I’m grateful to stewartb for alerting me to this:

How could so many people vote for someone who does not have their best interests at heart? Because people don’t necessarily vote their self-interest. Instead, they vote their values.

Moving forward, Democrats must stop making these superficial, last-minute lurches toward Republican ideas. They must frame the case not as left or right, but for the people and the public good. Moving to the right only convinces voters that the right has better ideas. It’s a desperate short-term strategy with harmful long-term consequences.

These two quotes are from Some lessons of the 2024 election: Trump rides Strict Father morality to the White House, again by George Lakoff and Gil Duran, at FrameLab: https://www.theframelab.org/some-lessons-of-the-2024-election/

Their insights into why Trump won again, contrary to the polls, despite his clownish matter and appearance, despite his impeachments, his convictions, his lies and crucially despite the Democrats having all the facts on their side, is persuasive and useful for thinking about how the SNP can regain an overall majority and an unchallengeable mandate for another referendum.

With others in social media, I spend my days correcting the MSM lies and trying to feed in the many facts that prove we should and could be independent. The SNP leadership should leave that to us and to their backbench MSPs.

First, they probably need a sharper, wittier, more combative leader (Flynn?) who can confidently, loudly, repeatedly, frame himself and the cause as one of courage, strength, taking control, protecting the weak and joining with others who have already proved that they too can do it together – the EU.

S/He must unflinchingly ignore or quickly frame as lies anything thrown at her/him. It won’t matter if the MSM accuse her/him of being wrong. S/He can simply accuse them back of pushing fake news. Most voters do not consume MSM messaging, many believe they cannot be trusted. Imagine Trump with Glen Campbell.

Like the Democrats, the SNP needs a complete overhaul in its thinking.

Second, in addition to framing themselves as, first and foremost, strong, they must remember that people vote their values, not their self-interest. Replace ‘Trump’ with ‘the Union’ and ‘Democrats’ with ‘SNP’ in this statement:

Unfortunately, Trump reflects the values of many Americans – even those whose “self-interest” is clearly threatened by his policies. Working class voters, white women, Latino and Black men – all of them are under threat by Trump and his ilk. Yet a considerable number voted for Trump because they identify with him on a deeper level, on the level of moral values, in particular Strict Father morality. Moving forward, Democrats need to understand this and to abandon the mistaken notion that people vote their self-interest, which leads to the mistaken assumption that policy alone will persuade voters to support a Democratic ticket.

Third, and this means no to Kate Forbes, moving to the right will fail.

Once more, replace Harris and Cheney with Swinney and Forbes.

Harris campaigned with Liz Cheney and touted endorsements from a range of Republicans who have long been despised by Democratic voters. The idea was that a Republican embrace would peel off hesitant Trump voters. This would have been considered brilliant – if it had worked. It didn’t.

Moving forward, Democrats must stop making these superficial, last-minute lurches toward Republican ideas. They must frame the case not as left or right, but for the people and the public good. Moving to the right only convinces voters that the right has better ideas. It’s a desperate short-term strategy with harmful long-term consequences.

Is the SNP moving to the right? I’d say so but see: https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24307727.snps-shift-right-runs-contrary-believe/

Fourth, do not attack Sarwar and Starmer. Again let us do it.

From the research:

Boosting Trump helps Trump (because it makes him the center of attention)

As in 2016, much of this year’s campaign focused entirely on Trump. Democrats and other Trump detractors feverishly amplified his words – apparently under the impression that a majority of Americans would interpret Trump’s remarks as disqualifying.

That didn’t happen. Instead, Trump (once again) became the most dominant image and voice of the election. He was the center of attention, more dangerous than anyone else. This gave him power. Trump’s content regularly drowned out Harris’s, and even her allies were busy amplifying and boosting every deranged word out of his mouth. They rationally assumed that showing how awful he is would help Harris. But politics isn’t rational. Trump’s outrageous words became the center of attention — and took attention away from Harris’ view of a happier future.

Again, for ‘Trump’, insert ‘Starmer’ and or ‘Sarwar.’

Put simply, the new SNP leader should ignore the fog of war and get on with the mission.