Reactionary, conservative, liberal, progressive. Just labels? Not so much.
Recently, I have grown weary of the use of the term "conservative" to describe anyone from hawkish neocon to right-wing troglodyte.
Is hastily sending thousands of our soldiers to their meaningless deaths cautious? Is ballooning deficit spending while decreasing tax revenues cautious? Is unregulated lending cautious? Is it cautious to become ostracized by the world community and instead lead a pariah state?
It's time we begin to alter the messaging which has helped enable these extremists to drive our nation into the ditch.
I worked (unsuccessfully) to defeat, Congressman Tom McClintock. He is known in Calif as "a conservative icon". In what was an extremely close race in a district which is PVI +11 R, I think messaging was the deciding factor in this race and others like it around the country.
Many people want to do the right thing, but when they are trying to decide how to cast their votes, they want to do the "safe" thing. They don't see themselves as "risk-takers". Think about which synonyms would appeal to this voter.
Candidate A: radical, unconventional, unorthodox, nontraditional
Candidate B: conventional, faithful, loyal, steadfast
Sure, most of us at Daily Kos already think of the two words used for A (liberal) & B (conservative) above like this:
But if you were Granny Q. Public, it would be more of a conundrum of sorts.
So-called conservative politicians are not "cautiously moderate" in any way. These people are not remotely connected to "conservation". The term "conservative" is a misnomer. In other words, it's a LIE. I'd like it if people called me a handsomely chiseled genius, but you would think I might have to be somewhat intelligent and attractive to deserve that label.
One of the most poignant scenes in the film Malcom X is when in prison X reads some of the synonyms for the words "black" and "white". The same awakening needs to occur within the political ranks of the left in this country. We have the people on our side. They just don't realize it yet because their video game- and TV-addled brains don't cut through the haze of the "liberal media" (Leaving that one for another diary).
Like "conservative," "progressive" is a term associated with a particular view of history. The conservative wants to stand still or go back; the progressive wants to move forward.
Frankly going back looks good on this chart. N.B.: The times when the national debt is stable or even going down are the only 12 of the past 32 years when we had a Democrat in the White House.
What the hell happened to "Conservative = smaller gov't"? Oh yeah, it's another myth.
The messaging race is important. We are losing. If we can turn it around, then the blue half of this chart would consume 2/3 or more of the page.
And maybe the government would align itself with the people's ideology.