Unfortunately, the Democrats suck at framing, and the Republican political machine (Koch brothers et. al) have devoted millions if not billions to institutes and media outlets who “spin” the framing to appeal to the unconscious and / or low information voters who hear and respond to buzz words.
Why do the Denocrats suck at framing? Either they don’t understand the importance or they have failed to spend the resources on researching and disseminating the “talking points” that keep their representatives on message and on point. No we don’t want to be like Republicans “bots” who fill the airwaves all saying the exact thing in the exact words. But we have to consistently repeat the same FRAMING. Meaning the one or two “magic words” that frame the issue. (E.g., PRO-CHOICE NOT PRO-ABORTION, etc.) Once we use the proper FRAMING then whatever we want to say about the issue AS FRAMED can be personal and individual so that we don’t sound like “bots”. We have to win the framing immediately or we end up fighting the long battle on Republican turf, and by the time we try and “change” the framing we are fighting to “”re-brand” rather than brand. Its’ always more difficult to change a frame than to put it in place initially. (For the same reasons that make it much more difficult to get someone to change their mind once they have made an initial decision . ) The Republican party “legitimized” the far right extremists who make up the white nationalist, white supremacist, racist, misogynistic, bigoted anti-immigrant anti-everyone crowd when they “re-branded” a group of disparate bigoted extremists as the “Alt-Right”. A few years ago there was no such unifying label . . there were a lot of extremists looking for legitimacy and a Republican party desperately seeking to increase it’s constituency without the stigma of admitting they welcomed the racists, misogynists, etc. The Fox and Friends crowd and their supporters called them the “Alt-Right”, which “re-branded” the unacceptable by making them sound as if they were a legitimate “alternative” within an established political spectrum of a major party. What did Democrats and the media do? They failed to challenge the branding, and instead everywhere we heard Democrats and everyone else fall into line, calling these misbegotten individuals “alt-right”, which is what THEY want to be called. Why would we continue to help them establish their brand?PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Let’s not help these American extremists “rebrand” themselves by going along with their rebranding and calling them what THEY want to be called— “alt-right”. They are neo-nazis, fascists, racists bigots white supremacists, etc. Call them what they are. Words MATTER Framing Matters.
If you need to use their term because the other side repeats it, then weaponize it and make it the “alt-reicht” which is more applicable and at least sticks them with the Nazi taint.
Come on Democrats. FRAMING is everything. Don’t let the Republicans beat us on framing this like they have beaten us at framing reproductive rights (we let them get away with saying “pro-life” while calling us the “pro abortion” crowd.) Instead, we should always use the words PRO CHOICE and resist calling them Pro-Life -- they are for GOVERNMENT REGULATION of reproduction. (NO ONE likes “abortions” or is “pro” having them . .) We initially won reproductive choice in the seventies when we were “pro choice” — we lost ground when they “’re branded” themselves as “pro life” and us as “pro abortion” — and now we are facing losing rights throughout the country. It’s the FRAMING.
Why did the “gay rights” movement languish for years and then suddenly make huge strides within a very short time? Because we WON the framing war by no longer calling it “gay rights” (“why should gay people have “special” rights?”) and instead reframed it as “marriage equality”. (It’s easier to support everyone should have the same right to marry as opposed to special “gay” rights. . . .)
The base of bigotry and fear and hatred on which this presidency rests is a neo-Nazi /white supremacist movement that has lain “dormant” but never disappeared and that the right “legitimized” by calling it “alt-right” and seeking to cast beleaguered workers as beleaguered “WHITE MALES” who were being “oppressed” by everyone’ else’s “rights’. Call them what they are: White Supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazi’s or whatever they DON”T want to be called, instead of “gentrifying them” with the newly minted label “alt right” that they coined for themselves. .
Remember. Every word has not only it’s spoken meaning but also resonates on deeper levels of the psyche, even if not consciously. “Alt-right” sounds too much like “allright” (semantically, there is nothing “wrong” with being labeled “alt-right” as opposed to being labelled “racist” etc.) You better believe that whoever first coined the term knew exactly what they were suggesting to the collective unconscious: “We’re allright . . .nothing “wrong” here . .)
We must also reject the framing because it allows an assorted bag of unrelated individuals who all have their own particular brand of intolerance but may not necessarily be united to unite under one label while they divide us into many.
Don’t count on the media to frame the issue correctly. This moment is too important. WE must seize this opportunity to reject the re branding of racists, misogynists, anti-immigrant, anti-semitic, anti-LGBT, anti-everyone as “alt-right.” They are NOT right on any level. We need to divide them into enumerated categories that have socially unaccepted names: RACIST, BIGOT, MISOGYNIST, WHITE SUPREMACIST, ANTI-SEMITE, etc.
Please everyone, this is so important.