Why So Much Reaction To Project 2XXX and So Little About Chorus 2026?

I see a lot on social media about Project 2XXX and how bad it is. It is indeed dark. I read a lot about how the president is a Nazi, a fascist, and a dictator. He would like to be. When we talk about these things, we elevate them in the minds of the public. For example, saying Trump is a dictator gives him more power than he has, when he is a criminal breaking our laws.

Why am I not hearing about Chorus 2026, and what people on the left believe? By Chorus 2026, I don’t mean the mid-term elections, but the plans and beliefs that progressives, liberals, and decent people have for our country in 2026. Where is our manifesto? Our vision? Without vision and direction, we are left reacting to all things MAGA.

There is a myth among the left that if we can just let others know the facts, or construct logical arguments, or say how bad the opposition policies are, that their shrunken dark MAGA republican hearts will expand, and they will abandon the madness that grips our country. I understand and empathize with the intent or desire to argue. I too am pissed off. I confess I want to flame people on social media who don’t see things my way. But saying how bad Trump is, citing facts, constructing reasonable arguments, is not effective. If it were, the president would have never been elected.

I’d like to tell you a story about my neighbor Ralph. It’s an micro-example of the larger situation we face in our country. He was mowing his lawn and we got to talking. Hi, how are you, etc. I told him I’d just gotten out of the ER with my grandson who’d had an asthma attack in the middle of a traffic jam on the way to a soccer game. He got treatment and was going to be OK, but there were five other kids in the ER also seeking getting treatment. All of these kids were black. I asked the ER doctor what was going on, and she explained that diesel pollution and rush hour combine to cause a daily ER visit for many of these kids. The freeway had been built through their neighborhoods. The kids couldn’t escape.

My neighbor said, “Why don’t they just move?” I explained that these were kids. He said, “Then why don’t their parents just move?” I was getting a little miffed. “Because they can’t afford it. The city build a freeway through their neighborhood. It ruined their property values. They can’t afford to move,” I told him. I was beginning to feel the heat of an argument. “Well, it’s their parent’s fault they can’t move. If they’d worked harder, they’d be able to live in a nicer neighborhood.” I was thinking of all the reasons and facts his argument was absurd. Part of me felt like punching him. I resisted, remembering that we feed what we fight. Being a Reaction Jackson wasn’t going to help. All my arguments were not likely to change his position. So I took a breath. I tried to be curious as a mentor recently suggested.

“I care about other people, even those I don’t know. I believe that all kids deserve a break and that it’s our job collectively to help others, especially kids. Has anyone ever given you a break? Taken a chance on you?” There was some silence, but I could hear his mental wheels begin to turn. “Yes,” he said. “When I came to this country, I didn’t speak much English or have a job, but a friend put us up for a year and got me a job writing software.” “But I worked really hard to get to where I am.” He added.

Next I offered him some suggestions around clean transportation and asked him what he thought. The conversation didn’t end with, “I’m right and you’re an idiot.” It is unlikely we’ll be friends, but we’d actually shared some of our values and piece of our stories. I admire hard work. He could see the value of helping others.

The point is very simple. When we react we lose. When we attack the right for how they have framed us or set the public debate, we lose. When we frame them, we win. When they attack our frames, they lose.

Wait, that seems confusing. So let me pull up a diagram developed by Antonia Scatton of Reframing America. If you are interested in strategic political communications, it’s really worth subscribing to her Substack, here.

Here are some examples using climate and energy. I’ll ask you to suspend your judgement and use your rational intellect to understand.

  • We frame renewable energy as, “clean energy.” We win because dirty fossil fuels attack us, for example by saying solar is not clean. i.e. It has toxic metals. Note, they are incredibly clean. But this is all argument and irrelevant factual detail. However, when they respond, they reinforce the neural circuits in the public consciousness between solar and clean. All people hear is solar and clean.
  • We frame them as “big oil profiteers, or only focused on greedy profits” and they defend themselves, they lose. We set the public debate by asking, why do we have to pay subsidies to the most obscenely profitable industry on earth? By asking the question, we have set the public debate around the value of fairness and it’s violation by greedy corporations. If they fight us, they lose. Instead they must change the subject.
  • They frame themselves as the solution to climate change with natural gas, hydrogen, and carbon sequestration, and we attack them, we lose by validating their false solutions. For example, by saying natural gas is not clean.
  • They frame climate by saying by saying climate change is a hoax. We say climate change is not a hoax, and we lose because we reinforce the idea that it is, strengthening the neural connections between climate and hoax every time we repeat it.

This pattern of setting the debate and framing it is repeated issue after issue by the right. And they are better at it than the left! Don’t believe me. Just think of voter fraud, or CRT, or DEI or Project 2XXX. No one heard of voter fraud until the left amplified it for the right until too many of our citizens began to believe that something like voter fraud must exist. The campaign on the right appealed to American’s values of fairness, and what was morally right. All the facts and reasons argued by the left didn’t matter.

So when I say, don’t be a Reaction Jackson, I mean please don’t feed what you are fighting by reacting to the debate set by the right and their frames. Take some time and ask, what do we want the debate to be about? What questions can we ask to put our issues and values into the public debate? Are you reacting and attacking them, thereby elevating and reinforcing their frames?

Yes, we are facing a really dangerous attempt to take over our political system. Don’t give up and don’t take the bait. We can set our own public debate. Create our own frames. To do so, I want to ask you.

1. Can we stop panicking and reacting? This doesn’t mean less intensity or urgency. (Don’t punch your neighbor.)

2. What do we believe? Our beliefs help state our values. (I care about our kids and believe that we all have an obligation to care for them, even using government to help. One of our values is empathy.)

3. What questions can we ask to set the public debate? (Is the debate about moving kids out of neighborhoods, or caring for them by providing clean air?) Maybe we should ask, why does the right hate kids?

4. What is our vision (and solution)? (If our vision is clean breathable air, could we limit rush hour use of freeways by polluting diesel trucks. Or use EV truck transport?)

5. What can people do and say? Give them agency. When people feel powerless they don’t engage. They feel depressed. By giving simple actions and celebrating success, we show them that they have meaning and purpose. This helps build their identity and it’s contagious.

6. Can we tell our own personal stories? (A story about a neighbor?) Stories help share our values and attract others.

On the big stages of public debate, the right has seized the agenda by setting the debate, creating chaos, and the appearance of power. But their policies are wildly unpopular. Project 2XXX is wildly unpopular and will be a disaster. So my challenge to our leaders is what do you believe? Where is our Chorus 2026? Make it clear and simple and let them attack our vision. Give us something to stand for other than opposition to the BS coming out of the current administration. I’ll have some recommendations coming up in future posts.

Thanks for all you do.

– Hobie
We are all connected. Savor the Earth!’™

L. Hobart Stocking
651-357-0110
SkyWaterEarth.com
hobart@skywaterearth.com

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