Let's face it. Republicans are pretty masterful at creating catchy, effective soundbites to define the issues, frame the debate and sway public opinion. Case in point, "Taxpayer Bailout," "Death Panels" and "Drill, Baby, Drill." And while they're making things simple for voters, Democrats bore them to death with long-winded, over-intellectualized, nuanced explanations. If the left's ever gonna take back control of the message, they'll need to start dumbing-down their rhetoric so that it's clearly understood by the little guy. Because, unfortunately, the little guy doesn't want, need or understand all the details. It is possible for Democrats to start winning the public relations war. They just have to start thinking like Republicans.
For example, the ubiquitous Sarah Palin has become even more infamous in coining the Drill, Baby, Drill mantra. While it lacks substance and sneers at the inherent dangers of unregulated offshore drilling, it sticks. It's repeated incessantly like the best propaganda, and has become part of the current political lexicon. So why can't Democrats counter this gibberish with "Spill, Baby, Spill" to drill its own powerful message into the heads of voters? You'd think the catastrophic BP oil spill would provide the perfect setting for Dems to own this debate, right? Two months into one of the worst environmental disasters in American history, there's 60,000 barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico each day with no end in sight and months, if not years, of costly cleanup ahead. You'd think voters in the region and throughout the U.S. would be outraged to the point of being very sympathetic to a crafty little soundbite like Spill, Baby, Spill, especially as the disaster is ruining people financially, damaging marshes and killing wildlife.
We have a boneheaded New Orleans District Court judge this week overturning President Obama's 6-month moratorium on offshore drilling. And we have myriad Repubs in and around Washington like Palin, Rep. Joe Barton, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, Rand Paul and Rush Limbaugh serving as apologists and defenders of BP at every turn. Clearly, no matter how horrific the damage and despair caused by BP's spill, Repubs continue fighting for more unregulated offshore drilling as if nothing's happened. They're still ramming their extremist right-wing pro-business ideology down the throats of Americans while the left appears impotent in the PR war. Why? Why can't Democrats turn this situation into political currency? Why aren't they ramming "Spill, Baby, Spill" down these same throats? And here's a few others I thought of in less than a minute: "Protecting Big Oil," "No More Apologies," "Taxpayer Shakedown" and "Fighting for Fisherman." Where's the left's propaganda like this? Sometimes, especially in politics, less is more. Sarah Palin's teaching us that right now. Democrats would be wise to follow suit. Two or three very powerful, debate-framing, issue-defining words repeated ad nauseam go an awful long way these days...
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Like a group of spoiled children, they want change from anything that upset them in the past. They've been promised a pain-free future and the reality of their prospects is just beginning to settle in.
Within their troops, they can not come to a simple agreement. Because there is no commonality, members of this group rationalize their existence into phrases like: "You don't understand" or "it's too complex for you". If "progressives" agreed on anything, a common simple "language" would have evolved and the course forward would be clear. Rather than talking specifics about what they are about, they spend time justifying their IQ or education.
These games that keep coming up about understanding the nuances of complexity are voices of little brothers taking a step forward in rationalizing the behavior of their older brothers. As time proceeds, the world deepens its understanding that the older brothers aren't as mature nor smart as the idolizing little brothers hoped.
The world is shocked about the apparent incompetence of the older brothers and the little brothers are uncomfortable with the silence accompanying shock. Little brother has come out from behind the couch to explain his or her view of the situation -- but little brother can't find words so he says: "it's too complex for you".
Yes, her mouth is and that's all.
And No, noone has promised the "Little Brothers" any shining future.
Quite the opposite: Obama, as I assume the "analysis" refer to, said after elected that "a lot of little brothers will be disappointed."
And Yes, the world "is shocked about the apparent incompetence of the older brothers" because it's real.
And that's the lesson for the "older brother":
The world isn't designed for simplistic messaging, it's infinitely complex.
Simplistic messages are inherently false.
There are always exceptions and disambiguities..
That's why progressives appear to disagree.
They are pondering over contradicting evidence.
You may call it "information processing"
For that , you need a fairly well working brain.
There is a lot of people who have less well functioning brains or are too lazy to develop such brains.
They may also lack the necessary funds to let other people called "teatchers" help them do that.
Those ppl are most commonly found in RW circuits.
There is a political party adapted to those ppl with no intention to help them, just use them.
"Mission completed"
Perhaps another slogan is: "It take only 1.7 gallons to plow 1.0 gallons of ethonal from corn" will hit 'em hard Andy!
Having been a “commenter” on HP, I have learned a couple things that may be of value to your cause.
Progressives appear to honor education level or IQ more than conservatives, at least ostensibly. There appears to be a stereotype that conservatives are self-serving and simple (simpletons) in character.
On my side, the stereotype is similar. On average, we do believe that “Progressive” communication is overly complex, further that progressives lack experience beyond schooling.
I do not believe this is because we do not understand. Let me ask a question. Does the earth revolve around the sun or does the sun revolve around the earth? Equations can be formed that describe the sun revolving around the earth and vice versa. The former equations are far more complex than the latter. One could argue that the answer is the latter because the equations are simpler. In fact, that’s really (the invocation of simplicity) what is used in making the statement that the sun is the “ground zero” of our solar system. There is something elegant about simplicity. I think conservatives inherently recognize this and seek simpicity in everything. To tell a conservative that he's uneducated or dumb because of this in my opinion acheives nothing. It's like saying that Physicists should write more complex laws of nature.
cont...
Summarizing the progressive platform in simple terms ought a first step:
A)
Conservatives = People know best.
Progressives = Government knows best.
B)
Conservatives = Question Authority.
Progressives = Embrace Authority.
Can you write these little snippets down and feel good about it? I hope so, but believe that in reality the progressives can’t feel good about it. Are you *really* ready to say “government knows best”? Are you really ready to relinquish freedoms to those that have governmental powers?
In my heart, I do not believe you are. If that’s true, then that’s the real problem.
Thanks for replying to my message and good luck!
The conservatives have proven that their mantra: "Question Authority" is solidly theirs. They stole it from us because of our lack of confidence.
Therefore, I recommend the following two messages for the "simple people" as you say:
A) Embrace and Extend Government: Tthe Feds know best for you AND all of your people.
B) Bumper Sticker: "Let Go, Let Obama!". A great counterpart to "Let Go, Let Jesus!"
Just got this in an email.......(the Dem's will now match 2-1 any donation before June 30. Please give what you can. Please also pass this around.)
"Breaking: News just broke that Republican Leader John Boehner will give an astounding $1 million of his own special-interest backed money to our Republican counterparts to fund their swift-boat style attacks this year -- just in time for the FEC deadline June 30th."
https://dccc.org/page/contribute/move0?source=062610_cvh&subsource=cons_care2
I say put Alan Grayson in charge of sound bites. He'd be very good at it. I'm going to email him your article, I hope that's okay.
I do like referring to the repubs as "Party of No"
We can all email our Dem elected officials and suggest what Mr. Ostroy is saying. We have to dumb down the way we explain things, lol. Or at least categorize the information with repetitive sound bites.
Start branding the GOP at every opportunity as
the Grand Old aPology
When a BRITISH newspaper (is the Daily Mail owned by Rupert Murdoch?) prints crap like "Obama to blame for death of man ruined by oil leak" (see above), I think it's time for the President to get the most brilliant public relations team he can find to work on his behalf. The lies, accusations and slander aimed at him, to deflect attention from the murderous BP, has got to stop. NOW. Immediately. Palin's asinine tweets make me want to punch her. HARD. I'm a woman whose blood boils at the mention of her name, and while she persists in denigrating President Obama and Congress, I hope Americans who love, really love, this country, turn a deaf ear to her. She is poison.
Fanned
The Progressives with the loudest megaphones right now are Rachel, Olbermann, Ed Schultz, Matthews, and soon, Lawrence O'Donnell. With the exception of Rachel (and O'Donnell), the rest of that sorry bi-polar bunch are too busy bashing the President to keep up with the daily onslaught of crazy ramblings from President Palin of Tweetland.