Democrats’ livestream of the government shutdown failed to attract viewers and engagement.
I completely missed this yesterday which is a real shame. Apparently, Democrats decided to dramatize their government shutdown by livestreaming every minute of it. At least that was the plan. But if they were expecting a massive surge of interest from their TikTok addicted base, they were sadly mistaken. In fact, they couldn’t even keep it going overnight. The livestream went offline for three hours.
I binged more than 14 hours of the occasionally awkward, repetitive — if mostly on message — programming on YouTube (there was also an X stream). But even if it was a physically exhausting and mentally taxing process, it was a revealing window into the Democrats’ larger plight: a struggle to get their message through in an attention economy that prizes watchability and entertainment, making it almost impossible for them to break through the din of President Donald Trump’s neverending newscycle.
In launching the livestream, which featured the feel of a throwback telethon with none of the charisma or surprise, Jeffries and his allies seemed to tacitly acknowledge that they needed to be fighting, and sounding and looking as if they were. (“Y’all, I ain’t scared,” Jeffries said at one point. “I’m from Brooklyn.”) But few Dems seemed willing to fight on camera. The livestream featured just four frontline Democrats of 26 in competitive districts — and few of the party’s brightest stars like AOC or Jasmine Crockett — a possible tell that they see some risk here. (Rep. Sarah McBride, the 35-year-old from Delaware, did join briefly at the beginning.
