Monday, August 07, 2006

Making Heads Nod With Progressive Language

The real goal of political language is to get heads to nod, and head noddin' language is rarely used by Democrats.


Head noddin' language is all the Republicans use. Tax relief...heads nod. Strong National defense... heads nod. Efficiency of the market... heads nod.

Democrats have no head nodding language. Oh, some of them do, but the ones that do are not allowed to speak, as the language that makes heads nod from Democrats is seen as too radical, not appealing to 'swing voters' (professional head-nodders), election suicide, or god forbid: SOCIALISM!

Instead of head-noddin' language, Democrats are always trapped in platitudes. Why are they trapped in platitudes? Because they have bought into Head Noddin' Republican Rhetoric.

The Republican says
* Tax Relief.
* Taxes are bad.
* No new taxes.
Keep your hands off of my money.

Heads nod.

Democrats say:
Progressive Taxation is extremely important to the united states as a society.
* Taxes are best when they are low, but...
* New taxes on some things are OK, but...
* Our country needs taxes so that we can take care of people.

Are heads nodding? Ours are, but that is because we all eat and breathe this stuff.

What about your parents? Or family?

The language of Democrats right now does not make anyone's heads nod except ours.


This is what we should be saying:
* Taxes are dues.
* Taxes built America.
* Tax those who can afford it: highest.
* Tax those who can't afford it: least.
* Taxes are an investment in America.

By the end of that your heads are nodding. I would bet that with lots of repetition, that the Professional Headnodders, the swing voter's heads would be nodding.

That totally opposes Republican Head-nodding language, and is much more in tune with American values, as expressed by our personal experience, and polling data (support for Democratic ideals.).

Let's look at some other head nodding language:

Republican:
* Strong on National Defense
* Everything changed after 9/11.
* We need more military spending.
* Forward deploy to 'fight them there instead of here
War is necessary for our national interests.

Heads nod.

Democrats:

I really don't know what Democrats stand for on National Defense.

But I'll tell you what the head noddin' language is:
* Defend America.
* There is strength in numbers.
* Shift from Global Cop to Global Problem Solver.
* Bring troops home
* War is a last resort.
* We need to spend less on war.

Heads will not nod until the last one. Why?

Because Democrats have bought into the head-noddin' language of the Republicans: we are in mortal danger; ALWAYS!

We have to start using head-nodding language, because when heads start nodding, your final position seems logical.

We really have to work at making simple statements of fact so that people can nod their heads. We want them agreeing with us.

The main point of this diary is to point out, simply, that we are doing a horrible job of persauding people, and most of the time that happens because we are afraid to make bold, simple statements of fact about any issue.

We cannot please everybody all the time, and that is what's going on today. Democrats are trying to not lose any votes by attempting to appeal to everybody.

We wouldn't want to alienate anybody, right?

We are not going to alienate the swing voter with broad statements like:

"I believe that people are more important than profit."

"I believe that the Constitution is more important than markets."

"I believe that free markets are just code for Cheap Labor."

"I believe America should make laws to protect it's people."

In fact their heads will nod.

What do you think?

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