Another important essay about framing in the Presidential campaign. Turns out that George Lakoff is worried that the Obama campaign is moving in the wrong direction frame-wise, and conversely, the McCain campaign is defining itself through frames which touch Americans at a deep level.
As Lakoff suggests, when McCain calls himself a maverick, the last thing you want to do is say, "He's not a maverick." Because, while confronting him in a clearly negative way, you repeat his frame ("maverick") and that only reinforces it in the minds of voters. Instead, as Lakoff suggests, forget using the phrase "not a maverick," and use the frame "yes man."
Obama should be saying that McCain is "in with the Washington in-crowd," who use their influence to funnel power to those who are already rich and powerful.
The sky isn't falling, all you Henny Penny's, it's just Republicans lowering the level of campaign discussion. Remember, Foxy Loxy is not to be trusted.
Dave Schulz is a wonderful artist, whose work happens to be on display at the Russell Library in Middletown CT, this month.
But he's also a front-yard editorialist. His Burma Shave style, drive-by messages are always on target, and two-sided. Not that he discusses both sides of an issue, simply that both sides of his yard signs carry a message. This is the first time, as far as I know, that Schulz has used a visual only, no words, message for South bound drivers and pedestrians.
To see the work yourself, drive down Ridge south from Main Street Extension, and just as it passes Russell Street, you'll find the signs.
And John McCain is abashed? Didn't he refer to his wife, unpoetically, as a cunt?
As it turns out, McCain has used the same phrase, "lipstick on a pig," reportedly often. Maybe he used it on the floor of the Senate, and that's where Barack Obama picked it up.
I guess Democrats ought to learn not to talk metaphorically, especially, if a Republican is within earshot. I mean, what would a Republican do if he/she were described in any of these regionally familiar metaphors.
The reasons for going to war in Iraq were as thin as turnip soup.
When George Bush was asked about his relationship with Jack Abramoff, he looked like a dog shitting a peach pit.
When John McCain said he would run an honorable, respectable campaign, Barack Obama said, "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining."
Karl Rove is so so good at convincing the public that he could've sold the pope a double bed.
Dick Cheney is as cold as a welldigger's ass.
And George Bush, dumb as a bag of hair.
Metaphorically speaking Republican's are as sensitive as cowboy's balls on the first day of a cattle drive.
BTW, you can put lipstick on Giuliani, and he's still an asshole.
But it turns out that Democratic heads might be turned by money. Money, of all things. Can you imagine. Lieberman has been making generous donations to Democratic Senate races. And, as the L.A. Times' Andrew Malcolm notes, that may make them less likely to leave Joe in the lurch.
It demonstrates, mostly, that Lieberman is a political animal of some skill, and that when push comes to shove, it's his own skin he thinks of first.
It's foolhardy and dangerous not to acknowledge that Sarah Palin was a brilliant selection by the Rovian branch of the Republican party. As George Lakoff notes (read the entire article -it's important):
Palin is the mom in the strict father family, upholding conservative values. Palin is tough: she shoots, skins, and eats caribou. She is disciplined: raising five kids with a major career. She lives her values: she has a Downs-syndrome baby that she refused to abort. She has the image of the ideal conservative mom: pretty, perky, feminine, Bible-toting, and fitting into the ideal conservative family. And she fits the stereotype of America as small-town America. It is Reagan's morning-in-America image. Where Obama thought of capturing the West, she is running for Sweetheart of the West...
She is also masterful at using the progressive narratives: she's from the working class, working her way up from hockey mom and the PTA to Mayor, Governor, and VP candidate. Her husband is a union member. She can say to the conservative populists that she is one of them -- all the things that Obama and Biden have been saying. Bottom-up, not top-down.
While she is laughably incapable, lacking in credibility, incredibly uninformed, and a shell into which the Republicans are pouring words and idealogy, at the level of policy detail, on another level, a symbolic, metaphoric level, she is perfect for a wide swath of America. Hockey mom. Small town mayor. American rebel.
And as Lakoff points out, going after her at the detail, policy level plays into the Republican game plan which they can frame as "Democrats and the liberal media picking on small-town Mom."
So when Barack Obama complains, "C'mon you can't just make things up," he's wrong. They can. They do. And they've done it before and won.
And we must never forget that Palin's description of herself is also true - a pit-bull with lipstick. She will say, and do, anything to win.
Karl Rove got George Bush elected by taking the best of what being a Democrat and a progressive means, and perverting the language into a new frame so that his candidate could pillage the constitution, rape the environment and pander to the rich and powerful, while we all smiled and repeated, "No child left behind...mission accomplished...homeland security...operation enduring freedom..clear skies initiative."
As Lakoff says, Democrats, being Democrats, will mostly talk about the realities nonstop without paying attention to the dimensions of values and symbolism. Democrats, in addition, need to call an extremist an extremist: to shine a light on the shared anti-democratic ideology of McCain and Palin, the same ideology shared by Bush and Cheney. They share values antithetical to our democracy. That needs to be said loud and clear, if not by the Obama campaign itself, then by the rest of us who share democratic American values. So, how do we re-frame Sarah Palin, and for that matter, John McCain? Here are my suggestions.
Mommie, Dearest - Sarah Palin as Joan Crawford. On the outside, she's the perfect mother. In reality, she's a lying, play-acting, sadistic, powerful monster only interested in making things better for herself, and her rich friends. Like Bush and Cheney, she and McCain will sell the country to special interests, take our freedoms from us, and leave the least powerful of us to fend for ourselves. Oh, she'll take care of us, all right.
Church Lady - Isn't that special? Sarah Palin as a sanctimonious, hypocritical and ultimately unhinged Jesus freak. Do we want another potential president who thinks that God is whispering orders into her ear? See a sample of Church Lady at Jibjab.
Thurston Howell, III and Ellie Mae Clampett - John McCain as an out-of-touch aristocrat, who's trapped on an island and can't escape, and Sarah Palin as a feisty, pretty, naieve and unsophisticated rich girl, who's beholden to oil wealth. They'd be funny if they weren't so dangerous.
Wasteland of the Free - I don't know of any song which has re-framed the words of conservative leaders to show how antithetical they are to democracy, freedom and caring than Iris Dement's Wasteland of the Free. You can hear it here.
And despite the fact that he brags often about "crossing the aisle," it appears he was afraid to cross over to the Democratic side of the Senate floor on his return visit.
He'll be sneaking in and out of the Senate the way he now sneaks in and out of the state of Connecticut.
