Lakoff on messaging failure in Wisconsin

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/11880-focus-the-wisconsin-blues

In Wisconsin, much if not most progressive messaging fed conservative morality centered around individual, not social, responsibility. Unions were presented as serving self-interest - the self-interests of working people. Pensions were not presented as delayed earnings for work already done, but as “benefits” given for free as a result of union bargaining power. “Bargaining” means trying to get the best deal for your own self-interest. “Collective” denies individual responsibility. The right wing use of “union thugs” suggests gangs and the underworld - an immoral use of force. Strikes, to conservatives, are a form of blackmail. Strikebreaking, like the strict father’s requirement to punish rebellious children, is seen as a moral necessity. The successful corporate managers, being successful, are seen as moral. And since many working men have a strict father morality both at home an in their working life, they can be led to support conservative moral positions, even against their own financial interests.

The truth that The Public is necessary for the Private was not repeated over and over, but it needed to be at the center of the Wisconsin debate. Unions needed to be seen as serving The Public, because they promote better wages, working conditions, and pensions generally, not just for their members. The central role of teachers as working hard to maintain The Public, and hence The Private, also needed to be at the center of the debate. These can only be possible if the general basis of the need for The Public is focused on every day.

What progressives need to do is clear. To people who have mixed values - partly progressive, partly conservative - talk progressive values in progressive language, thus strengthening progressive moral views in their brains. Never move to the right thinking you’ll get more cooperation that way.

Start telling deep truths out loud all day every day: Democracy is about citizens caring about each other. The Public is necessary for The Private. Pensions are delayed earnings for work already done; eliminating them is theft. Unions protect workers from corporate exploitation - low salaries, no job security, managerial threats, and inhumane working conditions. Public schools are essential to opportunity, and not just financially: they provide the opportunity to make the most of students’ skills and interests. They are also essential to democracy, since democracy requires an educated citizenry at large, as well as trained professionals in every community. Without education of the public, there can be no freedom.

[msongs]

1. the lesson Obama ignores: Never move to the right thinking you’ll get more cooperation that way nt

"Never move to the right thinking you’ll get more cooperation that way."

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. Maybe I'm hallucinating, but I seem to remember a time when...

DUers were all over Lakoff threads. KICKING!

[Jim Lane]

3. Not, not hallucinating. Another kick. (n/t)

[Overseas]

4. Big Money Won. The people were outspent eight to one.

That's how I see it.

[eridani]

5. That's true, but if you are the financial underdog--

--you have no slack in making messaging mistakes.

[JDPriestly]

6. K&R

I seem to remember a time when... DUers were all over Lakoff threads.

Some of us still are.

Lakoff is right on every point stated in the OP.

[SoCalDem]

7. A Pension is nothing more than DEFERRED WAGES.. "Reform-reduce-eliminate" a pension

is theft of wages for work done decades earlier. It's theft..plain & simple. Theft of labor, time , effort and of course wages for that work done.

When unions negotiate wages, they ask for a wage increase..

example..

they ask for 50cents an hour over the term of the contract.. The bosses come back with 35 cents and the other 15 goes into pension, so on its face, the worker gets the 50 cents and the boss gets to "stall" on the other 15 cents.

[bvar22]

8. There is a reason WHY the Democratic Party Leadership is "weak on messaging".

Strong, unambivalent "Messaging" would:

1) make them accountable to the Democratic Working Class base

2) piss off their new owners



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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[eridani]

9. That means effective primary campaigns against the owned

And it means putting a lot of new leadership in place in state legislatures and city and county councils.

[bvar22]

10. SEE: Arkansas Democratic Primary, 2010.

Organized LABOR and the Grass Roots organized to remove one of the worst offenders,
Blue Dog Blanche Lincoln, from her Senate seat in the Democratic Primary.
We did EXACTLY what the Obama Administration asked us to do..."Give him a Progressive Congress".

Blanche was vulnerable, unpopular, and we had a very popular Democratic Candidate, Lt Governor Bill Halter, who was polling well against the Republican in the general election. He was Pro-UNION and Pro-Health Care.
Blanche was campaigning on "I'm the one who derailed the Obama Agenda, especially health care".

Guess what happened and WHO we ended up fighting?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The Obama White House, the DNC, and the DSCC.
They ALL turned out to the rescue of Blanche's failing campaign.
Obama even gave her a public Oval Office endorsement which we all had to watch again and again during Blanche's campaign.
Obama even sent the Old Dog back down to Arkansas to help out poor Blanche.

Adding insult to injury, a "Whitehouse Spokesperson" taunted and ridiculed Organized LABOR for "wasting $10Million Dollars"!!! Wasting money by doing what thew White asked us to do?
Wasting money by supporting a Pro-LABOR/Pro-Health Care replacement for the woman who wrecked the "Obama Agenda"?

Naturally, LABOR did NOT "turn out" for Blanche Lincoln in the General Election,
and the Republican "won", but you can hang this loss around the White House Neck!
We did everything right.

If Arkansas Primary 2010 was an anomaly, I could over look it,
but it wasn't. The White House interfered in other close Democratic Primary elections,
always on the side of the conservative.
See the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary, where the White House actually campaigned for a Republican, Arlen Specter, in preference to a REAL "Democrat".
Also see Colorado.
The pattern is clear,
and not the first time I have seen it up close & personal.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=160&topic_id=14207


[font size=3]

The White House, the DNC, the DCCC/DSCC , has NO BUSINESS interfering in local Democratic Primaries....EVER!
When they do so,
it is ALWAYS to subvert the will of the people!

[/font]

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-much-damage-can-bad-democrats.html

[hifiguy]

11. Kick and rec

for Lakoff.

[PufPuf23]

12. Thanks for post. kr nt

[treestar]

13. Every time an election is lost this is said

Weak "messaging." Maybe the voters just don't agree. Is there some magical "messaging" that always works? If you have an inside track on that, get a job with the Democratic party high up. Maybe that's what Lakoff wants. He just hasn't been able to convince them to give him that job yet.

It is about persuading others, but in the end, people get to decide. There's no way to control them. This kind of plaint sort of wishes there were and indicates there is, if just the party higher ups would figure it out or do it the way of people who haven't worked their way up in the ranks with proven successes.

[librechik]

14. `Unions are Democracy in Action, Corporations are Dictatorships.

Lakoff is very smart and a shrewd analyst, but he can't message for crap. That's why he hasn't become our Frank Luntz.

IMSO!

[joeglow3]

15. You can't have it both ways, though

The article stated:

"Pensions were not presented as delayed earnings for work already done, but as “benefits” given for free as a result of union bargaining power."

I agree completely with this. However, when negotiating salaries, many unions explicitly ignore those as "delayed earning." There have been major standoffs with our local fire union and they have fought having pensions being considered as "delayed earnings." Instead, when comparing their pay against neighboring cities, they want a salary ONLY comparison, because their pension benefits are light years better than anyone elses.

THAT is a major part of the problem. As a huge union supporter, even I have things I have witnessed from local public sector unions that piss me off. I have no problems with the compensation being sought, but get pissed when they are clearly not being truthful in their fight for it.

[Bandit]

16. Unions played a HUGE role in the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Remember Lech Walesa...