The amount of skullduggery dished out by the GOP of late is mind-boggling. How being Pro-choice can take away a freedom [of speech] is beyond me. It only serves to remind that the GOP always seems to have a way with words that, in and of itself is amazing. [The issues they employ that diction on, notwithstanding.]
ETA: My question is intended to be a “In General” for all political issues, not just the flavor of the month.
What is the Counter to this ?
Why haven’t the Dems taken a level in speechcraft here?
Do the Dems feel that the GOP own a monopoly on framing? Do they feel that the GOP will hurt themselves, alone, far beyond what the Dems can do?
If the Democrats do go ahead and use shameless lying to frame a debate, they are called on it by their fellow Democrats. In general, Democrat supporters do not tolerate lies, and are good at looking at multiple sources to determine the truth. In general Republican supporters do not mind lies (as long as they service a greater good - getting Republicans elected), and are rather poor at finding out the truth as they frequently rely on a single source such as Fox News or Talk Radio (which is usually the originator/promoter of the lie in the first place)
It really is quite upsetting that Republicans in power are willing to create an alternate set of facts, completely unconnected from the real world in order to get their way.
The argument about global warming should be, “What should we do about it, and how much can we spend?” Instead of the conservatives in America pushing for minimal or business oriented solutions, they just pretend it isn’t happening.
It’s so 1984 I wouldn’t have thought it possible. It’s difficult to fight snappy one sentence lies with a complicated truth. And that’s why the Republicans win elections. Their simple lies are easier to digest for a public who doesn’t care to learn about the issues. Couple that with FOX News reinforcing whatever the politicos are saying, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Major corporations have a large share of control over what the public sees and hears in the media. These corporations apparently find the Republicans’ pro-business message more newsworthy than the Democrats’ populist message.
By the time the “reality-based” community becomes aware that a whopper has been foisted on the teeming millions, said whopper has frequently become so entrenched — aided by the previously mentioned media outlets — that it’s practically impossible to dispel. It doesn’t help that the lie usually fits on a bumper sticker while the truth requires some level of analytical thought.
(MHO, one of the strong points of Obama’s 2008 campaign was its ability to anticipate the GOP’s attacks and defuse them before they gained momentum. Whoever was on that team more than earned their keep.)
1- ‘Griswold’ is the case most cited by the right for Judicial Activism. That case prevented Connecticut from banning birth control. The right would still love to overturn that case and allow state control over contraception/abortion.
2- Ryan’s plan does drastically reduce Medicare benefits. Pushing Granny off the cliff in the web ad was over the top though.
3- Many elderly do this now. Credit Bush (rightly or for wrongly not paying for it) for lessening this need. The Bush presidency was a strange mixture of failed good intentions and downright incompetence.
Except MSNBC, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe…
Most major newspapers have endorsed Democrats and support the liberal side on their editorial pages. Nor do the Democrats lack in money-Obama ditched his promise to let his campaign be funded by federal funds so he could raise money unlimitedly and he raised more than the GOP in 2008 and this year also.
Look, before the Democrats can collectively frame any issues as the OP says, we have to decide on some issues – and some issues that can galvanize the public as well as the party. I say, this should be done generally in the direction of that POV from which Obama is not doing nearly enough or being lefty enough, which would tap into all the energy shown by the OWS movement and more, and it’s still there ready to go; but den dat would alienate da swing voters, Abbot.
First of all the left needs to ditch the image of it being all “long-haired, drug addled, draft-card burning hippies” from the Sixties and move more towards “apple pie radicalism” as seen during the Great Depression-it would do well IMO to quote Thomas Paine who in many ways advocated modern ideas of welfare and condemned militarism. Secondly it needs to be more aggressive on foreign policy by taking a leaf from Christopher Hitchens-portray the war on Terror as not just Americans vs. Islamic Extremnists but as Reason vs. Reaction.
None of which are a liberal medium on business issues. On that topic, the spectrum runs from moderately conservative to extremely conservative.
The fact that you apparently believe these media are liberal indicates you’ve never been exposed to any genuine liberal media. And the point I was making is how genuine liberal ideas don’t get exposure in major media. So I’d say my point is proven.
There are some dishonest folk in this thread. They already do. A few examples;
1.) Republicans don’t care if you die on the street.
2.) Republicans want to bring back Jim Crow laws.
3.) Republicans are warring against the middle class (never mind the fact that the “middle class” has been voting Republican for a while)
4.) (As someone else said) Republicans want to take away your birth control.
What the name of hell are you talking about? The left will only “ditch” that image when it ceases to exist in the fantasies of the Republican propagandists by whom you’ve clearly been seduced.
No, we haven’t. I remember watching a show that discussed the history of the Estate Tax. In the early 90s nobody gave a rat’s ass about the Estate Tax. It was a complete non-issue. However strategists were able to make the issue front and center just by re-branding it the “Death Tax” (after all, only the rich have “estates” but everybody dies). Went from a complete non-issue to a huge controversy just through the power of marketing. We’re not talking making an argument. We’re talking a bunch of guys got together and just through a name change and a little stoking the fire raised ire from over 100 million people that previously cared nothing about the issue.
Someone pointed out that Democrats need to stop trying to win the fight over “Entitlement Reform” because whether we win this battle or not, we still lose because the fight was over “Entitlement Reform.” If we, instead, went to war to preserve the “Earned Benefits” of working Americans we could flip the field.
