在经历了2024年的历史性挫折之后，民主党的品牌重塑似乎正在取得成功。
After a historic setback in 2024, the Democratic rebrand appears to be working out.
不，说真的--重塑品牌是因为他们都在拍摄自己的锻炼。9月下旬，在科罗拉多州挑战众议员加布·埃文斯（Gabe Evans）的民主党人曼尼·鲁蒂内尔（Manny Rutinel）发布了一段自己一边做二头肌卷曲的视频，同时大声喊着黑色安息日的“战猪”。前一周，精力充沛的密歇根州参议院候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（Abdul El-Sayed）在华盛顿特区挑战JD Vance，要求其擅自占地。
No, seriously—the rebrand is that they’re all filming themselves working out. In late September, Manny Rutinel, a Democrat challenging Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado, posted a video of himself doing bicep curls while blaring “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. The week before that, a very energized Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed was in Washington, DC, challenging JD Vance to a squat-off.
之前，是印第安纳州国务卿候选人伯奇·埃文斯·贝赫四世，请称他为Beau-播放了一则广告，其中他举重和卧推，同时感叹“大多数政客都很软弱”。如果你愿意的话，你可以继续回去--凯特·康利（Cait Conley）在纽约哈德逊谷与众议员迈克·劳勒（Mike Lawler）竞选，一边翻转轮胎，一边大喊“我们他妈的走吧”;前缅因州参议院候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳（Graham Platner）在后院挥舞水壶;对前众议员科林·奥尔雷德来说，在得克萨斯州参议院初选前记录了他对詹姆斯·塔拉里科的谴责，车库锻炼后他头上冒出了蒸汽;马里兰州州长韦斯·摩尔（Wes Moore）与TMZ谈论了他在参观美国海军学院后发布的锻炼视频。
Before , it was Indiana secretary of state candidate Birch Evans Bayh IV—please, call him Beau—airing an ad in which he racked weights and bench-pressed while lamenting that “most politicians are weak.”You could keep going back, if you wanted—to Cait Conley, running against Rep. Mike Lawler in New York’s Hudson Valley, flipping over a tire while shouting “let’s fucking go”; to the former Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner, swinging a kettlebell in his backyard; to former Rep. Colin Allred, recording his denunciation of James Talarico before the Texas Senate primary with steam coming off his head after a garage workout; to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, talking to TMZ about the workout video he posted after a visit to the US Naval Academy.
其中一些滑稽动作只是这些候选人性格的反映。例如，奥尔雷德是前NFL线卫。举重是埃尔-赛义德喜欢做的事情（并且做了又做），他将其融入了他的竞选活动中，作为与人们联系和接触新受众的一种方式。在这些过剩的视频中，经常与不良信息形成明显的对比--鲁蒂内尔和他之前的科罗拉多州众议员杰森·克劳一样，对皮特·赫格塞斯的糟糕状态和明显的不安全感不屑一顾，就像加文·纽瑟姆（Gavin Newom）--他没有发布锻炼视频--对小RFK不屑一顾一样。他在自己的TikTok中与Kid Rock一起赤膊锻炼。
Some of these antics are just a reflection of these candidates’ personalities. Allred, for instance, is a former NFL linebacker. Pumping iron is a thing El-Sayed likes to do (and do and do), and he’s worked it into his campaign as a way to connect with people and reach new audiences. There is often an explicit contrast to bad messaging in this glut of videos—Rutinel, like fellow Coloradan Rep. Jason Crow before him, was making light of Pete Hegseth’s poor form and transparent insecurity, just as Gavin Newsom—who has not posted a workout video—was making light of RFK Jr.’s shirtless workout with Kid Rock in a TikTok of his own.
但如果你不介意我对事情进行了过度讨论，我认为这里还有一些更微妙（嗯，不是微妙）的东西在起作用。2024年大选后，民主党问题的一个常见概括是，人们认为民主党--用一个焦点小组和许多许多脱口秀采访的话来说--“软弱而觉醒”。（这有无数的推论，包括参议员埃莉莎·斯洛特金（Elissa Slotkin）认为该党缺乏“阿尔法能量”，参议员鲁本·加列戈（Ruben Gallego）认为选民认为他们“懦弱”，以及纽瑟姆（Newsom）认为“我们显得软弱和温顺”）“觉醒”的部分可能消耗了最多的氧气，并在党内引发了最多的辩论。
But if you’ll excuse me for overexamining things for a minute, I think there’s also something more subtle (well, not subtle) at work here. After the 2024 election, a common shorthand for what had gone wrong with the Democratic Party was that people perceived Democrats as—in the words of one focus group and many, many talk-show interviews—“weak and woke.” (There were infinite corollaries to this, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s suggestion that the party lacked “alpha energy,” Sen. Ruben Gallego’s assertion that voters thought they were “wussy,” and Newsom’s belief that “we’ve appeared weak and meek”) The “woke” part has probably consumed the most oxygen and engendered the most debate within the party.
这个问题已经通过各种方式在疯狂的电视广告和不明智的卷轴中得到了解决。但“弱”部分很简单：解决方案就是弱。这是要坚强，为自己挺身而出，在可能的情况下直言不讳--这确实触及了事情出错的根源--而不是成为一个在选民因通货膨胀而疯狂时走路、低声说话的八十多岁老人。做到这一点的方法有很多，但作为一个实际问题，如果你想表明你有活力，可以做真人秀的事情并消除对像你这样的民主党人的误解，那么，你总是可以尝试捡起一些真正沉重的东西。
It has been addressed, in a variety of ways, in a frenzy of TV ads and ill-advised Reels. But the “weak” part is straightforward: The solution is to be weak. It’s to be strong, to stand up for yourself, to speak plainly, and when possible—and this really gets to the root of where things went wrong—not to be an octogenarian who walks at a shuffle and speaks at a whisper while voters go mad over inflation. There are many ways of doing that, but as a practical matter, if you want to show you have energy and can do real-person things and dispel misconceptions about Democrats Like You, well, you can always just try picking up something really heavy.
政治信息有时可能会极其简化。候选人和顾问正在借用他们以前见过或使用过的东西。为什么候选人开始拍摄自己开车穿过家乡，目光好奇地离开道路，谈论塑造他们的价值观和被抛在后面的邻居？谁是第一个站在一堆播放攻击广告的电视机前并非常严肃地说“你看过广告”的民选官员？
Political messaging can be alarmingly reductive sometimes. Candidates and consultants are borrowing things they’ve seen or used before. Why did candidates start filming themselves driving through their hometowns, eyes curiously off the road, talking about the values that forged them and the neighbors who were left behind? Who was the first elected official to stand in front of a bunch of televisions blaring attack ads and say, very solemnly, “you’ve seen the ads”?
所有这些锻炼视频让人想起另一个竞选比喻。奥巴马时代出现的最热门的竞选趋势之一是拍摄自己拍摄东西。这是一种保守派编码的类型，但并不完全是共和党类型。事实上，当民主党人这样做时，它甚至可能效果最好--反对类型，同时表明他们与所有其他人不同。前西弗吉尼亚州参议员乔·曼钦（Joe Manchin）在第一次选举中拍摄了自己拍摄的“总量管制和交易法案”。
All of these workout videos call to mind another campaign trope. One of the hottest campaign trends to emerge in the Obama years was filming yourself shooting stuff. It was a conservative-coded but not exclusively Republican genre. In fact, it may have even worked best when it was Democrats doing it—cutting against type, while demonstrating that they weren’t like all the rest. Former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin famously filmed himself shooting “the cap-and-trade bill” during his first election.
当他在2018年竞选最后一个任期时，他开枪打了对手的诉讼，以破坏《平价医疗法案》。(Kind乔·曼钦的全部经历，老实说。当蒙大拿州独立竞选参议员的塞思·博德纳尔最近拍摄自己拍摄弗洛克相机时，他是在追随前民主党州长布莱恩·施韦策的脚步，他在18年前把“真正的身份证”绑在泥鸽上。
When he ran for a final term in 2018, he shot his opponent’s lawsuit to gut the Affordable Care Act. (Kind of the full Joe Manchin experience, to be honest.) When Seth Bodnar, the independent running for Senate in Montana, recently filmed himself shooting a Flock camera, he was following in the footsteps of former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who strapped “REAL ID cards” to clay pigeons 18 years earlier.
尽管民意调查预测民主党将迎来重要的一年，但该党的国家声誉仍然处于水下。人们对党的领导人感到不满，外交政策、大型科技和医疗保健方面的大斗争仍在继续。扭转局面将是一项艰巨的任务。但这可能是他们已经习惯的一件事。
Even as the polls predict a big year for Democrats, the party’s national reputation is still underwater. There’s dissatisfaction with party leaders, and big fights still to come on foreign policy, on Big Tech, and on health care. Turning things around will be a heavy lift. But that might be one thing they’re getting used to.