce and packaging meat, taking care of our kids and elders, and working in construction.]
“It’s time to stop playing politics and get serious about our security, and that requires immigration reform.”
“Biden and Harris want a secure and orderly border that lets trade and tourism flow, but stops the drugs, terrorists and traffickers. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do.”
“The whole thing could have been fixed. We had a bipartisan immigration reform deal in Congress that would have added more border officers, immigration judges and drug detecting technology. But Trump told them to kill it. Why do you think he did that?”
KEY PHRASES
Immigrants are essential to our culture.
Immigrants are just like us.
Immigrants are essential workers.
Stop playing politics. Serious about border security.
Secure, orderly and functional border. Healthy flow of trade and tourism.
We had a deal, but Trump killed it. Republicans/Trump are “all talk, no action.”
What if they say, “Why don’t people come in legally?
“People want to, but we need to make the legal pipeline bigger. We tell people to come here legally, but we don’t have enough legal slots for them, so they’re coming in as refugees instead. Our border officers can’t keep us safe if they’re too busy processing refugee paperwork to do their jobs. We need to reform the whole system now.”
Dealing with Misinformation: The “Migrant Crime” myth.
In addition to the advice above, never repeat the phrase “migrant crime.” It causes people to involuntarily visualize migrants as criminals, even when you are trying to refute it. Instead, rephrase it so people visualize the truth and get them to think about it.
“That’s weird. I heard that immigrants actually obey the law more than people born in the U.S. “
OR
“I heard that people born in the U.S. have higher crime rates.”“Why do you think that is? Do you think that people born in this country take it for granted? Or is it just that immigrants want to avoid the risk of getting thrown out?”
You can also say, “Hey, let’s Google it.” and ask, “Who commits more crimes? Immigrants or people born in the U.S.?”
More to Come
I will be taking on more of our top issues in the days to come!
Just remember, it’s not about showing people that we’re right. It’s about getting them to see things the way that we do (by using values based statements) and getting them to think and engage in conversation. They will come to their own conclusion, and recognize for themselves that which we already know: that we’re just trying to do some good in the world!
THANK YOU, as always, for reading, subscribing, and all that you do to make our world a better place!
In solidarity,
Antonia
Contact me about communications consulting and custom content at antonia@antoniascatton.com or (202) 922-6647.
Thank you for publishing this, it's excellent work, and I'll be following along closely to learn more and apply what I've learned. I have strong progressive opinions, but I've typically shied away from the more difficult discussions so as not to provoke conflict. I can no longer avoid the feeling that these times, though, require me to get off the sideline and be part of the change I wish to see.
Thank you! I’ve been invited to a Trumpy FB group by a former colleague, w/whom I share many values and similar history, who’s gone off the deep end. Ima try all this there :-)