Violence, crime, and security have dominated the airwaves for weeks. This is the second time in just three months that the country is dealing with political assassinations, first the murder of Melissa Hortman and now Charlie Kirk. As news continued to break about the assassination yesterday, with speculation flying at a rapid clip, I couldn’t help but think – as communicators, how can we be better.
In campaigns, policy activism, and personal branding, evoking emotion is critical to success. In an age where the 30-second soundbite is king and shorts or reels dominate the media consumption of the global populace, it’s easy to fall into the trap of playing to the worst human impulses. Anger is a strong motivator – Charlie Kirk knew that, President Trump knows that, Democratic leadership knows that. And we ask ourselves why division is so high in the nation – something we’ve seen in our work with Georgetown University and their bipartisan Battleground Poll. Anger in divisiveness has remained high poll after poll, and while the solutions seem clear, they are easier said than done.
At K2, we’ve had the privilege to work with organizations that look to resolve that divide and engage in civil discourse to debunk narratives that have become overly pervasive in the election integrity space. While election integrity may be a small part of the larger issue of division in America, it is a microcosm of the intense refusal to listen to one another that we see play out across all issue areas in our politics.
Both sides of the aisle are quick to point out the fundamental flaws they perceive in our election system, whether that is loopholes allowing the opposition to stuff the ballot box to “rig” elections or overly restrictive regulations that prevent people from having access to vote. As is always the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Yes, there are people who attempt to cheat the system, but elections in states across the country are filled with redundancies and countermeasures to prevent fraud. Yes, there are laws that require additional steps for identity verification to be able to vote, but they are not overly onerous and act as a check on those who would attempt to subvert the safeguards in place.
We are not always the ones in the spotlight. Our clients have strong opinions, and our role is to help craft those sentiments into a message that resonates with a wider populace, be it a voting bloc for candidates, key stakeholders in public affairs, or the media personalities we work with to elevate the profiles of thought leaders. But it is also our role to take the greater environment into account.
In the wake of politically motivated violence like we’ve seen in Minnesota, like we saw yesterday in Utah, it is easy to let the emotions of the moment overtake the responsibility we have to our clients and their audiences across a country in turmoil to communicate their message. The people we and other communications strategists like us on both sides of the aisle work with shape the way this conversation unfolds. We are committed to bringing this country back together to find a stronger path forward, and in the words of our founders, to form a more perfect union.
-Justin Giorgio, Vice President of Strategic Communications