Political Playbook, Part One: Understanding the Game

For Ages upon Ages old people (like me) have been telling younger people to be patient—wait—let time run its course. But we old people have already f****d it up. Don’t listen to us.

At the Blue Cavalry, we’re dedicated to political action. It’s right in our name. Cavalry. In old war movies you’d hear someone say, “Time to send in the Cavalry.” That meant, “Time to stop messing around. Let’s get the heavy hitters in.”

Well, Gen Z, you’re the Cavalry. And the world needs you.

Pay Attention to the Other Side

While it can be uncomfortable listening to Right Wing Propagandists, we do need to pay attention to them. Because they’re winning the messaging war. Jon Stewart talked about it on his show. He showed how Fox News invented the outrage over Critical Race Theory, and then used it to take over parts of the American Conversation.

Pay Attention to the Other Side. They have much to teach us about messaging, about stirring emotions. If nothing else, they’re showing us how to fight back.

I recently read an article in the New York Post claiming that Gov. Hochul is “screwing” New Yorkers. How? By mandating better wages for green energy workers, by reducing fracking, by moving New York off of fossil fuels.

The argument, written by the “Post Editorial Board,” is that NY contributes less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing those emissions isn’t worth the higher cost of energy to people in NY.

One way we can fight back is to stage massive protests. But we can’t all be Greta Thunberg. We can, though, start supporting politicians like Gov. Hochul. By paying attention to what the Other Side is the most upset about, we can effectively counter their emotional momentum.

If we know that the Other Side is upset about a particular politician, check out that politician, and if you can, throw your support behind them. Give their campaign a dollar. Tell friends about voting for them. Show up at their rallies.

Pay attention to the Other Side, because if they invest hate into something, it’s probably because they're afraid of it. Anything they fear, we should embrace.

Get Things Done

In the wake of massive school shootings, a student-led organization called March for Our Lives has mobilized thousands of Gen Z people. Join them. After the war on reproductive rights took center stage, so did the opposition. Join that opposition, with organizations like Moms Rising.

At the Blue Cavalry, we have a team of young writers, pushing to make a difference with their voice and their perspective. Whether it’s Adrija bringing to light the loss of a journalist’s life, or Rebecca showcasing the potential devastation in the wake of Roe v Wade, we have writers tackling important issues you won’t read about in your Google Newsfeed, or on Social Media.

Read those articles. Write back to the authors. Engage the conversation. The Other Side has their messaging, and it works because their audience reacts with votes when they read something.

So if you have a reaction to Danny’s piece about price-gouging or Sourour’s piece about how our Senators earn a literal profit from civilian deaths in Afghanistan, then get out and vote. Look up if your representatives are invested in private military companies, or in gas companies that profit off of inflation.

Read Danielle’s piece about gas prices and find out what you can do to help legislate Big Oil. Read Isabel’s piece about false immigration narratives, and arm yourself against the next conversation you have with a racist.

The Other Side has done a great job getting outraged—and their outrage has worked. It’s time we got a little outraged, ourselves.

We All Have a Stake

A recent article from MIT—one of the most widely respected Universities on the planet—explained that the threat of climate change is existential. That is to say, it threatens our actual existence.

Even if it doesn’t kill us, as one professor puts it, “Ways of life that have been stable for hundreds of years or longer will start collapsing.”

And that threat doesn’t even touch on the gun control debate, racism, or threats to individual liberties regarding gender and body choices.

We all need to act. We can’t wait for the Other Side to go out of business, change their minds, or die off. Instead, we need to act—we need to vote, get into arguments with the Other Side, support politicians with our ideals, and make our voices heard.

Join the Blue Cavalry. We need you.