For months, pundits have decried the absence of a “Joe Rogan of the left” — an online media figure who can galvanize young men to support Democrats in the way that popular right-wing creators like Rogan, Adin Ross, and the NELK Boys have done for President Donald Trump. Now, it appears that Democratic operatives have a $20 million plan to build such a figure.
Nina Smith, a Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Stacey Abrams, said instead of propping up a creator who checks the perfect ideological boxes, Democrats should embrace the online spaces for young men that already exist.
For example, creators like Hasan Piker, a left-leaning creator with over 5.5 million subscribers on Twitch and broad popularity among young men, has largely been ignored by the Democratic establishment. Piker’s political content leans farther left, sharing a populist economic message paired with strong criticism of U.S. foreign policy in Israel.
“There is a tendency to shy away from those spaces because our favorite thing to do in the Democratic Party is to, pardon my language, shit on the left,” said Smith.
Exactly.
The right (and foreign powers) have been dumping tons of money to promote and prop up right wing influencers for years. There doesn’t even seem to be a litmus test other than 1) will they move people towards our general direction, and 2) will they regurgitate talking points we toss to them.
The right have been reaping huge dividends from promoting people in this space. Influencers on the left exist, but are having a lot harder time without access to similar resources.
The takeaway isn’t to do what the right is doing by promote sleezy influencers… but funding existing and successful influencers left of center, even if there isn’t 100% alignment could have a big impact in this space and help level the field.