Over the past few days, I've seen a few inklings of things I think are to come here, if not now, maybe after the 06 cycle. Sprinkled within the usual `me too' "thinking", there have been a few seeds of truth that IMHO have been in general ignored. After a rousing night of work thinking about it, I come home to read my usual list of sites, Kos included. One thought on
Rude Pundit led to an epiphany of sorts.
"The people don't want leaders who identify with them. They want leaders who they identify with."
How this ties into reality TV and what I think is a valid discussion, after this commercial break... umm I mean below the fold.
I think this phrase is very important, so I'm going to put it in here quite a few times:
"The people don't want leaders who identify with them. They want leaders who they identify with."
After watching Kerry hunt in a new outfit bought for just such an occasion, and all the "Plain talkin'" by Bush, I think I see what the big deal is. People like the idea of being president. The current one says things in words they understand (while doing and believing the opposite), gives them big concepts in small ways, and seems like the Guy Next Door. And they think, "Gee, I'm the Guy Next Door to someone". Showing a simple image does a lot.
I don't want to let this get into Yet Another Rant About The Sclm (YARATS), there are plenty of those already.
This is less about an abstract concept of `framing' as it is a feeling we should seek to exude, as a party and as people within this party. The media and YARATS again, but that's another diary for another person. This isn't something that I believe will work in the media unless it is put first by the people of this party. The Big Dog had it, but he also surrounded himself with people who had it, not to mention the nation as whole was more receptive to it then, when school uniforms and school prayer were the "wedge" issues as I remember. Hell, everyone had a friend that was addicted to fast food, or slept around, or was a just a generally nice guy that could have had the nickname "Bubba".
But the everyman aspect only goes so far. You have to be optimistic. Another Big Dog Reference: "I feel your pain. Here's how I'll help." You notice there was no "Aww that sucks about that bad stuff. You need me to do this for you." I think that everyone here knows that Bush goes way too far on the optimism front, but at least he has some. You remember the debates right?
Kerry - "This war was fought for the wrong reasons."
Bush - "How can you say that about our troops, you're being a Meanie"
People came off it with Bush's easy answer of optimism, because the facts were pessimistic.
"The people don't want leaders who identify with them. They want leaders who they identify with."
Optimism isn't just about saying only nice things, however. You don't even have to disagree in a nice way to be optimistic. It's all about offering something better. Using Social Security as an example:
Instead of: Privatizing is bad because it will cause a huge deficit and put people's livelihoods at the whim of the stock market. (all true things, and all have been said)
Try: Social Security was set up as a safety net to make sure that all seniors have a living wage and the ability to be self sufficient. We have the responsibility to make sure of that.
Privatizing isn't the way. Y'know if Bush would simply reverse his tax cuts for the people making over X a year, Social Security would be maintained well beyond the baby boom.
This can be applied to almost anything. Kerry, bless his soul, tried at times. When he did he tried so hard. But I don't think he got the point. He didn't do it to things that we could have had the edge on, like ANY domestic issue. He tried to do it on Iraq. But he didn't even get it right then.
Instead of: "That 200 Billion would be better spent here instead of in Iraq."
Try: "200 Billion is a lot of money to be spending on one other country... It could be used for improving education, and paying down the national debt. We should be using it to do so."
That's it. Just leave the rest unsaid. It still gets thought, and someone usually says it anyways. You notice I didn't even use the word Iraq. But you knew what I was talking about. Hell, if you're candidate, one of your people can even say it if you feel it needs to be said. Look at Cheney's "If you vote for Kerry, we'll all die" quote. Bush had been saying it the entire time w/o saying it, but eventually his boss came out and said it. If Bush had said it, he would have just committed political suicide, as well as slander.
"The people don't want leaders who identify with them. They want leaders who they identify with."
Now, how you can do it. Whenever you get into a political conversation with someone that voted for Bush, instead of being combative about how bad Bush is for Everything, ask them things like, "Well what do you think about Social Security?", and when they answer that privatizing is for them for whatever regurgitated reason, give them nicely worded, but easy to swallow facts to the contrary. Feel free to use the one I have above, if you wish. Maybe make up a cheat sheet in your head of them. You'll find there are a lot of people that agree with most of the `progressive' democratic ideology as it stands (no more deficit, good relations with the rest of the world, being taken care of when they're old, better education, less soldiers dying, fair elections, better distribution of wealth, yada...). And using simple facts to get them to ask what's really in their best interests that corresponds to the current Repub doctrine, the "wedge" issues like abortion, that are based mainly on emotion and belief, tend to fade into the background a little, if not are forgotten about for a little while.
Now how this ties into reality TV. I don't watch many shows, but my GF is a Reality TV junkie of the first order. I've noticed from what she watches while I Kos, she tends to root for the people that blend in with how she views herself. She roots for those that SHE identifies WITH, like almost all are women, athletic, and hardworking w/o bragging about it. But the ones that come from pampered lives that only try to fool the other contestants by acting like they are lower `class' then they are, get (literally) booed.
"The people don't want leaders who identify with them. They want leaders who they identify with."
Maybe that has more than a ring of truth to it.
BTW, if this was already something on Frameshop (although I'm honestly not sure what that is past a dairy series of sorts that deals with how we say things), please speak up, this is a way of thinking that maybe more people should see, and IMHO, should be elaborated on until we can get it right.