How many people here have heard that one? How many people in the country? Just about all, I'd say.
We've come up with a few of our own: "Borrow and Spend Republicans" or "Rubber Stamd Republicans," but we need to do more of this. Markos and others have written about the need to build our own narratives, and they are right:
Bush won 2004 on the "protect America" line. We'd say, "he's screwed up in Iraq", and people would respond, "Yeah, but he wanted to keep America safe. His heart is in the right place." ...Go down the list of Bush's failures on Iraq and the war against terrorists, and you'd get the same line.
And it worked.
That is, until the Dubai Port deal. At that moment, it was clear he no longer placed preeminent priority on "keeping America safe",...suddenly one of the ages-old negative Republican narratives -- that they're for corporations above people -- was reinforced. Bush's numbers haven't recovered since.
Get away from those silly roll call votes and random issues, expecting people to process their voting decisions intellectually, and start building narratives...
The idea is to develop high level narratives, and then make every issue fit into them. Keep coming back to the narratives again and again and again and frame everything around them. (or vice-versa)
Here are 3 ideas for narratives and counter narratives:
Republicans Scorch and Burn
Democrats Think and Act
Use them to frame everything:
Foreign Policy
War as a last Resort vs Preemptive War
Strong Defense
Securing our Ports
Chase down our true Enemies
Enviroment
GlobalWarming
Pollution
Logging
Energy
Conservation (When's the last time you heart that word?)
* * *
Democrats Put People First
Republicans Put Corporations first (stolen from kos)
or maybe this one instead:
Republicans are Soft on Caring
Apply this to:
Human Rights, Women's Rights, etc.
Social Security
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Service cuts for the Middle Class and the Poor
Poverty
Jobs Creation
Job Training
Food Programs
Education Spending
* * *
Democrats are Strong on Defense
Republicans Love War
Oil at any cost
Alternative Energy
Conservation
Dominate and Control other countries
Huge Profits for Coprorations
Halliburtion and other self serving business interests that profit best when there is war.
* * *
Shape these to your own candidate or race, or create your own. When ever you speak or write about a candidate always use specific examples and then bring them back to the narratives.
Use simple to understand narratives to resonate with voters.
Update [2006-9-13 22:12:29 by BentLiberal]: Who can think of a good narrative about GOP incompetency and inability to execute goverment policy effectively? (war planning, disaster recovery, etc)