Right To Left
For years, a favorite idea of the intellectual Left has been that the reason Republicans beat Democrats is they have a simple message, while the more complex arguments of the Left get lost in all the shouting.
Well, now that the Democrats have taken the White House and the Congress, are they going to claim that Republicans lost because their message was too nuanced?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:26 AM
10 Comments:
Actually the equalization happened on the other end- the left's message actually very simple this year- "Things're bad because of them" & "Change is good"
Which come to think of it have been pretty much the successful slogans of Reagan, Clinton, the 1994 congress and Bush II in 2000.
I think it (like most things) has very little to do with ideology
I think it's true that it is easier to summarize the message: "Government is bad -- get rid of it whenever you can," than it is to summarize: "In various circumstances government provides a needed counterbalance to the other powers of our society -- now let's have a detailed discussion about when and how." Republicans like to characterize Democrats as thinking that government is always good -- this is clearly not an accurate description of most Democrats, but it's hard to rebut when you're spending your time talking about a number of government programs that you think are good or would be good.
If you want to simplify the Right's message to "Government is bad," it's just as easy to simplify the Left's message to "We're gonna give you free stuff."
The simplifying has already been done (on the right, anyway). One of Ronald Reagan's most famous quotes was:
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
How can that be read other than "government is bad"?
It can be read as "government is bad" followed by thousands of pages qualifying and explaining that claim.
If you listen to the rhetoric of both parties, they try to keep it as simple and emotional as possible. My main point was all the whining from the losers (of both parties, actually), who weren't any more nuanced, but thought they were. Their attitude is if we lose, it's not our fault, the others fooled everyone, but when we win, it's not because our propaganda was better, but because the truth finally came out.
I agree with QueensGuy that it is the Right that has simplified their own message to: "Government is bad." They have also characterized the Democrats' message to be: "Tax and spend." I agree that Republicans don't really believe all government is bad -- witness the many programs they have in fact propagated. But they submit their message that government is always in the way. This makes it hard for them to govern in many ways. But they can't complain that someone else is oversimplifying their message. They do it themselves. And its simplicity has helped them get elected many times.
My point is that both parties make equally simplistic arguments to the public (and also have equally complex arguments behind them). My complaint is regarding how the losing party whines that it's only the other side that either doesn't bother to make a complex argument, or isn't capable of making one. This doesn't show anything except a lack of introspection in the person making the argument.
Both sides are capable of whining about being misunderstood, of course. But it's just inherently easier to convey a message that is "all" or "nothing" rather than something in between. The Republicans have been more successful at defining their message as "all" ("All Government is bad") or "nothing" ("There is nothing that private enterprise can't do better"). Even though they make many exceptions for this in real life, they have had a clear message. It's much harder to make a clear simple message from: "Sometimes the government can help."
"The Republicans have been more successful at defining their message as 'all' ('All Government is bad') or 'nothing' ('There is nothing that private enterprise can't do better')."
"It's much harder to make a clear simple message from: "'Sometimes the government can help.'"
This is the whining I'm talking about. If you agree with one side, it all too easily seems the other side is simplifying, but not you. Apparently you can see what the Republians are doing, but not that the Democrats are dressing up as Santa Claus and promising the voters that government will take care of their problems, and if they're worried about where the money comes from, don't worry, we'll take it from rich people who don't deserve it to begin with. They also regularly claim they're the ones who care about being decent to everyone, while Republicans are ruthless and racist.
I could give you countless examples from almost any major speech given by any major Democrat in the last few decades, but here's a classic: Howard Dean, Chairmen of the Democrat Party, in explaining the difference between Dems and Repubs said "we don't think kids ought to go to bed hungry at night."
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