DKos does a real service by identifying issues, uncovering lies, and being a public presence for many. The first step in dealing with the disastrous situation in this country is identifying and calling attention to problems.
But that gets you nowhere much by itself.
The second step has to be figuring out how to deal with it. That's what this diary is about.
A few years ago I did a study of how right wing ideology was sold - successfully overall - to a small, non-US English-speaking, first-world country, and it offers some insights into how to go about this. (This, by the way, was happening more or less successfully in country after country, including our neighbor to the north (or south if you live in Michigan. The same campaign issues and techniques in country after country.) The country I examined was New Zealand in the period 1980 into the late 1990's.
What I found was that the campaign had a substantitive (i.e. message) part and a procedural (methods) part. In this case, the key to the message was the repetition of a limited number of ideas. The substantive campaign that accompanied these wording changes contended that (1) employer and employee goals are compatible if not identical and recognizing this leads to increased productivity, profits, and wages; (2) contract - not unionization or legislative protections - promotes an ideal workplace; (3) the workplace is best organized as a labor market; (4) unions are inimical to employee needs and desires; (5) traditional labor law promotes conflict and inefficiency; and (6) those who oppose change do so for misguided or malign motives.
I think that tracks well enough - though not perfectly - with what we see going around us on a daily basis.
Now for the procedural / methods part. It will sound familiar to us in the US. I recommend that liberals give it a go.
- The campaign relied on two principal but overlapping sources of information for spreading its message: (1) expert studies and statistical results and (2) opinion polls. These forms of information appear scientific and therefore reliable and thus are likely to inspire confidence in their message. In a sense, using them was akin to commercials which attempt to inspire confidence by using situations that seem genuine or by using actors whose roles have caused the public to associate them with certain desired characteristics.
- There was a constant repetition of a very few ideas by public figures - or people who became public figures as part of this campaign.
- Expert opinion was used in place of data or facts. They constantly imported ultra-conservative American experts, by the way.
- Statistics were used constantly - and in highly inaccurate or misleading ways. For example, often the math was wrong. The results were often misstated. For example, they would claim the poll was about the opinions of all workers. In fact, it was of managers. In short, the campaign used statistics -- and economic statistics in particular -- the way a drunk uses a light pole: for support rather than illumination.
- Opinion polling was used in place of fact. Often the polling was 180 degrees from fact. Again, these were often highly skewed samples.
- Mythmaking - the campaign frequently - no constantly - repeated selected interpretations of events. They tied these to simple anecdotes that would appeal broadly and stick in people's minds. The same anecdote would appear across the country, just changed slightly to use local place names.
- They cranked out hundreds and hundreds of hard copy publications and made sure they were everywhere.
- Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.
And it worked pretty well. They changed a socialist leaning country into one that accepts the market place as ruler.
So that's the gist of what I found. I strongly recommend the left borrow these techniques, with the exception of lying. Have poster children - use images of or real people. Repeat and repeat
The full study can be found at: Hail, Market, Full of Grace: Buying and Selling Labor Law Reform, 2001 L.Rev. Mich. St. U. - Det. Coll. L. 1090