Can we be careful about the use of Republican "Frames"?

[Go2Peace]

I have noticed more Republican frames unintentionally being used on Democratic Underground in discussions about policies.

I find using Republican FRAMES not only somewhat offensive, but it also damages our party platform. Language is extremely powerful, as Republicans have discovered. Unfortunately we lag behind them still.

For example, what we used to call "social programs" or "welfare programs", are in the midst of a very heavy attack that has been quite successful. Every society has "social programs". Basically every program of the government *is* a "social program" by nature. Every civil society must have them, and having social programs does not make a society "socialist".

We used to understand the difference between a "social program", and "socialism". But now, because of heavy FRAMING, the meaning of "social programs" is changing, to mean "socialist government within society", which is simply a distortion of our language. But a very DANGEROUS distortion. The stronger this particular FRAME gets, the

more power it has to affect most everything that those of us who are Democrats believe in.

Once this particular FRAME get's enough headwind, it can be used to dismantle most *any* government initiative, most every government program, you can think of. It is an extremely powerful frame.

Further, the "Socialism" FRAME is based on changing the meaning of a very important word in civil society. "Social". Think about it. The term social, is completely necessary to civil society. Give the term "social" negative implications and all kinds of very important concepts in society get stigmatized. And that is a component of this particular framing attempt.

This particular Frame used to be used solely by Republicans, but now it is not only showing up, but inadvertently being reinforced, even here on DU.

We have to become more aware of the science of Linguistics. When we incorporate the language of conservatives into our terminology, we actually reinforce Republican ideology and because we are the "opposition" party, and the only real place for alternative viewpoints, when we incorporate a Republican idea into our language we essentially remove any opposition to that idea from a large part of the American dialog. That is incredibly POWERFUL.

I hope we, as Democrats of all stripes on this site, will learn to better recognize these Frames, because they are like flaming Darts into the core of our political being. We would do far better to learn more about how FRAMES work. It is extremely scientific and powerful. It is what brought President Reagan and GW into power, and it will continue to plunge us into the fight of our life until we get a handle on this science.

If you wish to know more consider George Lakoff's work Don't Think of an Elephant!
Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

In the interim, maybe we can become more aware and stop shooting ourselves in the foot by fighting each other with Republican Frames.

[Go2Peace]

1. self delete

[renegade000]

2. framing is immensely powerful.

the one i particularly dislike is the "free market" frame. we should be fighting back and calling the republicans out for advocating lawless markets without any meaningful government oversight. you can't argue against "freedom", but you can fight against "anarchy" and "lawlessness".

[Chemisse]

3. Good point

And how hard is that? The Republicans frame things their way all the time. But something as simple as referring to the right-wingers' adored 'free market' as the 'lawless market' seems to hurt the delicate sensibilities of our Democratic candidates.

[Chemisse]

4. I've long thought that we should dub taxpaying as patriotic

Suggesting that rich people are avoiding their duty to the country when they lobby against increases on their taxes. This could be nicely accentuated by having some wealthy Democrats coming forward to say they want to pay their share because they love America, etc. That would use the Republicans' brainless patriotism tool for control of the masses, as a tool against them instead.

[RandomThoughts]

5. I understand the concept, but I will still use 'social programs'

because that is what they are, if that leads to explaining and people learning what social means, as in your article it is worth it. I am not ready to conceed that word to their definition.

[Go2Peace]

6. exactly. As I mentioned there is an entire science around this

Once we lose the words to different meanings it becomes more difficult to articulate the ideas they were attached to. When it comes to propaganda the Republicans are geniuses. Too bad they can't put all that knowledge to the public good.