Palin, Gender, Family, Framing - It's Still the Ethos, not-so-stupid!

[garthranzz]

Ethos, in Aristotelian Rhetoric, deals with questions of character. Most modern politics is ethos-driven, usually in the worst way. "Character issues" are ethos issues.

There's a thought that, since the Republicans have been so good at defining - framing - elections on ethos issues - since they are extraordinarily weak on logos - the actual problem or logic issues - Democrats should do the same. And Indeed we should.

But there's a way to do it that's not smear and slime, and that, I think, will ultimately prove more effective.

Obama gets it - which is why he said families are off limits.

Here's an important link that explains the framing issue, and how attacking Palin on gender or family issues falls into the Republican framing trap - that we allow them to define the terms of a wedge issue, which they always control, rather than defining it in different terms.

In more technical terms, a gender or family based discussion places the argument in the values slot of character - and the Republicans have at least a level playing field there. Focusing on the Flat Earth or "erratic" nature of Paln as a VP choice (those are Kerry's terms) focuses the ethos discussion on questions of practical wisdom, where Democrats are strongest.

Here's the link to the "frameshopisopen" site. A critical read.


http://frameshopisopen.com/