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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Join The Next 'No Kings' March. Your Feet Might Get Sore But Your Spirits Will Soar open.substack.com/pub/vaughane... My latest Substack post on why everyone needs to join the next 'No Kings' march in their neighborhood. Please subscribe ! It's free!

open.substack.com

Join The Next 'No Kings' March. Your Feet Might Get Sore But Your Spirits Will Soar

There are two places I hate to be.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

There is no more over-used, tired, threadbare statement than 'stand up for working families'. It is the line of a campaign on autopilot, of a candidate who thinks in cliches. Give us an idea about outcomes not about how virtuous you are. What, for heaven's sake, is going to change for the citizenry?

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Note to consultants: values and stories are more important than facts and policies.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

A good communication strategy, if you want to suppress vote son the other side, is to use humor. Particularly if it is visual. This will work well with low involvement voters who watch and read no news. This is the group that broke for Trump in 2024. Don't get all wonky with them. Make them laugh.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

This is a brilliant thrust. It means Fox can't get the footage it wants. The government is made to look ridiculous. The ICE agents are frozen. After all no one wants to get into a fight with a plastic frog on national television. The next stage is diaper clad plastic Donald Trumps. Go, Portland!

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

I gave up all TV news in 2011. Better informed as a result. Blood pressure benefits as well.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

The Mamdani campaign impresses with its trifecta of modernity, lightness of touch and relentless relevance. Compare with the traditional, clunky, predictable consultant driven spot. He is in another league. One reason will be he has really creative people working for him. He is a hack-free zone.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

An Oyster Farmer From Maine Has Marked X On the Treasure Map. Democrats Start Digging open.substack.com/pub/vaughane... Latest Substack post with simple marketing advice to Dems on how they can win. Please subscribe! It's free!

open.substack.com

An Oyster Farmer From Maine Has Marked X On the Treasure Map. Democrats Start Digging

There is a lot of strategic debate among Democrats.Thanks for reading vaughan’s Substack!

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Cause and effect. This people can understand. This is now a story not a process.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

If the shut down is going to get results then it has to have meaning. It has to be more than a dispute over a number. A fight to stop healthcare being more expensive, hospitals closing, research ending, makes the battle relevant. It makes it laudable rather than business as usual.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

This is the contrast that needs to be made for the corruption to ha e meaning for most . A simple visual is needed.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

It's a sign of a strong brand if you can describe it in one word. Of course that word is usually positive.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Pictures worth more than a thousand words. When you don't have to say anything use it!

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Susan Collins Is Drowning. It's All A Question of Character. open.substack.com/pub/vaughane... My latest Substack. Character counts which is why Susan Collins is in trouble. Please subscribe .It's free.

open.substack.com

Susan Collins Is Drowning. It's All A Question of Character.

‘Watch your character, it becomes your destiny’ is the end line of a longer quotation from the Chinese philosopher Lau Tzu.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

This is the way to go as long as you can recall that someone who is weak can by very dangerous BECAUSE they feel the walls closing in . A cornered rat will bite.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Insurgent Democrats need to do more of this. Establishment consultants don't understand it. Nor is it in their interests to understand it. The consultant business model depends on millions being spent on costly TV commercials. Short , sharp, memorable bites like this are their kryptonite.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

This is the story.. 'they are taking it from you' This simple statement tells people all they want to know.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

She can take whatever money she wants from whomever offers it ,but none of it will save her. The party's over, Susan, say goodbye.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

How is it that a political neophyte whose day job is being an oyster farmer, has more power, clarity and impact than all of the Democratic party establishment? Two guesses. He does not listen to focus groups. He is not driven by donors.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Margaret Chase Smith is turning in her grave.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Am excellent observation. Story telling not debate is how you persuade . People easily are carried off by a story. Less so by 'rational debate'. Along with if you can't show it don't say it, always figure out what story you are telling and how compelling it is.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Along with pictures , visual metaphors are powerful weapons. They are easy to understand and easy to remember. Dems are not good at using images. I can't recall the last time any of them used a good metaphor. Too many lawyers, I think. Simple rule: if you can't show it , don't say it.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Pictures are more powerful than words. People are wired to dispute facts but register images. They don't argue with pictures . Pictures are also stories. They get burnt into the brain and later, subtly, influence action. Dems should be looking for split second visuals like this. Once seen....

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Any Republican who voted for his confirmation who is running for re-election in 2026 needs to be known to have done that. It is going to be a dead weight round their ankles. Or worse.

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Reposted by Vaughan Emsley

Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

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Reposted by Vaughan Emsley

🍁🛸Waiting For The Mothership🛸🍁 @destry66.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

It's just mind blowing that ANYONE thought appointing this crackpot was a good idea. 🤯 It doesn't just affect the US if childhood disease is allowed to come roaring back! 😡And the next pandemic will be worse than Covid, with ZERO mitigation in the U.S. JFC🤦🏼‍♀️🤬

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

I will keep saying it until it happens. Campaigns, especially insurgent campaigns, need to start hiring creative people like Jeff Grubler . This is one of the ways to cut through. The traditional consultant validated pap does not work even when spend millions on it( see Andrew Cuomo).

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

The romans had this concept for disgraced Emperors. They called it Damnatio Memoriae which means damnation of memory. If it was good enough for the Romans.....

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

This is very powerful. The best ideas are coming from independent voices not from the highly paid professional eco-system. A campaign with little money should start crowd sourcing content like this.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Newsom, like Mamdani, is showing Democrats How To Win. open.substack.com/pub/vaughane... Latest Substack post. A lot to learn from the Newsom parody of Trump. Please subscribe .It's free!

open.substack.com

Newsom, like Mamdani, is showing Democrats How To Win.

Most political advertising is dreadful.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

This is how you make the case. Get specific . Make it easy to understand what that means for the regular person. Concrete wins out over concept every time.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Graham Platner has a terrific launch spot. Strong personal story, very pugnacious about the dragons he wants to slay and the people he wants to save. Looks like a winner to me.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

It's always more powerful if you can show it without saying it. Thisis excellent.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

To depress Republican turnout a drip, drip of creative ideas like this would be just what is needed. Message to campaigns: EMPLOY CARTOONISTS

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Hakeem Jeffries is everything that is wrong with the Democratic establishment .

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

It's the ambition, stupid. open.substack.com/pub/vaughane... My latest post on how the Democrats can't win big until they become more ambitious. Please subscribe. It's free!

open.substack.com

It's the ambition, stupid.

In all the coming elections up to and including the Presidential in 2028, the Democrats need to win and win big.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

GOP = Grand Old Pedos. Spread the word.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

This is branding. Billboard funding anyone?

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Hakeem Jeffries is a one man billboard for what is wrong with the Democratic party.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

The only problem with living in New York is that it is that is full of loud mouth bullshitters like this one.

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

This was known in the 17th century as the 'divine right of kings'. The king is anointed by god therefore cannot be gainsaid. Hence England had a civil war in the 1640s, executed the king, and had its 'Glorious Revolution' in 1688 to depose another absolutist, James II. Do 'Republicans' get it?

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Vaughan Emsley @vaughan45.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Conventional thinking would say no but there is a place for this in the artillery of attack ads. 'Make your vote mean this' is the thought I think. Gives fed up voters a reason to mail their ballot or go down to vote in person.

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