WOIFM

Framing the Debate

Meg points to an interview with UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff about how conservatives dominate modern political debate through skillfully defining the terms in their favor. An exceprt:

The phrase "Tax relief" began coming out of the White House starting on the very day of Bush's inauguration. It got picked up by the newspapers as if it were a neutral term, which it is not. First, you have the frame for "relief." For there to be relief, there has to be an affliction, an afflicted party, somebody who administers the relief, and an act in which you are relieved of the affliction. The reliever is the hero, and anybody who tries to stop them is the bad guy intent on keeping the affliction going. So, add "tax" to "relief" and you get a metaphor that taxation is an affliction, and anybody against relieving this affliction is a villain.

"Tax relief" has even been picked up by the Democrats. I was asked by the Democratic Caucus in their tax meetings to talk to them, and I told them about the problems of using tax relief. The candidates were on the road. Soon after, Joe Lieberman still used the phrase tax relief in a press conference. You see the Democrats shooting themselves in the foot.

Democrats and the liberal left are killing themselves in another, more sweeping way that's not at all isolated to tax relief. One thing all Democrats can agree on as part of their message: Bush is bad because he's mishandling the war, the economy, civil rights, you name it. What's the underlying frame there?

Government is bad and cannot be trusted.

Yes, they're trying to tar and feather this particualr President, and to some extent, it's taking hold. But they cannot do it without doing fundmental damage to their ultimate message, namely, that government can and should do good for its people. Because people don't just get the message that "Bush is bad." They get the message that "Government is bad." And the party that embraces - or at least pretends to embrace - the idea of reducing government interference in the lives of its citizens is the party that will ultimately benefit from that.