Democrats Starting to Learn Republican Methods of Framing Debate

New York Times Magazine ^ | July 17, 2005 | Matthew Bai

[JBGUSA]

The Framing Wars

By MATT BAI Published: July 17, 2005 After last November's defeat, Democrats were like aviation investigators sifting through twisted metal in a cornfield, struggling to posit theories about the disaster all around them.

*snip*

*snip*

Democrats thought they knew the answer. Even before the election, a new political word had begun to take hold of the party, beginning on the West Coast and spreading like a virus all the way to the inner offices of the Capitol. That word was ''framing.''

Republicans, of course, were the ones who had always excelled at framing controversial issues, having invented and popularized loaded phrases like ''tax relief'' and ''partial-birth abortion''... But now Democrats said that they had learned to fight back. ''

*snip*

The father of framing is a man named George Lakoff, and his spectacular ascent over the last eight months in many ways tells the story of where Democrats have been since the election.

*snip*

When he, like many liberals, became exasperated over the drift of the Kerry campaign last summer -- ''I went to bed angry every night,'' he told me -- Lakoff decided to bang out a short book about politics and language, based on theories he had already published with academic presses, that could serve as a kind of handbook for Democratic activists.

That book, ''Don't Think of an Elephant!'' is now in its eighth printing, having sold nearly 200,000 copies, first through liberal word of mouth and the blogosphere and then through reviews and the lecture circuit.

*snip*

But they never managed to tie them all into a single, unifying image that voters could associate with the president. As a result, none of them stuck. Bush was attacked. Kerry was framed.

*snip*

[JBGUSA]

The concept of "framing" is beginning to sweep the US as the linguistic base to try to bring the Democrats back from the dead. Hopefully, he won't succeed (though, shhhhh, I'm a Democrat). My second cousin, George Lakoff, just wrote a very important book that's sweeping my country, especially Democrats concerned with self-rescue. This was discussed in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine which I have excerpted.

We should be concerned, even though imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[John Lenin]

The father of framing is a man named George Lakoff, and his spectacular ascent over the last eight months in many ways tells the story of where Democrats have been since the election.

Delusional thinking to the max. The RATS are self destructing Between Reid, Pelosi, Turbin and Dean I have never seen a group of bigger lightweights in my life. They haven't hit bottom yet, this is going to be fun to watch.

[WOSG]

Yawn. Every election the Liberals lose on the issues, and every election they blame everything *except* the fact that *they believe things that are wrong*!!

It's like an alcoholic who believes everything is wrong in the world except his relationship with the bottle.

Framing, schmaming ...

Liberalism is wrong, it's just the Liberals don't know it yet.

[Stellar Dendrite]

Uhh...the democommies are already masters at framing issues. They're masterful propagandists, who learned from stalin and goebbels.

What do you think pro abort crowd uses when they manufacture propaganda like "its a womans RIGHT to choose!"

or homosexual marraige "they're just two people who LOVE each other! they wont destroy marraige, and even if they did heteros have already destroyed it anyway"

[CzarNicky]

It doesn't matter what "frame" they put it in it is still an ugly picture.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

From Proverbs, chapter 6:

12 A scoundrel and villain,
who goes about with a corrupt mouth,

13 who winks with his eye,
signals with his feet
and motions with his fingers,

14 who plots evil with deceit in his heart—
he always stirs up dissension.

15 Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant;
he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:

17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,

19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.


http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=wink&x=10&y=6

[sinanju]

This whole "framing" thing is a joke, already dissected to death on this forum. It is simply another word for a concept that has existed for decades among advertisers & publicists. For our purposes it's just another way of trying to fool enough of the people enough of the time with cutesey newspeak, and contempt for the commonweal is what shines through the most glaringly when these types get together to discuss their strategy. Lakoff is merely riding this worn out gimmick for the fame and fortune it will get him.

[Asclepius]

The father of framing is a man named George Lakoff, and his spectacular ascent over the last eight months in many ways tells the story of where Democrats have been since the election.

Lakoff is harldy the "father of framing."

Lakoff is linguist, not a rhetorician.

Does anyone really believe that the Democrats lacked a superbly talented team of message managers?--what they lacked was a message.

[dangus]

"pro-choice," "gay," "gay marriage," "welfare," "social security," "reproductive rights,"... Yeah, it's conservatives framing the debates. (/sarcasm) What is really happening is that the Republicans are learning how to do it a teensy bit, too.

This is just a perfect example of how out of touch with reality the Democrats are: They don't even see that they have framed the debate when they do so.

[FlingWingFlyer]

How long is the course and what is the attrition rate? So far, the 'RATS aren't framing anything and are screwing up by the numbers with their big mouths.

[claudiustg]

It seems to be that after the last election being religious or at least spiritual was the big rage. Remember Hilary describing herself as an "evangelical"? The Dems were squirming all over the place saying they were religious, too. I think that went on for a least two whole weeks. This was a very similar phenomenon to their patriotism and discovery of "manly men" after 9/11.

You can't believe anything these people say. "Framing" is just another word for artful lying.

[ncountylee]

Propaganda is only effective to those in power. Attempts to use propaganda from the minority side results in being spotted as a liar and/or whiner. Don't tell the democrats.

[bitt]

cool.

[Echo Talon]

Ya can't polish a turd!
Frame that!

[kcvl]

Matt Bai is a national correspondent for Newsweek magazine. His political work includes coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign.

Mr. Bai has also written extensively about the gun-control debate, the firearms industry and the Columbine High School shootings. In writing stories from every part of the country, he has focused on America's urban-rural divide and in maverick politicians like Jesse Ventura and John McCain. Before coming to Newsweek, Mr. Bai was a metro reporter for the Boston Globe.

******

Matt Bai article in the New York Times Magazine on John Podesta's new Center for American Progress think tank.

Emulating those conservative institutions, he said, a message-oriented war room will send out a daily briefing to refute the positions and arguments of the right. An aggressive media department will book liberal thinkers on cable TV.

******

Notion Building

Written By: Matt Bai
Publication Date: October 12, 2003
Publisher: New York Times Magazine

The ideology of Republican revolution was cooked up decades ago in right-wing think tanks. By copying that model, John Podesta aims to find an idea big enough to save the Democratic Party

******

Bai spent several months in 1998 reporting and writing Newsweek’s cover story on septuagenarian astronaut John Glenn, titled “Back Into Space.” Earlier that year, he spent a month in Iraq covering the standoff with the United States.

[stylin19a]

I thought framing was replaced by wedge issues.
Man, I gotta get the rule book.

[LibertarianInExile]

My first reaction is that the Rats need to stop lawyering and start selling their agenda, instead of lying about it. And the MSM 'frames' for them all the time. They only missed by a few points in the last election due to it. If they actually were able to make inroads into some of the target groups they believe would benefit from their politics and are natural recipients of their programs, they'd hurt the GOP.

My second reaction is that all they can do is lie about their agenda, since the vast majority of the American people don't like it when they hear it. And they'll never make those inroads because the fruits of their agenda have been nothing but failure, and Americans know that.

[MitchellC]

What is "loaded" about the term 'partial-birth abortion?' Does anyone who can understand the words not understand what a PBA is?

[Lancey Howard]

Republicans, of course, were the ones who had always excelled at framing controversial issues, having invented and popularized loaded phrases like ''tax relief'' and ''partial-birth abortion''... But now Democrats said that they had learned to fight back.

So how does George Lakoff (rhymes with...) come up with phrases which will energize voters to embrace tax hikes and killing babies that are all born except for the tops of their heads? Them Democrats are an odd bunch. This should be interesting....

[claudiustg]

---The ideology of Republican revolution was cooked up decades ago in right-wing think tanks. By copying that model, John Podesta aims to find an idea big enough to save the Democratic Party---

Gay marriage, more gun control, higher taxes, benefits for illegal aliens, an anti-American foreign policy, the erasure of Christianity from public life, legislation from the bench, forest and wildlife management from the bench, and more petty regulations than you can possibly imagine. The Dims have plenty of "ideas".