Framing the Debate: It's All GOP Page 1 of 2

Published on Sunday, September 12, 2004 by the Boston Globe

Framing the Debate: It's All GOP
By George Lakoff

How do Republicans continually frustrate Democrats, keeping them on

the defensive? It's not just their media control (Fox News, Clear Channel,
etc.), it's not just the $2 billion they've put into think tanks over the past 30
years, and it's not just lies and dirty tricks. It's their skill at "framing."

Take the term "tax relief," for example. The phrase started appearing in
White House press releases on the day President Bush took office, and it
has been repeated over and over ever since. But it's what is behind the
words -- the mental structure known as a "frame" -- that matters as much
as the words themselves.

For there to be "relief" there must be an affliction, an afflicted party

harmed by the affliction, and a reliever who takes the affliction away and
is therefore a hero. And if anybody tries to stop the reliever, he's a villain
wanting the suffering to go on. Add "tax" to the mix and you have a
metaphorical frame: Taxation as an affliction, the taxpayer as the afflicted
party, the president as the hero, and the Democrats as the villains.

Every time you hear the term, those subliminal meanings resonate. Once
the campaign repeats the words day after day, they end up in every
newspaper and on every TV and radio station, and the term becomes the
way TV commentators and journalists talk about taxes. And pretty soon
the Democrats are forced to talk about their own brand of "tax relief," for
the middle class. But by adopting the Republicans' language, they have
adopted one of the GOP's central ideas. Every time they use the words,
they reinforce the idea.

That's because once phrases become part of everyday language, their

frames become physically fixed in people's brains. When this happens,
mere facts don't matter. If the facts don't fit the frames, the frames stay
and the facts are ignored. Once the Republicans see their frames
accepted, they have an overwhelming advantage in every debate. Their
frames become the new common sense, because frames define what
common sense is.

When Democrats are outframed, they tend to go on the defensive, to

deny the frame: "No, the Republicans have only given tax relief to the
rich, who don't need it. We'll give tax relief to the middle class instead."
Negating a frame just reinforces it, as when Richard Nixon said on TV
during Watergate, "I am not a crook!" Thereafter, everybody thought of
him as a crook. The Democrats this year, by accepting the words and
frames that go with them, are just helping the Republicans.

Instead, the Democrats need to play offense, not defense, and Kerry
needs to frame himself. Two words -- strong progressive -- would work
well. He needs to frame Bush as weak, and as weakening the country. He
needs 10 words that say what he stands for: a Strong America, Mutual
Responsibility, Broad Prosperity, a Better Future, and Valuing Families.

Kerry also needs to promote an America united, not a divisive culture war,
and to call "compassionate conservatism" what it is: You're-on-your-own
radicalism. Specific values -- freedom, fairness, responsibility, and trust --
must back up every policy direction: Global leadership, new energy,
health care for all, jobs that pay, schools that matter. America's great

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Framing the Debate: It's All GOP Page 2 of 2

challenge is to become one again -- with each other and with the world.

The Two Americas should be called Strong America that works and Elite
America that doesn't. It is Strong America, which contributes more than it
is paid, that supports Elite America's lifestyle. To unite the country, Elite
America must give up its subsidies and Strong America must be paid
what it deserves.

Reframing is essential. Take taxes. Democrats need to find a way of

talking about taxes that reveals the truth hidden by the affliction metaphor.
For example, taxes are investments in both infrastructure and people --
wise investments that only the government can make. The government
has invested taxpayer money wisely in a huge number of things that
make our lives and our businesses possible: Interstate highways, the
Internet, government funded scientific research, and training.

Corporations, businessmen, and investors benefit from taxpayer

investments most of all. Taxpayers have paid for our financial institutions:
the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, our
national banks, and the courts, 90 percent of which are used for corporate
law. If you want to start a business, you don't have to build highways,
invent computer science, construct the Internet, train your scientists, build
a banking system, build and maintain a court system. The taxpayers have
done all that for you.

You see, there are no self-made men. If you make a bundle in business, it
was made possible by taxpayer investments. The rich have gotten more
dividends; they should pay for the investments that make their businesses
possible. It's only fair.

That's the sort of reframing the Democrats need to do -- and repeat --

over hundreds of issues, large and small. They are 30 years and $2 billion
behind. Playing catch up won't be easy, but it is necessary.

George Lakoff is a professor of linguistics at the University of California at

Berkeley and a senior fellow at the Rockridge Institute. He is the author of
"Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think" and the
forthcoming book, "Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and
Frame the Debate.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0912-20.htm 1/4/2007