Pig at the barrel, Via Flora, West Palm Beach, FL
Here in a little corner of Southeast Florida, it’s Republican Land. You’ve got your gun-clinging rednecks, your Bible thumpers, and your One Percenters. The last group is something to behold. Their car of choice this year is the $200,000 Bentley convertible. Their home of choice is the Spanish style mansion behind the gates guarded by security personnel in starched uniforms. And their expression of choice is “I hate Obama.”
Credit U.S. Supreme Court Justice (and Obama appointee) Elena Kagan with outing the Republican discrimination behind their 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). At today’s hearing before the Supreme Court, Kagan read from the Republican-drafted House Report that accompanied the original DOMA legislation:
Congress decided to reflect an ‘honor of collective moral judgment’ and to express ‘moral disapproval of homosexuality.’
Here’s the entire quote from pages 15-16 of the 1996 House Report:
Aside from its position as a somewhat centrist state both geographically and politically, Missouri is of course most famous for its no-nonsense “Show me” motto. That motto was embodied in one of Missouri’s favorite sons, President Harry S. Truman. As Truman might have said, “Show me” should be the first response to any ridiculous Republican talking point.
The hottest Republican buzzword today is “freedom.” It shows up in NRA talking points, names of groups like FreedomWorks, names of bills like South Carolina’s Firearms Freedom Act, which would exempt guns manufactured and used in South Carolina from federal gun safety laws, and elsewhere. That’s because, like motherhood and apple pie, everyone favors “freedom.” Moreover, the word is designed to root into voters’ subconscious to make the talking points, organizations and bills more appealing. It’s brainwashing. If you doubt that, check out how the right-wing National Taxpayers Union counted the number of times the word “freedom” appeared in the Democrats’ 2009 health care bill. But Democrats are the true defenders of freedom, if only they would go on offense and say so. Here’s how:
President Obama‘s inauguration speech for his second term called for an active, effective federal (as well as state and local) government that provides “security and dignity” for Americans. Among the things President Obama said that government should help do or be involved in are:
A couple of actions by Congressional Republicans hours apart this past Tuesday night and Wednesday morning demonstrated how the Republican Party is in open warfare with itself. First, House Republicans were sharply divided in their vote to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff.” Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, atypically, did not make a speech on the House floor in support of the vote. Boehner’s second in command, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, not only voted against his speaker and the fiscal cliff deal, he spoke out against it for all to hear. The Republican fiscal cliff vote tally in the House went against Speaker Boehner, with only 85 voting “yea” and 151 voting “nay” (the bill passed due to the overwhelming Democratic “yea” vote). This follows an embarrassing failure by Boehner to bring his own fiscal cliff “plan B” bill up for a vote in the House on December 20.
President Obama (or, presumably, one of his underlings) has created the equivalent of a bumper sticker phrase on Twitter, using the hashtag “#My2k“ to spread the message about the consequences of inaction in the so-called “fiscal cliff” situation. Specifically, “#My2k” refers to the tax increase of about $2,000 that the typical U.S. family would face if Congress does not extend the Bush tax cuts for incomes up to $250,000. President Obama and his staffers want Tweeps to use the “#My2k” hashtag to discuss (and tweet to their members of Congress) what that $2,000 means to them, in terms of paying their bills, paying for medical care, food and other necessities, etc.
The “#My2k” hashtag, not coincidentally, harks back to the “Y2k” (i.e., Year 2000) scare in 1999, when many people thought that the world’s computers would crash due to the impending date change, and many companies, government agencies, organizations and individuals took extraordinary steps to try to avert what could have been termed the “century cliff.” So the Obama administration is using fear to try to influence public policy. Tactically, therefore, they are taking a page from the Republicans, whose playbook regularly involves the use of fear tactics, from “mushroom clouds” to “Sharia law.” Once again, however, the Democrats’ scare tactics, unlike the Republicans’, are based in reality.
The “#My2k” hashtag is a good start. However, since not all American voters use Twitter, the Obama administration needs to use more traditional forms of communication, such as crashing the Sunday morning news shows, to push a coordinated “fiscal cliff” message.
UPDATE: The video above, posted on the White House website and at YouTube, demonstrates that the White House staffers are grasping this concept, and running with it.
Multistate disasters like Hurricane Sandy, which is currently battering the Northeast, present a big problem for the Republican Party and its anti-government ideology. Here’s why:
With the second Presidential debate between Barack Obama and Willard Mitt Romney around the corner and the third debate just six days later, President Obama should follow these four time-tested principles of successful political communication to gain the debate advantage:
A year ago, we posted the list of Political Phrases Used by Republicans. These are words and phrases the Republicans use and repeat in order to tilt the political playing field in their favor. We expressed the desire to create a similar list of Democratic and progressive phrases, but feared there were too few even to make a list.
Now, a year later, we dare to begin creating the list of phrases that Democrats use, or should use, to help level the playing field against the Republicans. Thus far, however, the list is modest, which is precisely why we wrote A Messaging Manifesto For Democrats. Therefore, we ask for your suggestions in the comments (or via Twitter) as to additional phrases that the Democrats either (a) are using, or (b) should use, and we’ll add the appropriate ones to the list. Hopefully, this list will at some point begin to approach the Republican list in length and effectiveness.
Also, when you compare the Democratic and Republican lists, notice the differences. Democrats tend to focus on things like hope, family, and health, while Republicans focus a lot on life vs. death and good vs. evil. This precisely reflects the competing Democrats’ “nurturing parent” and Republican “strict father” models identified by linguistics professor and political language guru George Lakoff.
Here’s the list:
follow: RSS