For example, the economic policies of the Bush II administration favored the most wealthy individuals and corporations, but did nothing to enhance the quality of life for everyone else. Quality of life was, in fact, deteriorating for almost everyone.
Why did people keep voting for him? The answer is abortion and gay marriage -- issues that had virtually no impact on them whatsoever. With effective framing, those two issues obfuscated the administration's abuses of power and hooked a population that found those issues easier to apprehend than the myriad, overwhelming corruption, incompetence and lack of accountability on display.
That's my take, anyway. Good question, amike.
]]>The huge difference between GOP and progressive messaging is the GOP's hooks are most often lies, distortions or gross exaggerations. If you look at messages from the liberal side, they're all based in fact. The facts don't play to the emotions, but you can be darn sure the distortions do.
For example, this is the opening of a viral email my mother received:
The Obama administration has already admitted regarding budget and expenditures they believe the elderly are worth more to the government dead than alive. Saves money if we're gone.
I think viral emails were priming instruments for insurance company stooges. Several conservative relatives have sent them to my sister and parents knowing my parents are liberals (my sister is a little bit on the fence).
One cousin sent a viral email with nothing but illustrations. The final illustration was one of a trillion dollar bill with Obama's face on it. How do you refute a picture? It leaves a lasting impression on someone who's uninformed and uncommitted on the issues.
When Obama and his supporters make the case that people's insurance premiums will triple if insurance companies are left unchecked, it falls flat. There's no emotional connection. It doesn't seem real. And it's not to someone on Medicare. The notion that health care costs will bankrupt the nation is an abstraction for most people. Also, Obama's analogies have been pathetically weak.
Most of the people I've seen in photos of town halls seem older. I read that AARP has been bombarded with phone calls from panicked seniors worried that there will be cuts to their Medicare benefits and that they will be forced into end of life counseling. Those people were the target. They're the ones who don't want their security messed with. Many younger people deny things will worsen or simply resolve to adjust as the new paradigm emerges.
Health care reformers need a hook. Then they need to lay the groundwork with an effective instrument like viral email. I would suggest footage like the town halls Rachel Maddow showed the other day. I saw it on HuffPost and was sickened by it. Very powerful stuff. Those would soften up the audience for the message. Which is...?
]]>If "bauble" sounds too nice, how about a fog horn or fire alarm. All I'm saying is the GOP message machine understands that before you can hammer in your message, you have to have the undivided attention of the recipient.
The specter of 45 million uninsured Americans contracting swine flu and unwittingly walking around with it until they collapse might be an effective bauble. One that stoops to the GOP's level.
Your initial argument assumes the BHTP listen to the pundits. They are more likely to overhear people talking at work, glance at the headlines of today's newspaper left on the table in the break room, or listen to the evening news while doing the evening chores. Most Americans are passive learners when it comes to policy issues. We seem to agree on that.
The swine flu angle, unseemly as it is, might have legs. Your post was a good one. The whole concept gets lost though when it's over-analyzed.
The entire model can be encapsulated thus:
Hook attention -> hammer in message.
The hook has to be something that makes an emotional connection. You mentioned fear. That works great.
]]>Everyday Zen is one of the first books I read as a fledgling Zen practitioner. It's quite apparent in your post that you're living it. Thanks for setting such a beautiful example.
I haven't sat or studied any lessons in a couple of days. Guess it shows. I needed this post. Thanks.
]]>However, if an issue is packaged as a bauble in a glittery, shiny wrapper, it may well catch their attention.
It seems the right has the savvy to figure out which baubles will jerk people out of their torpor. They dangle those baubles, usually fake, at every opportunity and, voila, they've captured the coveted attention of the impressionable uninformed. No persuasion required. It's really that simple.
Once they've grasped the bauble, it's hard to convince them to let it go. Even if they finally agree it's a fake, it has such allure, they'd just as soon keep it. That's what liberals are up against most of the time.
]]>And know they really weren't born that way.That especially resonated.]]>
Ben Nelson whines that his "office is currently getting calls at a nine-to-one rate from individuals who don't want him to support a public option for insurance coverage."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/04/ben-nelson-personally-cal_n_250801.html?view=print
At least he whines. The other Senator Nelson appears to be hiding under his bed on the subject. He has not uttered ONE WORD about health care reform in the past month and a half as far as I know. He's on the finance committee, but not in the gang of six. Maybe he's mad because he's not in the decision-making group.
At least I get form letters from my republican congressman and republican senator in response to faxes I've sent. Absolutely nothing from Bill Nelson. Where is he anyway? Chasing pythons?
]]>I lit a candle, but it didn't feel right somehow to send an email to my representative from the site. So I sent one for my mom to contemplate instead. Needless to say she was very intrigued.
CM
]]>I have one senator who is a democrat. He has not taken a stand of any kind on the health care reform issue. It's not even on his website. My republican senator has at least responded to my emails, faxes, and letters, albeit with the same form letter. The democrat -- absolutely nothing.
As for my congressman, he doesn't hold town halls nor does he meet with constituents -- yet he keeps getting reelected. It's an ongoing battle here.
I remember when Sarah Palin goaded people at rallies into a militant lather. That didn't go over well after a while.
My bet is the ongoing shrieking spectacles created by tea partiers will backfire. The novelty of their rudeness and disruptive behavior will get them air time. It will surely repel a lot of viewers -- if not right away then after they've seen the drill a few times.
And of course it will come out that a criminal convicted of defrauding medicare is using the unwitting tea partiers as stooges. So, I think they're pretty well poised to hang themselves.
But yes. We do need to show up.
]]>True, there was the technology boom afterward, but the tenor overall has wreaked of complacency and stagnation.
I think we are at a point now where one foot is stuck in the muck of complacency and the other is struggling to step out of it. There's vitality on the horizon. But then, as Van Cliburn said, "The horizon is always receding."
Thanks for the post, Manuela.
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