Democrats Aim To Win Rural Voters By Lying About ‘Moderation’: Democrats in General, and the Democratic Socialists of America in Particular, are Paying a Lot More Attention to Rural America

James Talarico / YouTube screenshot

Democrats Aim To Win Rural Voters By Lying About ‘Moderation’:

Democrats in general, and the Democratic Socialists of America in particular, are paying a lot more attention to rural America.

Texas Senate Democrat candidate James Talarico’s spiritual leader, the lesbian preacher Babs Miller, was recently caught on hidden camera admitting he’s lying to voters about his positions: “I can guarantee you that once he’s elected he’ll change his tune” on transgender politics, she told an undercover reporter.

Deceiving voters is Democrats’ strategy because their political extremism is unpopular. Democrats especially know they cannot win fair elections without making inroads in rural and small-town America, like the Texas areas Talarico needs to win a Senate seat. In fact, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s campaigning in rural areas may have given him the edge in his primary against Haley Stevens.

Democrats in general, and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in particular, are paying a lot more attention to rural America these days. That’s because rural America “is the wall the American Left keeps hitting,” according to longtime DSA activist Bhaskar Sunkara.

Democrats know that their brand is toxic in rural America. So, how to get elected while bearing a toxic brand? Sunkara advocates for a strong message of “progressive populism” delivered with “rhetorical discipline.” In a word: propaganda.

For Democrats, disciplined propaganda is critical to striking a delicate balance between keeping their base motivated and appealing to small-town and rural America. For example, with allies in the corporate media, they’ve concocted the narrative of a “Farmageddon” revolt in which farmers are angry with President Trump and the GOP.

However, if the DSA is ever able to enact its platform — of abolishing the Senate, the Supreme Court, Electoral College, presidency and the Constitution itself — propaganda needn’t be very disciplined. In the meantime, the trick is to propagandize rural voters so they vote themselves into oblivion by electing socialists.

So what’s their propaganda game plan? In brief: hide, deny, re-identify, coopt, and speak “country” while selling their toxic product.

Hide: ‘This Is Not the Radical You’re Looking For’

One obvious way Democrat candidates try to hide in red districts is by using the label “independent.” For example, in Shenandoah County, Virginia, a leftist running as an independent for county supervisor lost his close 2019 race to a Republican. Then, in a hot mic Facebook post he blamed the district’s “deplorables.”

Such candidates also hide behind traditional-sounding identities like “veteran,” “small business owner,” “family man,” or, like Talarico, “religious.”

Deny: ‘Whoa, Pardner, That’s Not Me!’

El-Sayed was caught on a hot mic saying he couldn’t praise the U.S. elimination of Iran’s supreme leader without alienating “my constituency.” He now says he’s “as American as anyone else.”

El-Sayed must also tip-toe around his past antisemitic remarks and adopt an air of contrition to neutralize their potential damage. For example, six months after he suggested that a terrorist attack on the Temple Israel in Detroit was justified, he offered an apology-not-apology “to anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful.” Yet, even after he pronounced Jews to be “a light onto the world,” he has failed to disavow his ties to the brazen antisemite podcaster Hasan Piker.

When Talarico served in the Texas legislature, he stated that understanding the convergence of white supremacy, capitalism, and climate change will help dismantle these evil institutions. He now proclaims himself “a proud capitalist.” Like El-Sayed, Talarico is also trying to walk back his previous statements that don’t play well in Texas, such as claiming that Texas’s “dying” oil and gas industry, which he compared to the 1980s technology of cassette tapes, must be dismantled.

Likewise, Democrat Senate candidate Dan Osborne in Nebraska, said “I have people recording me, so I can’t say I want to abolish ICE …”

Re-identify: Communism in a Cowboy Hat

In 1968, people suffering under the vicious yoke of communism in Czechoslovakia pressed for “socialism with a human face,” a plea that ended with a Soviet invasion. Today we see DSA candidates pushing something like socialism with a Southern drawl.

A host of DSA-endorsed candidates are posing as normal folks with a Mamdani smile so they can centralize power. Consider how El-Sayed posted a video of himself mimicking country singing and dancing while promoting the socialism of “Medicare for all.”

Happy Taylor wedding…err, July 4th weekend! pic.twitter.com/1s1blnoY4P

— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) July 4, 2026

This is like Democrat Michael Dukakis riding in a tank in the 1988 presidential campaign, and Pete Buttigieg campaigning in a hard hat. “Relatability” is the old/new term for the propaganda technique long known as “plain folks propaganda.” It’s reaching a new level of oddness in the cyber-age, as fringy candidates aim to project a more likeable and persuasive image.

Coopting God: Agitating for ‘Christian Socialism’ --->READ MORE HERE 

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