| (I just got this in my inbox from an old friend who is a very smart and capable organizer who wanted to share some thoughts on messaging. Happy to repost here.--Singer)
There is something fundamentally different about the way conservatives communicate. When they talk about a topic they not only speak of an event, but they seem to dwell on the people involved. Think of the ugly stereotypes we've become acquainted with over time. The "Welfare Queen", "Border Runner", and now "Anchor Baby" are all part of our political vernacular. Instantly a mental image springs forth to fill in the hazy gaps in our minds, because the Right has not only built the narrative, more importantly they've cast the characters.
These characters are useful and effective because they sum up everything the conservative voter needs to know in a nice little package and glosses over all the useless details. "Anchor Baby" works because it's short, and inherently negative. It's an indefensible position, and if confronted with it in a debate the only logical choice is retreat. Never mind the well established rights granted to a US citizen under the 14th amendment. Don't worry about the untold amounts of money that undocumented workers contribute to the economy each year. Anchor Baby, 'nough said.
Where we've been getting beat stupid for years in messaging, isn't just about using focus-group tested buzz words, it's about narrative based dialogue, or "story-telling" if you want to be smart about it. Part of telling a good story is having an easily identifiable hero and villain. The hero is always either the voter or the crusading politician, a faceless everyman that anyone can project themselves onto. The villain on the other hand, encapsulates all that is wrong with the world and poses an antithesis to our hero. They don't play by the rules, they game the system, and threaten to undermine the good life that we all struggle so hard to achieve. We've already seen them do their magic with labor unions. The specter of the "Union Boss" has replaced the working families that built this country. If you watch and listen closely we're already starting to see the conservatives changing the debate around teachers, the guardians of education. It won't be long before they roll out a two-syllable, pre-tested label for their old nemesis, and the public schools will be ripe for plunder.
Now, think about the villains in the liberal world view. Most of them revolve around some form of the greedy CEO, or faceless corporation. This is problematic because while most Americans consider themselves far from rich, they haven't ruled out the possibility that their luck might change someday. The others include religious zealots and homophobes. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue or paint a mental image, does it? On one of our most fundamental issues, Education, the waters are so murky we
don't even have a clear story to tell.
But of course there's no reason why we can't learn from our mistakes by copying their strategy. And to those ends I'd like to suggest that our new villain is the "Tax Cheat". The name itself tells us a few things. We're not going to say that he's rich, we'll let the voters fill that one in for themselves. Which is great because this lets us play the class card, without offending any of our wealthy allies and donors who happen to have a conscience. But more importantly it says he has tax liability or that he owes something to society. Few people actually enjoy paying their taxes (although most people like what our taxes afford us), but we pay them nonetheless out of obligation to each other and future generations. Most importantly regardless of what we pay, each of us thinks individually that we pay our "fair share." But the Tax Cheat doesn't. He doesn't contribute a dime toward all the things that make our system work. He still uses the parks, schools, and bridges like everyone else, but we the "tax-payers" end up footing the bill.
None of this is to say that shifting the debate will be easy or cheap. It took years if not decades for conservative strategists to build their narrative in voter's minds. But if we start now by telling our story in the public sphere and door to door we can go after tax loop holes, and companies that make obscene profits domestically but house their corporate offices overseas. We can raise untold amounts of revenue, and won't be forced into balancing the budget on the backs of the poor. But most importantly we can begin to shift the blame in the voter's minds from teachers and workers, to the real enemy of the middle class. |
