(cross-posted at Deny My Freedom)
Over at Daily Kos, Darksyde posted this morning about what possible slogans the Democratic Party should adopt for the fall elections. As the thread has far more replies now than it did when I checked this morning, I haven’t had a chance to read through it. Based on what I did see, though, it still occurs to me that our party – whether it be our politicians or us, the grassroots – still doesn’t seem to get the point behind framing. I mean no offense to anyone, as it’s been a long time since the Democratic Party showed any adeptness at being able to frame without Bill Clinton’s charisma. Framing, in my view, has very little to do with having a few catchy phrases. Rather, the whole point behind framing is to create an entire language that supports your points.
It’s very simple to point out these blatant failures of Democrats to understand this. John Kerry and John Edwards used variations of “Help is on the way”, “Hope is on the way”, and “Make America stronger at home and more respected in the world” countless times. Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats have completely worn out the alliterative ‘culture of corruption’. What Democrats don’t seem to understand is that slogans are not meant to be used all the time – these are the phrases you drop at the beginning and end of a speech. Instead, you have to create your own language that can be employed effectively against the complex, subversive language that the GOP has developed over the past 40 years. For them, it’s phrases like ‘personal accounts’ when referring to Social Security, ‘tax relief’ on tax cuts, and referring to terrorists as ‘thugs’ and other simplistic terms for bad guys in general.
This is the issue we have to address – it has nothing to do with what the slogans are. I think that too many Democrats bought into the idea of a ‘magic bullet’ when it comes to slogans simply because Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid” was a driving force in his successful campaign for president in 1992. Yes, snappy slogans are very nice. But in the long run, no one really remembers what the hell was on the banner at the campaign rallies. They remember the subtle repetition of phrases that trigger key psychological responses in the human consciousness. That’s why the Democratic Party needs to develop its own terms – we will no longer have to fight in the frame that the Republican Party has set for so long. When we can escape the habit of arguing on the GOP’s terms, we will be able to argue past their superficial language that avoids the real matters – and get to the heart of the issues.
Slogans are great. But framing isn’t about slogans. It’s about the language, stupid.