Andrew Yang says Dems should be going on Fox News...

    Note that this Jan. 24 CBS tweet with a video of him saying that has 13,300 likes and 3,100 retweets. But the initial replies I see include a ton of negative and dismissive ones:

    .@AndrewYang says Democrats should be going on Fox News and criticizes the DNC for not letting the channel host a Democratic debate: "How can you win an election and bring the country together if you literally won't talk to 40 or 50% of the population?" https://t.co/F9xWFIU08W pic.twitter.com/U1ZglSxM19

    — CBS News (@CBSNews) January 24, 2020

    I noticed it because it was retweeted a few minutes ago by Zaid Jilani, who I follow, with this comment:

    I think one of the moments where I realized Warren version 2020 was different than Warren version 2012 that I worked to elect was when she refused to go on Fox News (despite going on in the years prior). It was such a cloistered move and unambitious. https://t.co/qGHKNc0pfQ

    — Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) January 26, 2020

    This made me think of a tweet I saw a few days ago which made me think about how Fox News may be a bit more popular with swing voters in important swing states than those of us in blue states like to acknowledge. This was from the Marquette University pollster that is a trusted source for Wisconsin polling:

    Quick thread on broadcast news sources in Wisconsin and evaluation of Trump’s actions with respect to Ukraine.

    Wisconsin relies on Fox a little more than the nation and network news a bit less. 1/x pic.twitter.com/j1kIdgEuOq

    — Charles Franklin (@PollsAndVotes) January 25, 2020

    I looked at the stats in this tweet and noticed that while more registered voters in Wisconsin pay attention to Fox News than nationally, more registered voters in Wisconsin ALSO pay attention to NPR and PBS than nationally! This is the Wisconsin I know from being my state from birth to age 29.

    This made me recall back in the day when I was a grad student, a lawyer acquaintance in Milwaukee was working in G. H. W. Bush's campaign.I did not know he was a Republican, this surprised me. He introduced me to NPR, actually ! He was a big guy who drove all over the state in his little sports car, long trips. I didn't know about it, he said NPR was fabulous and a lifesaver, that it made the long trips bearable, so many interesting shows.

    I can't imagine this guy being real happy about Fox News or Trump, even if he's gotten more conservative in his old age.

    After thinking on that, I think: there are still a lot of people like him in Wisconsin. That's what it's like there, people are real independent and quirky and not beholden to political partisanship passed down over generations. They also tend to judge politicians as individuals, sometimes to a fault. Though my acquaintance was more of a moderate, many get into liking combative reactionaries of all types, they like "fighters". 

    While it may be difficult for the DNC, and Democratic politicians who have already been typed as enemy combatant and snowflakes by Fox talking heads to make any headway at Fox News., think people like Yang who haven't been stereotyped by them should definitely go on Fox News.. Especially as the older audience of Fox News keeps dying off, Fox is going to have to go for a new paradigm, why not have a hand in influencing it? Came to mind that Bloomberg is another example of someone who could shake things up there by challenging them.

    If we continue to have an Electoral College and a Senate set up the way we do, it can only help to change the trajectory by trying to mix it up over at Fox in the quirky swing states. Especially as the population ages.

    I like the words Jilani used about Warren on this topic: cloistered and unambitious. Though she may be thinking it wouldn't be of much help in the primary. She could certainly hold her own with some Fox News talking heads without being easily labeled a snowflake.

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