Improving people’s lives
On changing minds
A prompt on Bluesky this week asked “Is there anything you’ve changed your mind about because of the election?”
Journalist/author Adam Serwer replied that what the election changed his mind about was “deliverism.”
It is a compelling idea, that making material improvements in the lives of people can translate into political support (and votes). I spent some time with this reflection from 2023 about how deliverism is not proving to be an effective response to authoritarianism.
So what, big deal
This week the Department of Transportation posted a video to YouTube in which Secretary Pete Buttigieg catalogs many of the Biden Administration’s infrastructure wins: the 196,000 miles of roadway, the 11,400+ projects to build, repair, or modernize bridges, the 1,500+ airport modernizations, the 300+ rail projects. This year Buttigieg has been working to brand this cumulative investment and acts of job creation as “the Big Deal”
I suspect the video was completed well before Biden dropped out of the race, but was then held back due to Hatch Act concerns. (This adherence to the spirit/letter of the law would be viewed by the incoming president and administration as hilariously naïve.)
I am curious to see if Buttigieg (a gifted rhetorical thinker and speaker) continues to lean into deliverism in the coming years or moves in a new direction.
If doing good for people (and the economy) won’t win elections, what will?
One @#$%ing thing
The tools of language and graphic design are among the skills I can offer, thanks to thirty years in the worlds of marketing and communication.
It saves no lives to choose a typeface or to kern a wordmark, but the work of communicating ideas contains many herbs and spices. Words and letters can both make meaning.
So tonight I worked on a bit of graphic mise en place:
It’s difficult from here to see beyond black and white. We’ll try to find our way to color over time.
All the @#$%ing things
Night 13: Contributed to the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
Night 12: Contributed to The Guardian
Night 11: Read, reflected, and rested
Night 10: Sent money to support vaccinations in Nigeria
Night 9: Sent money to a friend in need
Night 8: Gave gifts and spoke words of appreciation aloud
Night 7: Contributed to a California-focused nonprofit newsroom
Night 6: Made homemade donuts for my team
Night 5: Opted into a paid Buttondown tier
Night 4: Reviewed my local election results
Night 3: Deactivated my X account
Night 2: Contributed to my local nonprofit newsroom
Night 1: Started by starting
Words, sorts, thinks, and actions by Chris Ereneta, from Oakland, California. Thoughtful feedback and questions are welcomed at that.often@gmail.com