Donald Trump is a master at branding. He deftly defines his opponent.
There are three political archetypes. Hero, fool, and knave.
The right wing has their hero, Trump. They are busy defining the future Democrat as either a fool or knave.
There is a reason the right wing media have gone crazy publicizing and attacking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She is photogenic and popular--good ratings. And she is easy to distort. They want her to look foolish.
The Trump campaign and media allies are defining him as an embattled, picked-upon, hard-nosed, common sense authoritarian, fighting to defend American interests and safety against the America establishment and foreign enemies.
The fearless hero.
They are using AOC to define Democrats as Irresponsible, money-confiscating, socialist, wild-eyed, and unfit to govern. A dangerous fool.
They are defining their future opponent now.
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| Busy defining Democrats. |
The Trump campaign and media allies are defining him as an embattled, picked-upon, hard-nosed, common sense authoritarian, fighting to defend American interests and safety against the America establishment and foreign enemies.
The fearless hero.
They are using AOC to define Democrats as Irresponsible, money-confiscating, socialist, wild-eyed, and unfit to govern. A dangerous fool.
They are defining their future opponent now.
The message: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-Cortez wants to raise your tax rate to 70%, and the Democrats are getting on board this confiscation!!!
AOC floated the idea of a marginal tax bracket of 60-70% on annual incomes over $10 million a year. That happens to be popular, according to polls when described this way, even with Republicans. Very few people earn that much. A great many people think the deck is stacked in favor of very rich people, and they aren't one of them.
Fox hosts and guests understand marginal tax rates, but many people do not, so they intentionally say directly that their viewers--typical Americans--will have 70% of their income taxed. Even Grover Norquist--a career tax expert--tweeted the misstatement.
Fox hosts and guests understand marginal tax rates, but many people do not, so they intentionally say directly that their viewers--typical Americans--will have 70% of their income taxed. Even Grover Norquist--a career tax expert--tweeted the misstatement.
Fox and Friends guest Ainsley Earhardt said "When you hear they're going to tax 70% of your paycheck, if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets her way, how do they have so much support?"
Donald Trump in El Paso: "We've been looking at Venezuela. It's a very sad situation. That's what socialism gets you when they want to raise your taxes to 70%."
The message: Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal would take away your cars and planes and make you travel by foot or horseback, and this is what all those Democrats want to do!!!
AOC's Green New Deal proposes transitioning to renewable energy rather than fossil fuels. This, too, is popular, as a goal and direction. But they are describing it as if it were draconian legislation to be imposed immediately.
Hannity: "This is a real, serious threat to our way of life. Horrific. Frighting. Dangerous. Impractical. Misguided. Guaranteed to fail, the results would be disastrous."
Ingraham: It would take away cars, airplanes, heating your home.
Fox and Friends: No more beef. She wants to ban all the cows.
The Message: Democrats are knaves, too. Personal behaviors are turned into mandates. Example: Cory Booker is vegan. Caricature: He wants to impose it on everyone!
Cory Booker has been vegan for four years. He has said "I think that whatever you eat is a very personal decision and everybody should eat what they want to eat. That’s America. That’s freedom." It is a heart-healthy diet. Various studies suggest it dramatically reduces heart disease. It is hard to do in America.
Fox's response is to turn it into an attack on Americans.
Fox's Watters: "Good luck running for president trying to take away meat."
Donald Trump in El Paso: "We've been looking at Venezuela. It's a very sad situation. That's what socialism gets you when they want to raise your taxes to 70%."
The message: Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal would take away your cars and planes and make you travel by foot or horseback, and this is what all those Democrats want to do!!!
AOC's Green New Deal proposes transitioning to renewable energy rather than fossil fuels. This, too, is popular, as a goal and direction. But they are describing it as if it were draconian legislation to be imposed immediately.
Hannity: "This is a real, serious threat to our way of life. Horrific. Frighting. Dangerous. Impractical. Misguided. Guaranteed to fail, the results would be disastrous."
Ingraham: It would take away cars, airplanes, heating your home.
Fox and Friends: No more beef. She wants to ban all the cows.
The Message: Democrats are knaves, too. Personal behaviors are turned into mandates. Example: Cory Booker is vegan. Caricature: He wants to impose it on everyone!
Cory Booker has been vegan for four years. He has said "I think that whatever you eat is a very personal decision and everybody should eat what they want to eat. That’s America. That’s freedom." It is a heart-healthy diet. Various studies suggest it dramatically reduces heart disease. It is hard to do in America.
Fox's response is to turn it into an attack on Americans.
Fox's Watters: "Good luck running for president trying to take away meat."
Fox's Hannity: "Are Democrats really trying to take the White House on a platform of banning meat? Lock your freezers. Save your meat."
Fox's The Five: "He wants to be the most powerful person in the world and he wants to impose his meat rationing on the rest of us!"
Political science professor Sandford Borins, at the University of Toronto has described an those archetypes of political campaign candidates. Hero. Fool. Knave. Each campaign attempts to frame themselves into one of those categories. Trump and his allies are firming up Trump as hero and Democrats, either as the wild-eyed fools with harebrained impractical ideas, or else as a dangerous autocrat, who would confiscate your food. Maybe both.
Democrats have a challenge. Understand that is going on. Define Trump as the knave and their own candidate as the hero who will save us from that knave.
Political science professor Sandford Borins, at the University of Toronto has described an those archetypes of political campaign candidates. Hero. Fool. Knave. Each campaign attempts to frame themselves into one of those categories. Trump and his allies are firming up Trump as hero and Democrats, either as the wild-eyed fools with harebrained impractical ideas, or else as a dangerous autocrat, who would confiscate your food. Maybe both.
Democrats have a challenge. Understand that is going on. Define Trump as the knave and their own candidate as the hero who will save us from that knave.
2 comments:
Today's and yesterday's post talk about a fundamental problem.
Ignorance.
"You don't know what you don't know." Ignorance is insidious in that it's easily exploited. We all have examples of decisions we made and attitudes we held that were found later to be incorrect when we got more information. If we learn from our mistakes we become more discerning and questioning.
FOX can get away with absurd claims because they have an audience that is intellectually lazy, and in many cases simply ignorant of many facts and realities. Because it is difficult to learn, analyze and critically think it's easy to accept simplistic and obviously ridiculous explanations and characterizations. Similarly, if they accept the source they will believe that intricate and sinister conspiracies exist that are beyond their capacity to understand, hence the success of mindless slogans; "Deep State", etc., and the misleading claims about Progressive policies, climate change denial, and so on.
As the Republican base has shrunk this roughly 30% of the populace has become their core constituency, and the politicians best able to pander to them have risen in the party. I think this explains their reluctance to stand up to Trump, who has something like 80% approval of Republican voters, at least for the moment.
From used car lots to talk radio to the White House there is no shortage of those who have no compunction exploiting ignorance.
As has been explained elsewhere, Trump had early taken a page from Wrestlemania in his wooing of the ignorant electorate. I know some of these folks and to a person they possess a meanness of spirit that can only be explained by adverse childhood experiences. In their youth, seeing the alternatives of either being a victim or a perpetrator, they've chosen the latter as a matter of survival. To admit this choice would shatter their whole worldview; frankly, they would rather die than face their inner demons and so much easier to project them onto the world.
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