Transparency is the death of messaging

When you are transparent about who you are and what you believe, messaging isn't necessary. Bernie is a walking billboard for Bernie and Bernie's values. He doesn't need clever messaging or viral memey goodness to educate the voters.

In fact, the Washington Post just ran a cute quiz to see if readers knew where Bernie was on the issues. I doubt they've ever seen such high scores.

OK, yeah, I missed one. I forgot which bill Bernie filibustered in 2010. But the point is almost everyone who took the test got most of the answers right! This was a random draw of WaPost readers. This poll wasn't gamed or linked to. People know what Bernie stands for.

When people know who your candidate is and what your candidate stands for, you don't need to trick or fool them. When voters support a candidate based on integrity and issues, you can't talk them out of that vote later. Not easily.

Bernie doesn't need you to out-argue anyone, or wage jihad on Facebook. Bernie just needs you to study his positions and accurately relay them to people for whom those issues are important. If they like Bernie's message, they'll vote for him. Messaging really isn't part of it. Messaging is what you do when you have a crappy product and you want voters to focus on your plan instead of you and your actual history.

Don't read books on how to persuade people. They've been persuaded half to death already. Read up on what Bernie thinks, then talk to people about Bernie. Point them in the right direction and then let them educate themselves. That's how you win hearts and minds. Not by selling, but by sharing.

And no, this strategy doesn't work for everybody. Most candidates need to be marketed because they need to be shown only in certain light. Education works when you have a strong candidate who looks good from any angle. The more people know about Bernie, the more they like him. Messaging just gets in the way of that.