Despite pointed political guidance from academic social scientists such as those at the Rockridge Institute and Drew Westen at Emory University, the Democratic presidential candidates and members of Congress still haven't gotten their minds around the need to change how they talk about issues of the day.
Veteran reporter Helen Thomas says
President Bush has the Democrats' number on Capitol Hill. All he has to do is play the fear card and invoke the war on terror and they will cave.What's more, the president has found out that he can break the law and the rubber stamp
Democratic Congress will give him a pass every time.The fear of being branded "soft on terrorism" was enough to make the Democrats capitulate once again to the Bush administration's demands. Or was it simply a looming vacation and beckoning campaign travel that led them to desert the nation's capital after giving the National Security Agency the power to expand its eavesdropping program without a warrant.
[....] The White House stampeded members of Congress and they wilted. The question is who is going to protect the privacy rights of the U.S. citizen? Certainly not Bush and not Congress.
The Democrats have not absorbed the lesson that they need to talk assertively about their values, reframe every situation to progressive advantage, and do so promptly. Otherwise they run the serious risk of squandering an unparalleled opportunity to take back the country, not only in 2008, but for decades to come.
Yes, it would be nice to have George Lakoff or Drew Westen as one's personal consultant, but that's not mandatory. A lot of progress could be made if the Democratic politicians would sit down on their own to read the science-based advice (nicely packaged to be understood by the layperson), have their speechwriters do the same, and then apply the lessons learned.
It's a matter of changing one's verbal habits--not cowering mutely or quickly blatting out some mollifying, non-confrontational weasel-words, but taking the extra hour needed to figure out how to respond effectively, with punch and purpose. They won't get it right every time, but it's about time Democrats exert more effort to speak with language that will let the public know the donkeys are alive and kicking.