How to shape public opinion

 Shana Gadarian just wrote this useful thread on Bluesky. I’ve compiled it with some light editing.

Some brief thoughts from someone who studies public opinion.

The federal firing spree can be made unpopular because it is being done in a haphazard way, there will be huge economic effects not just in DC but also across country and it’s also likely illegal in many cases. But how to make that argument?

First, remember that most people pay attention to politics most of the time and don’t really know how things work so first explain to people how the federal government works. Really! Who allocates money, who gets to spend it, and why is it a problem for an elected person to be firing civil servants.

Much of our policymaking is done in basically invisible ways so it’s not always clear to people what the policies are that affect their lives. (See The Submerged State by Suzanne Mettler.)

Tell people what current policy is and how long it’s been there. People want policy information but if they don't have it, they fill in the details. (See The Invented State by Emily Thorson.) Right now, the current regime is telling them that government is wasteful and inefficient.

Focus on both the immediate effects of federal funding cuts on the health and welfare of specific people and the country as a whole. Tell both sets of stories! What happens to federal workers at NIH when they lose their jobs, their research, and what are the effects on cancer patients.

It is really hard to track things that don’t happen, but also think about and articulate scenarios of what might happen if PepFar doesn’t fund HIV treatments. Babies develop AIDS. Other countries, like China, fill in the gaps of where the US was and win influence in these regions.

Focus on the very unpopular aspects of the cuts. You can’t go to national parks if there are no park rangers and it’s unsafe to go there. National parks are very popular!

People want things to work and they want to be safe. Talk about the direct consequences of things like cutting FAA staff for airline safety. It would be helpful for pilots, flight attendant, and crew unions to be doing this publicly and also privately through lobbying.

Opinion works when it’s collective, so helping people to understand their own values map on to what is happening and how to then translate that into political action. Calls and emails to their members, working with membership groups, letters to the editor, protest. There are many ways to make voices count.

Trace out the economic effects in very local ways. How many people in your local area work for federal agencies. Will farmers stop getting subsidies? Will disabled students stop getting needed services? Which hospitals will have to stop clinical trials? Which people are affected the most?