VOTING FOR THE FREEDOM TO BE SAFE
DON’T TAKE THE BAIT
DISMANTLING HARMFUL NARRATIVES
Soon, campaigns and PACs will flood our airwaves with millions of dollars in ads. We can expect dog whistles and lies about “crime” from campaigns, politicians, and their supporters. They will warp candidates’ records, distort viewpoints, and try to make this a race about who is more carceral.
Their goals:
To weaponize fear and division in service of claiming and holding power.
To get us to do their PR by using their frames (in an attempt to refute them) and repeating their messages, at the expense of promoting the values and vision of our leaders and organizations. Remember!:
They spread falsehoods and fear monger about crime on purpose because they are hoping we come back at them with attempts to refute and “one-up “them. Why? Because it allows the conversation to stay in their frame– which is purposefully rooted in fear and therefore demoralizes our base. Don’t take the bait!
To uphold a carceral worldview that privileges control, surveillance and punishment of Black and Brown people.
“Tough on crime” messaging serves to induce fear and racial division- and evoking those reactions leads to people being harmed or killed. We see it every week, and we know what happens when someone who has been tacitly conditioned to suspect and fear Black people sees a Black person driving or jogging or collecting lanternflies. If we are serious about protecting and saving BIPOC lives, we must call out the damage these narratives cause and stop perpetuating them.
A WINNING NARRATIVE
As always, if our messages don’t spread, they don’t work. Our shared challenge is to break through the noise by pulling together a narrative that inspires our communities to chime in and join us.
Our goal is to turn out our voters. The primary election is on February 21. The general election is on April 4. Both are of generational importance, and every single vote will matter.
We turn out our voters by:
Raising the saliency of this election and reminding people what is at stake. This election decides which way the court sways over cases about redistricting, voting rights, and democracy. Those are the things we know people care about, and we have to let them know that the makeup of this court will seal our fate on those issues.
Persuade people on the fence by reiterating what we want and can achieve and blunting the efficacy of our opposition’s divisive tactics.
Sample narrative
No matter where in Wisconsin we live, we want our loved ones to be safe and thrive. This means living in communities where we look out for each other, have great schools for our kids with supported and valued staff, and can access comprehensive healthcare and support systems that help us get through hard times and ensure we come out better on the other side.
This spring, we have the chance to make Wisconsin better for each other. We will select the next Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to cast the deciding vote on our freedoms: freedom to decide whether and when to have kids, freedom to vote, freedom for communities to pick our own leaders and more.
But instead of helping us secure our freedoms, a wealthy and powerful few are peddling fear in the hopes of having us sit out this election or pick a judge who will serve their interests - not ours. Our vote is our power, and across race and place, we’re coming together as voters to elect a Supreme Court justice who values all our freedoms and knows what it really takes to make us safe.
How to Talk about Freedom
We know that freedom is a deeply felt value in our country, and we must claim it as our own because we all hold it so strongly in our hearts. We should not let our opposition own the narrative around what freedom is, and we need to remind people that we can elect leaders who protect our freedoms. As a reminder, here are just some of the many ways we all are talking about freedom in this cycle.
Abortion/Reproductive Justice: our freedom to decide if and when we grow our families / our freedom to decide whether we have kids
Democracy/Elections: our freedom to vote / our freedom to have an equal say in the decisions that impact our lives
Economic Well-being, Taxes and Social Supports, Wages and Jobs: our freedom to make a good living/ freedom to thrive / freedom to prosper/ freedom to care for our families/ freedom to retire in dignity [with programs we rely on, like Social Security]
Education: our children's freedom to learn
Guns: our freedom from gun violence / our freedom to trust our kids will come home safe at the end of the day
Healthcare: our freedom to get the care we need (without fearing we’ll go bankrupt to get it)
Paid Family and Medical Leave: our freedom to care for our loved ones/our freedom to be there for our loved ones/our freedom to recover from illness or injury
Police Brutality and Accountability: our freedom to breathe/our freedom to get home safe/our freedom from police brutality/our freedom to be treated with dignity by those sworn to protect and serve
Trans and Queer Youth: our children's freedom to be themselves and pursue their dreams / our freedom to be ourselves
MEMES AND GIFS
Don’t forget; you can download and find Wisconsin-specific GIFs and memes for use with our shared narrative at this IntoAction library.
SAMPLE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
Here are some sample messages you can edit and share!
Whether or not abortion is legal in Wisconsin may soon be up to our state Supreme Court. With a current 3-3 split, the 7th justice will tip the scales. Be a Wisconsin voter on February 21 and help secure our freedom to decide what happens to our bodies and our futures.
This spring, we have a chance to change our state. The next Wisconsin Supreme Court justice sits on the court for the next 10 years & will decide on access to abortion, our freedom to vote, how our district lines are drawn, & more. Be a voter Feb 21 and April 4.
If you like freedom, make sure you vote for a state Supreme Court justice who will rule to protect it/who respects it. Our freedom to vote, decide over our bodies and have thriving safe neighborhoods are on the line. Be a voter Feb 21 and April 4.
The ultra-wealthy & the politicos they pay for want us to be afraid of each other. Why? So we don’t come together & choose what’s best for all of us. . Our vote is our power, & across race and place, we will elect a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who values all our freedoms and knows what it really takes to make us safe.
WHY WE LAUNCHED THIS SERIES
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
This year is a pivotal crossroads for our state and our nation. In 2020, we came out in record numbers. We marched, we voted, we volunteered, and we elected new leaders to govern our interests.
But now, our time is running out to ensure that every person in Wisconsin knows how much they made a difference. If we cut through the noise, we can ensure they know that they changed the direction of our state, improved our lives, and will do it again.
Here’s the challenge: our collective knee-jerk reaction to disinformation and incorrect statements is to provide “enough” facts to win the day, argument and voter. But contrary to our instincts, this doesn’t work and can even strengthen our opponent’s narrative!
When we try to bust a falsehood, what ends up happening is:
We deepen the audience’s belief in the lie
We repeat and reinforce our opponent’s frame
We expose the lie to folks that might not have heard it before
At the same time, we know we can’t stay silent. This monthly newsletter will help inform how to dispel lies and call out dog whistles without repeating them.
