Politics in the Digital Age
Let me float a freakish take on comms and politics which I usually wouldn’t let out of my drafts.
What if the future of politics is determined by who makes the best content?
Like, what if Senate seats, city council races, and even class president bids all come down to who posts better? Because doesn't politics boil down to reading the room? So what happens if the room wants content?
I guess what I’m really asking is: How much does policy even matter to the average voter anymore? Not in terms of impact but as a tool for persuasion. Has content mutated politics into a team sport?
Say a new political party forms tomorrow. What’s their first move to win your vote? Draft a bold policy agenda – or hire a social media strategist? I care about improving lives at scale. Rent moratoriums, free college, deeply affordable healthcare. But I’m convinced there’s a legion of voters more invested in the drama, the debates, the vibe of politics over/rather than the impacts of politics.
We find ourselves in our feeds. Take my phone to review my feed and you’ll know me. My likes, my politics, how I see myself. In this way, content becomes a digital stand-in for identity. And because it's our instinct to protect the self, we defend our content and the communities it builds at all costs. This is how influencers become digital deities. They reflect our values, our aesthetics and our interests. And when politics enters that space, the effect is supercharged.
MAGA hats, We the People stickers, Vote for Pedro shirts. Red, blue, yellow. Donkeys, elephants, snakes. We’ve always used iconography to self-identify. The difference now is content digitizes these symbols and makes them accessible 24/7. Politics becomes content, and content becomes shorthand.
Style, formatting, and aesthetics. DIY, GRWM, hauls, POVs. With enough time, this “new speak” becomes how we connect, find meaning, and survive. It’s also how communities enforce loyalty, like incels threatening to dox users and leak their posts if they try to exit.
When politics enters the content space, it becomes another feed to scroll through. Something to consume, not participate in. If you’ve ever been on a sports forum, you know the most popular posts are about speculation. What ifs. Debate bait. It’s the same with politics. We argue about who the Dems will run in 2028 instead of what they’ll run on.
Content brain makes it easier and more fun to talk conspiracy or culture wars than real issues. In most circumstances, it makes Thanksgiving dinner with your uncle tenser than it needs to be. At its most toxic, it incites violence. This is literally conservative media’s entire business strategy: to agitate, speculate and distract.
At the end of the day, sports teams and their fans like to win. No one’s ever chosen to be part of a community that sucks. Content is about vibes. And vibes largely depend on what you do, not just how you present. You can’t podcast your way into change.
Content is a giant guessing game, but a game nonetheless. This isn’t about likes, shares, or follower counts. It’s about how formatting shapes understanding. It's about crafting messages that meet people where they are. How they speak, how they think, how they act.
Policy isn’t a niche hobby for nerds trading jargon like Pokémon cards. It’s everyday life. And yet, policy and advocacy work can feel disconnected from the way people actually speak. Communication is evolving. We’re talking faster, contextualizing quicker, and absorbing information in formats that weren’t even possible a few years ago.
If you don’t have the sauce online, you’re boring. If you’ve got the sauce but nothing to feed your people, they’ll go find someone who does. No political party, old or new, has ever had a path to power without good ideas. Only now, content is the best way to get them across.
It’s a terrible thought, reducing issues to content, but maybe this content-ization (new word) of politics can be an opportunity. I’m asking for experimentation. I’m asking for a little trend-jacking when it fits. I’m asking for us to supplement our work with the occasional eye for content.
Maybe then we can slowly inspire action through a built trust, a familiar language, rather than just urgency. Why do we scroll anyway? Most of us aren’t looking for petitions to sign. We’re looking for a break. We come back to our digital communities because they offer belonging in an increasingly hostile world.
So what if our message was one of those moments? What if our message didn’t just deliver a call to action, but whispered to people: Hey. I see you. I get it. You’re not alone.
Hector Salas-Gallegos, Digital Engagement Manager