Here’s a Quote of the Day:
“I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation’s foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. “They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
Frank Luntz is an evil genius who conducts tests on ordinary citizens to see how they can be best deceived into supporting policies that truly screw them over. The Republican Governor’s Association met down in Orlando this week, and Luntz gave them a presentation on how to answer the rhetoric of the #Occupy Movement. We ought to file this next quote away for later use:
“I’m trying to get that word [“capitalism”] removed and we’re replacing it with either ‘economic freedom’ or ‘free market,’ ” Luntz said. “The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we’re seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we’ve got a problem.”
Can we be brutality honest here and note that Mr. Luntz is saying that the Republicans cannot be seen for what they actually are or they’ll have a problem? Let me drive home the point. Here’s Luntz talking about taxes and the middle class:
“If you talk about raising taxes on the rich,” the public responds favorably, Luntz cautioned. But “if you talk about government taking the money from hardworking Americans, the public says no. Taxing, the public will say yes.”
“The [Democrats] cannot win if the fight is on hardworking taxpayers. We can say we defend the ‘middle class’ and the public will say, I’m not sure about that. But defending ‘hardworking taxpayers’ and Republicans have the advantage.”
Isn’t it clear that Luntz is conceding that the Republicans are not defending the middle class? He makes no effort to argue that (through some kind of jujitsu) Republican tax policies will actually trickle down to the middle class. Instead, he offers straight-up obfuscation by conflating the richest 2% of Americans with anyone who considers themselves “hardworking.” He doesn’t even want Republicans to claim they are helping the middle class because his studies have shown him that people see right through that bullshit.
Other helpful tips offered by Luntz include:
At least he didn’t recommend that they blame the blacks for the hardships facing the white middle class. But Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have that part covered.
