After spending nearly two weeks in Florida and listening to that state’s political commercials, it’s time to acknowledge that the GOP has captured the framing battle by using a nation-wide unified consistent message regardless of each state’s particular issues.
With only slight variations, every television, radio, print and flyer buy said that the stimulus was a failure, President Obama, democrats and liberals are out of touch with this country’s values, it’s time to reclaim our country, and the best way to correct the problem is smaller government and less taxes. Over and over and over. No back-tracking, no compromise, no moderating, no wavering. From small town commissioner to U.S. Senator.
Dems, who made great strides starting in 2004 and accumulating in the 2008 election by addressing what this article calls “cultural cognition”, have lost the messaging wars for this cycle. Even though using terminology like egalitarian/communitarian vs. hierarchical/individualistic, or George Lakoff’s strict father family or nurturant parent family models to describe the process will have us running to search engines, the main thrust is words matter greatly in conveying what will result in your decision to vote for the philosophy that won you over.
We wish that voters will come to their senses and realize the inferior product of the Republican Party, but that has never stopped people from buying unwisely. Post-analysis of the election will be wide and varied, but to me, it’s who closed the deal with the best messaging.