Yesterday I entered my 1st diary, "The 100 Year Propaganda War." In it, I described a long-term strategy that describes one example of effective framing that democrats could use against the republican slime machine for the next century.
Today, I’d like to give another example of framing to use against republicans that I feel is particularly devastating. If you’re interested, follow me below the fold.
Here is my new dictum for democrats: never use a frame that does not activate the lizard brain.
Folks, I don’t care how logical you are. I don’t care how many facts you have. And I don’t care how succinct and devastatingly you lay these facts out. It will be lost on a sizeable portion of the population if you don’t engage the lizard brain when doing it.
In the late-80’s CBS ran a particularly devastating piece on Reagan-era corruption (it was on 60 Minutes I think). The voiceover laying out the case was done against a visual backdrop of Reagan speaking before cheering throngs of people waving American flags. Thus, Reagan strategist Michael Deaver was not worried. Why?
Because the visual images of patriotism completely drowned out the damning verbal facts of the piece by engaging the lizard brain, the portion of the brain devoted to emotion. The emotion of seeing people waving American flags caused the cerebrum to shut down. Deaver, like most republican strategists and politicians, understood this concept intuitively. Democratic strategists did not then, and still do not.
And it’s not just images, but words can also activate images in the brain. When George Lakoff tells you NOT to think of an elephant, what do you think of? When Richard Nixon said he was "NOT a crook," what did you think of? When Barack Obama says there are NO "death panels," what do you think of?
The answers are "elephant," "crook," and "death panels" respectively.
So it is important to use a frame to active the image in the mind that YOU want activated, and not an image your republican opponent wants. And to be effective, that frame should engage the lizard brain.
The frame I’d like to discuss is a frame Kos has laid out in the past: "If you don’t believe in government, how can you run it effectively?" I like this frame. I think it has possibilities. However, for it to be truly effective, you’ve got to engage the lizard brain when employing it. Therefore, after laying out the premise, you’ve got to come up with effective analogies to activate images in the brain.
First, lay out the premise:
"If you don’t believe in government, how can you run it effectively?"
This premise engages the cerebrum, and while effective logically, it does not illicit an emotional response. But you could then follow it up with a lizard-brain activating analogy:
"Do you want a scientologist performing your child’s appendectomy?"
Of course, that one would be effective mainly with people who know that scientologists don’t believe in using the healthcare system. But you get the point. Lay out a premise and then use an emotional analogy to kick start the lizard brain.
You could even say:
Do you want your hair dresser fixing your carburetor?
I don’t think even these analogies even have to be effective logically. People understand the concept of using an untrained amateur to do a job that requires professional expertise, and that’s the lizard frame we want to hammer the republicans with.
If democrats could come up with 10 or 20 effective lizard brain analogies to this effective cerebral frame and stick to it over a period of years, I believe they could place doubt in the voters' minds as to whether republicans should be trusted to run something they plainly don't believe in.
George Lakoff should be hired by the DNC immediately to further this end.
BTW, I have no professional training in this field whatsoever. I’m a complete amateur, just a lug off the street with a psyche degree. I sure don’t want to leave the impression that I know what the hell I’m talking about. Anybody at this site can do what I’m doing or even surpass it with a bit of thought and intuition. So have at.
Tomorrow, I’d like to comment on the Overton Window. Google it or read Peter Daou’s recent article at the Huff Post, it’s fascinating.