Disaster Messaging by the Democrats: It Could be Fatal to America's Future -- By George Lakoff

By BuzzFlash

Created 07/08/2010 - 8:35am

GEORGE LAKOFF FOR BUZZFLASH

Here’s a description the typical situation.

• The Republicans outmessage the Democrats. The Democrats, having no effective response, face disaster: They lose politically, either in electoral support or failure on crucial legislation.

• The Democrats then take polls and do focus groups. The pollsters discover that extremist Republicans control the most common ("mainstream") way of thinking and talking about the given issue.

• The pollsters recommend that Democrats move to the right: adopt conservative Republican language and a less extreme version of conservative policy, along with weakened versions of some Democratic ideas.