Posted on 04/30/2005 7:48:27 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Soon after the November elections leading Democrats agreed that the party was ailing and in dire need of a new direction, a new focus, new ideas to lead it forward. "It's critical we realize why the electorate voted the way it did," Representative Bob Menendez, of New Jersey, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said of the party's devastating loss in the presidential election and its setbacks in both houses of Congress. In February, House Democratic lawmakers held a retreat in Virginia to hash out what to do next.
Something miraculous happened. They recovered—or at least they're behaving that way. Setting aside all the frank talk about the need to re-examine fundamentals, they identified an altogether different sort of affliction. The Democrats returned from Virginia not with an exit strategy for Iraq ... with a book—Don't Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, by George Lakoff, a linguist at the University of California at Berkeley. Lakoff's seductive thesis is that how you frame an idea largely determines the response to it. George Miller, a California congressman and an enthusiastic disciple, gave a copy to each member of the caucus, and the notion that "messaging" lies at the heart of the Democrats' woes has had growing currency in the party ever since.
"The best way to communicate values is to use words and phrases that no Coke-drinking, apple-pie-eating American could disagree with. Family. Freedom. Opportunity. Responsibility. Community."
Of course, buzzwords are not going to rescue a failing party. That so many Democrats have achieved the Olympian state of denial necessary to believe otherwise suggests that the tempting abstractions of language and messaging have diverted them from a truth that ought to be perfectly clear: rather than being misunderstood, they were understood all too well.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
"We are Republicans, and don't propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion. We are loyal to our flag."
The Big Lie in that particular canard is that there never was a surplus to "squander". The Clintinoids simply declared that there was a "projected surplus", which mysteriously disappeared the day after the 2000 election. Then it was discovered that the Clinton administration had been cooking the economic books for at least two years prior to the election, yet somehow the myth of a surplus still hangs on.
The reason so many people vote against their own self-interest is because not everyone puts their self-interests first.
This is a concept that is beyond the, in the words of Tammy Bruce, "malignant narcissist" of the left. In fact it is so beyond the Democrat that not only isn't utter selfishness wrong but unless someone is utterly selfish there must be something "wrong" with them. This is the entire point of one of the best selling leftist-penned tomes "What's The Matter With Kansas?"
Because Democrats have no higher value than self (not God, not country, not truth) they cannot conceive of people who would put their selfishness on hold in favor of protecting America, honoring God and seeking truth.
They don't understand the concept of sacrificing for a bigger cause because to the Democrat the ONLY cause is self. Thus the expression "if it feels good, do it." Thus the emphasis on not doing estimable things but on SELF-esteem.
In fact the concept of sacrificing for a bigger cause scares the hell out of them. They believe there must be something wrong with people who aren't utterly selfish. They must be "brainwashed" to love America or believe in God, etc.
This is why they HATE Bush and LOVE Clinton. Bush believes in God and he loves America. Clinton cared about NOTHING other than "getting off." He wouldn't protect America, he ejaculated all over the Oval Office, he sold the Lincoln Bedroom like it was a Motel Six...THAT they understand.
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