Meme memo: tax hikes for the middle class

[ClassWarrior]

The right wingnuts say that eliminating a tax cut is a tax hike.

Well then, following their logic, since the vast majority of Junior's tax cuts go to the filthy rich, that means the rest of us will have to pick up the burden for all the lost revenue. In other words, we're facing massive middle class tax increases.

The idea of "tax cuts for the rich" isn't getting much traction, so I say we shout "tax increase for the middle class" loud and long.

[ClassWarrior]

1. Kicking this...

...to take back the language.

I intend to post more, as long as people start using them.

And remember - calling us the "Democrat Party" is nothing. We can call them "The Party of Nixon."

[wellst0nev0ter]

13. Original Article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A10323-2003Jun3¬Found=true

[chaska]

2. Hey, you don't have enough posts...

to have an idea that good. Stop polluting our site with your damned ... good ideas.

[ClassWarrior]

3. Thanks.

I think.

:hi:

[Kanary]

14. Welcome to DU, ClassWarrior!

I think I get why you have so few posts..... all of them are marked "69" ~~guffaw~~ Cool, how you did that... ^_^

It's gonna be a hard change-over, but I'm with you and calimary.... time for a some different wording....

I hate it, but it beats those danged bootprints on my backside!

Kanary

[Jerseycoa]

4. "tax increase for the middle class"

I like it! :hi:

[ClassWarrior]

5. kicks for a new progressive language

n/t

[ClassWarrior]

6. The Meme Memo:

Taking back the language for the good guys.

[Bombtrack]

7. a middleclass tax increase is Gephardt and Dean's economic platform

eliminating a tax cut that has become law is an increase. The voters will support an increase on the top 2 percent, as Kerry, Edwards, and Clark propose, but they will reelect Bush by a landslide if Dean or Gephardt is the nominee

[ClassWarrior]

8. Actually, eliminating a tax increase that benefits the rich...

...is a massive tax CUT for the middle class, since the rich will be expected to shoulder more of their share of the financial burden of running the greatest nation on the planet.

[calimary]

9. I'll join you, ClassWarrior - add in republi-CONS and republi-CON-ARTISTS

Here's the proposal I started circulating a couple of days ago:

Folks, we need to start creating and spreading some new MEMES. Like Republi-CONS and Republi-CONMEN and Republi-CON-ARTISTS and Republic-CON-JOBS and Cheap-Labor Conservatives and Red-Ink-Republi-CONS and Charge-and-Spend-Republicans.

We need stuff like this to roll off the tongue as easily and frequently and automatically as those schmucks derisively say "the Democrat Party."

They're having a great time because nobody and I mean NOBODY is hitting back. It's BEYOND high time that changed.

We need to slither stuff like this into the national mind-set. REPETITION WORKS!!! Soon, it will spread on its own, but WE have to get it jump-started.

So here are some suggestions:

1) WHEN (not IF, WHEN) you write or email some columnist or reporter or editorial board or whoever, slip one or two of them in. Make this a habit - EVERY TIME. I wrote to one Canadian reporter about an excellent article she'd produced. I made reference to "The Silenced Majority" to describe the many many legions of us critics of this "So-Called Administration" (there's another one) who've been forcibly silenced and marginalized. She picked up on that in her response and said that it was a good one. AHA! Perhaps she'll be likely to use it, herself, then.

2) If ever you get through on somebody's talk show, MAKE DAMNED SURE you repeat one or more of those several times. Further planting seeds and then giving them water and nutrients. Same is true if you email some TV show, on the chance it might get used on the air.

3) Use that terminology with friends and "watercooler" pals at the office. Just casually, BUT RELENTLESSLY!

4) WHEN (not if) you call your congresscritter (TOLL FREE TO CAPITOL HILL: 1 800 839 - 5276 - you KNEW I was gonna sneak that one in again, too, 'eh?), use these when you speak to Democratic office staffers. Encourage them to spread it, too. I started using "when bush lied, people died" or "bush lied and soldiers died" and a couple of 'em remarked specifically on that and said they liked it. WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, encourage them to start using this, too. Encourage them to suggest it to their bosses. Tell them it's the new rage where you live (keep it up enough and it's very likely to be!).

The objective is to plant these as seeds as far and wide as though you were Johnny Appleseed. Do it repeatedly yet casually in conversation and in writing. If enough of us do it, and spread the word, and maybe drop hints to Democrats.com and Buzzflash and some other friendly folk, perhaps takebackthemedia.com and such, it'll start spreading. Folks like Guy James and Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy should be doing this, too. Suggestion needs to get to them as well. The objective here is to influence the national dialogue and the national consciousness and implant - or let's use the lexicon - "embed" this stuff in people's minds so it just starts automatically popping into their heads. Soon enough, the average Joe will start hearing this, and subconsciously connecting the concept of "Charge and Spend" or "republi-CONS" whether he/she wants to or not. It'll just pop in there, the same as the shamelessly-pounded-into-the-ground memes about liberals being so bad.

FOLKS, YOU CAN BET THERE ARE WRITTEN AND EMAILED MARCHING ORDERS AND TALKING POINTS ISSUED FAR AND WIDE BY THE LIKES OF KKKARL ROVE AND RALPH REED AND ROGER AILES AT THE FAUX NETWORK EXHORTING PEOPLE TO DO JUST THAT. YOU CAN BET THAT EVERY TALKING HEAD, EVERY REPUBLI-CON OFFICE STAFFER EVERYWHERE, EVERY RIGHT-WING THINK-TANKER, EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE IN THE BAD-GUY CAMP IS GETTING THESE ADVISORIES. NEWT GINGRICH YEARS AGO ACTUALLY DID IT, ISSUING LISTS OF WORDS TO USE WHEN DESCRIBING DEMS AND REPUBLI-CONS. WE NEED TO DO LIKEWISE, ONLY BETTER AND MORE HONEST.

Don't mean to shout, but then again, actually, YES I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guys, my dad was very successful as a salesman. He was a specialist in stuff like this, and it worked-worked-worked. I grew up watching this and seeing it work, repeatedly, with my own eyes. PLEASE DO IT!!!!!!

[ClassWarrior]

11. The power of words, Calimary...

I prefer "the Party of Nixon" myself, but I do like the way Republi-CONs sounds too.

Nice work.

[calimary]

16. Another one - "The Party of Cain."

Cain, after all, is our friend from the Old Testament, who got jealous of his noble brother and killed him, and then when God came a'lookin,' he responded with that MOST famous of questions: "Am I my brother's keeper?" THAT is the republi-CON-GAME from the get-go. That ought to be their slogan, because they prefer not to be ANYBODY'S keeper. All they know is the "KEEP" part of keeper - as in - keep it for themselves. This is the party that does not, did not, and will not EVER want to share, or lift even half a finger (except the middle one, of course) to help someone in need. They want to keep it for themselves. THAT is why they want to roll back Social Security, Medicare, and EVERYTHING from the New Deal onwards, that advanced us as a society and made us greater than even our founding fathers and mothers could have hoped. THAT'S what made us worthy of Reagan's buzzphrase - the "shining city on a hill."

These Sons of Cain are the most cold-hearted, stingy, petty, piss-ant-y, selfish, power-hungry, money-grubbing hypocrits who ever slithered across the earth.

I've got another one for ya, ClassWarrior - how 'bout "IGMFU"?

Ever heard of it?

My dad used to chuckle while uttering it. He, ever the staunch I-don't-wanna-pay-taxes republi-CON, hated the idea of contributing one plug nickel to the system, even for social justice, even for the betterment of our society, even for leveling the playing field, or helping someone boot up and get even a partial fighting chance. He loved the term "IGMFU." I think he thought it up. It stands for I Got Mine, F--- You."

Seems to me that is the tattoo on the heart of everybody who has the nerve to call themselves a republi-CON. They are the "IGMFU Party," "The Party of Cain."

AND EVERYBODY NEEDS TO KNOW THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Care to help me spread it?

[ClassWarrior]

17. I'm with you.

I intend to regularly post the "Meme Memo" and hopefully it'll inspire others to do the same. This isn't just about calling names, like Repukes and Asskkkroft - it's about siezing back the language. The way people think about politics and their lives.

Let's do it.

[calimary]

18. Shoulder-to-shoulder with ya, ClassWarrior!

It's about seizing the language and PLANTING SEEDS. The more these seeds are sewn, the better the chance one or more of them will take root. These need to be supplied to the Mike Malloys, the Ed Schultzes, the Randi Rhodeses, and everywhere. These need to be offered to Democrats.com, www.democrats.us, Buzzflash, The Progressive Portal, and any and all Democrat online groups you know of (for me, it's the Dem-CA groups here in California). EVERYWHERE.

ANY TIME you post. ANY TIME you write a letter or email to the editor. ANY TIME you write a comment to some op/ed columnist or reporter. ANY TIME you call in and get through on ANY talk show. ANY TIME you email your comments to Lou Dobbs or Wolf Blitzer or Chris Matthews or ANY OF 'EM!

It's about drum-beats. The BAD GUYS, and let's make no mistake, THAT is what they are (hell, they've marginalized and demonized us, freely and shamelessly for YEARS), have NEVER hesitated to repeat and repeat and repeat the same dumb stuff. Anyone who watched the nausea surrounding Selection 2000 might remember HOW MANY republi-CON talking heads and other assorted pundits relentlessly parroting "they counted, they counted again, they counted a third time." Well, let me tell you, those same phrases were ABSOLUTELY circulated far and wide, via email, phone, and fax machine, to EVERYBODY who even possibly, even vaguely might be a republi-CON sympathizer. These were widely-disseminated "talking points" that kept everybody shoulder-to-shoulder and on the same page together and extremely well coordinated. They kept repeating it and repeating it and repeating it until it was finally weaseled into the national consciousness, and became widely-accepted "truth." They manufactured it into fact by sheer repetition.

THAT is what we need to do. It's also clear we have virtually NO ONE in higher Democratic party circles, who is trying this, or coordinating this. They're a mess. They're too busy licking their wounds after another blind-sided right-cross they were too distracted or disheartened to be watching for, and they're always REACTING, and on the defensive. WE JUST WON'T WIN as long as that is so. And if there is a vacuum in those inner circles, it's up to us to rush in and fill the void. If they won't take the lead, then let's US move them aside and step in where they fear to tread. Besides, WE THE PEOPLE have nothing to lose. They can't strong-arm us or threaten us with being "dead meat" as candidates in the next election. We're not even running. We are out of range.

Let us be like the guerilla runts in the Vietnam jungles bringing our awesome military machine to its knees, like the rag-tag revolutionaries hiding in the bushes picking off the highly-trained, well-armed, and sophisticated Redcoats, like the IRAQI RESISTANCE that's fired up by the threat against their nation from a ferocious occupying power. The might of the US military might SEEM invincible, right? So how come that same invincible US military is floundering against hot-wired donkeys? How come the fearsome, all-powerful Goliath wasn't the one left standing when he went up against that little piss-ant, David, and his pathetic little stone and rubber thong?

If you believe those other ridiculously horrendous mismatches can come out in favor of the little guy, then there's hope for us Dems. A LOT of it. Resistance is NOT futile. Even the Borg found that out - the hard way. Let us go forward and vanquish The Party of Cain!!!!

[Zero Division]

10. Call it "increasing the tax burden for the middle class"

I think the word "burden" implies the fact that tax cuts skewed for the wealthier leave the middle class with a bigger slice of the bill for federal spending. It could help open up discusssions about why the right wing myth that the wealthier pay more is so utterly false (they leave out the impact of tax loop holes, and other sources of income, etc.).

Of course, we also need to start attacking the meme that "taxes = theft". That one's particularly annoying to me because it's a favorite of libertarians, who are so numerous on the internet.

[ClassWarrior]

12. Let's not get tripped up on boring details...

We hook 'em with the line "tax increases on the middle class," and if they challenge us, we explain - straight faced - how a bigger "tax burden" is essentially a massive "tax increase."

Learn from the master, Obi Wan Rove...


(edit for clarity)

[ClassWarrior]

15. Say it loud... say it often...

n/t

[salin]

19. TAX SHIFT.... getting more use

didn't see this thread when I started another: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=792274