One of the men resposible for RW double talk didn't do it this time

[Enquiringkitty]

Monday, March 7, 2005 Posted: 2:36 PM EST (1936 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- Frank Luntz, the renowned political message-master, is given much credit for persuading Republicans to substitute "death tax " for inheritance tax and for the Bush administration's billing its timber industry-friendly proposal as "the healthy forests" initiative.


Luntz recently gave a private briefing on Social Security to a Republican House retreat in West Virginia. Through a source we will not here name, I have before me the phrase-maker's advice sheet meant to reassure those GOP officeholders who, as support for President Bush's overhaul of Social Security heads South in the polls, have grown more nervous by the day.

Over and over again in the memo, Republicans are urged to chant a variation of the same mantra: "It's YOUR money. You earned it. You sacrificed for it. The government TOOK it from you," and, "This is not the government's money, it's YOUR money," and over and over again, "after all, it's YOUR money."

Clearly, Luntz is either committed to repetition as the first law of learning or he believes his GOP audience suffers from near-terminal attention deficit disorder. The problem is that the voters are not buying the mantra-message on Social Security.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/07/social.security/index.html

[NewJeffCT]

1. they're just getting warmed up

The GOP is going to keep pounding away at this throughout the year... and, then again in 2007 and then again in 2009 and then it will start to sink in.

[physioex]

2. Let's hope not......

I think it would be really bad.

[NewJeffCT]

3. they're very patient

They didn't demonize the word "liberal" overnight... they kept pounding away and pounding away and pounding away over decades! They're well funded, patient and consistent. While we may have laughed at Pat Robertson running for president and losing while embarrassing W by winning 1 primary, the far right didn't care. They just took it as a message that they'd have to re-tool the message and work harder in the future.

[physioex]

4. They do have persistence....

But they have hired consultants who are linguists and a have come up with terms like "Clear Skies", "Healthy Forests", "It's your money", and "Death Tax". And I think it's time we fight fire with fire, for example I only refer to Iraq as an "Occupation" not a "War". Although the real issues are more important than catch phrases, it seems that most voters and amercians only have an attention span of a catch phrase.

[mattclearing]

5. It's our money that was taken to go waste on Iraqi blood, too.

Forget the retirement fund money. I want the Iraq War money back.

Fuckers.