Arguing About Good Government Versus Arguing About Bad Government
What happened in the last six months? In a nutshell, Republicans succeed in redefining the debate over health care as an argument about bad government, rather than one about good government.
In the spring, Democrats were leading the discussion about what good things they could accomplish with government. Conservatives and Republicans succeeded in reframing the argument as one over how to prevent bad government from doing bad things.
During the campaign, Obama proved adept at not getting drawn onto turf favorable to opponents. That particular skill wasn’t in evidence this summer. When Obama pushed back against the death panel falsehood, he was defensively arguing that government wouldn’t do bad things to people. There may have been no other alternative. But that wasted time and political energy that could otherwise have been used telling people how health care reform could improve their lives.
Obama is said to be mulling a big speech on health care, as part of a “new season” of more aggressive, hands on advocacy. It’s not clear what he’ll be advocating for that will be new. But details aside, I submit that his overall success depends on whether he can reframe the discussion as one about the good things government can do for people. Not about preventing bad government from doing bad things. About good government doing good things.
Not to go all Dick and Jane on you, but I think it’s pretty much that simple.
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I think the key is for Obama to go all Dick and Jane on us.
Kathleen — thanks. I forwarded it to the President.
Dick and Jane with a little FDR “make me do it” thrown in.
Planning another big speech on healthcare? Ha!
Didn’t he have a healthcare “speech” earlier this summer? Oh, I forgot…it was a disaster and completely forgotten because of the Henry Louis Gates incident. And what about the ABC informercial? Didn’t that educate the minions? I guess that sank as well.
Nope. Now the president will have a super-DUPER speech about healthcare reform. Yep. Another speech. More empty words.
It seems the only thing this president is adept at doing is a newsreader—because that’s essentially what he does.
But hey, as we were told numerous times last year, it’s not the lack of experience that’s important, but he does give a damn good speech. You betcha!
“Obama is said to be mulling a big speech on health care, as part of a “new season” of more aggressive, hands on advocacy.”
And there in lies the problem. For cripes sake, what the hell is he waiting for. He should be pounding home his message every day on what he wants in a Health Care Package. Can it be, that at this late stage in the game, he still does not know what he actually will insist must be in the bill?
Mulling over, my Arse! This is no time to be playing Hamlet. Get out there and push the product every day.
Focus like a laser. Sound familiar. Well do it. Sell the product to the people. KISS
Obama has an amateurish, small-time, inept comm staff. This “big speech” is going to be ridiculed, as it should be. You are entirely correct about the messaging, Greg. That would have been helpful MONTHS ago. But they lack an overall communications strategy and that’s what is kicking their butts. Read this piece by George Lakoff:
George Lakoff: The PolicySpeak Disaster for Health Care
A couple of salient points he makes”
“Second, an effective communication system should have been built. Not for dictating what to say, but for creating a system of effectively trained spokespeople who can get the basic progressive values out there every day, to compete with the very effective conservative system. It should not work issue by issue, but in addition to the issues of the day, it should promote general values that apply to all issues.”
And this part for us blog denizens:
“So progressives set up truth squad websites and blogs to negate conservative lies – like Media Matters, The Center for American Progress, the People for the American Way, the Center for America’s Future, MoveOn, Organizing for America, and so on. These are all fine organizations, and we are fortunate to have them. But … they are preaching to the choir (because they don’t have an adequate communications system), and they are using PolicySpeak: just stating the policy truths will be enough.”
What happened in the last 6 months? Approximately 4032 hours of FOX News, and countless other media outlets running with FOX’s framing. That’s how the debate changed.
Hey, you know what’s ironic? There is almost a balance: for every dead American soldier in Iraq, FOX had about an hour of someone like Beck or Hannity telling their families here at home that the government run health care they have (VA) is just one step shy of the Holocaust.
Ok, not ironic. Just insane.
Here’s a good article from Borosage pushing Obama to pick up the mantle that got him into the White House and pretty much refutes Brooks. Hope he reads it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/obamas-september-choice-c_b_275078.html
James,
You say that he should have done this months ago (you’re not wrong), but remember that the President didn’t want to be too overbearing with congress on the issue ala Clinton. So, he’s tried to let them work it all out. Now, hes shown them for the heard of cats they are, and is going to jump back in the fray proper. Its what he did with other legislation too, if I remember right.
Hey Greg. You should update your pollster graph.
That is just rationalizing his big mistake.
He was voted in with a big mandate for his agenda, and you are supposed to use your political capital to pass what you want. He has squandered all that political capital and momentum, and now has to try and regain it.
That is a colossal failure of leadership.
He has far less people to call on now, to push their elected officials, than he had months ago. He blew it big time, by being too passive, and allowing those who told him they wanted to sink him on Health Care(”His Waterloo”) They could not have made it any clearer, and he still let them do it, with just a occasional whimper being heard from the White House.
BBQ:
Approximately 4032 hours of FOX News, and countless other media outlets running with FOX’s framing.
When and how did FOX gain such power to set the agenda?
details aside, I submit that his overall success depends on whether he can reframe the discussion as one about the good things government can do for people. Not about preventing bad government from doing bad things. About good government doing good things.
I’ll buy that. Ever since Reagan was elected the GOP has been all about preventing bad government from doing bad things, except now at the end of this swing into conservative political thinking “preventing bad government” has morphed into something more akin to “preventing all government”.
@holyhandgrenaid
Well, you aren’t wrong, but don’t forget they got a stimulus bill that was entirely inadequate, caving to Olympia Snow herself. As I recall, she got last cut on the Senate bill.
Look, I hope I’m wrong, I’d be happy to be wrong, and not ashamed to come back and say so if it comes to that. I just want the guy to show some backbone and leadership, quit this pansy-assed chickenshit caving and wavering and waffling and tap-dancing. There is plenty of time to get it together, but fire those incompetents in the comm office, or send them to school.
I don’t understand how Obama makes this argument. He’s been arguing that this is NOT government run health care, this is NOT the government coming between you and your doctor.
Now he’s supposed to argue that government WILL be involved in your health care and that’s a good thing?
ScottC:
“When and how did FOX gain such power to set the agenda?”
Only in the moonbat mind.
In their mentality, there is no AntiChrist but Cheney, and Fox News is his Prophet, (or maybe it’s the other way around).
Children need their bogeymen.
They’ll be so MUCH happier when they have singl-pyer/public-option/nationalized health care and President Cheney can say:
“All your meds are belong to me!”
Perfect…yes, Obama, Another Speech. That’s exactly what we’re looking for. “mulling another speech”…. There’s the community organizer thinking words will fix it. Maybe that’s why he’s meeting with Rev Wright….He can tell us how the chickens….are coming home to roost.
How to argue against Dick and Jane’s, “Government is good.”
One photo is worth a thousand words:
http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/09/connecticut-budget-solitaire-photo.html
sbj
That’s a republican speaking right?
Linda, thanks for the Borosage link. Love this:
But in these ruins, it is hardly “fiscal responsibility” that is the “animating issue” of American politics. Conservatives love to huckster this theme when they are out of power. Since Reagan — who, as Dick Cheney noted, taught us “deficits don’t matter” — the right has followed a consistent path. In power, they cut top end taxes, explode the military budget, and run up record deficits. Thrown out of power, they suddenly become chastened disciples of fiscal discipline, preaching against licentious spending, renting garments in the name of balanced budgets, looking towards the day when they are returned to power to once more cut top end taxes, explode the military budget and run up record deficits. So Reagan doubles the national debt and runs up unprecedented deficits which conservatives in both parties use to shackle the Clinton presidency. So Bush squanders the Clinton surplus, and bequeaths a trillion dollar deficit to Obama.
Since Reagan — who, as Dick Cheney noted, taught us “deficits don’t matter” — the right has followed a consistent path. In power, they cut top end taxes, explode the military budget, and run up record deficits. Thrown out of power, they suddenly become chastened disciples of fiscal discipline, preaching against licentious spending, renting garments in the name of balanced budgets, looking towards the day when they are returned to power to once more cut top end taxes, explode the military budget and run up record deficits.
Precisely. Therefore a voter who is a fiscal hawk has a choice, vote for a “tax and spend” Democrat, or vote for a borrow and spend Republican!
Deciding which is the less fiscally destructive is easy, and it ain’t the GOP!
@LindaS: And those are Democrats playing solitaire!
(Who cares what party any of them belong to? You understand that is not the point? This is a perfect picture to counter the “Government is good” argument – even Dick and Jane can understand the implications of this picture.)
You missed the point, oddjob. The Democrats clean up the messes the Republicans leave behind.
And SBJ, I just think it proves that people goof off at work when they’re bored. To wit, here we are. Or is this your job?
@Scott
Greg asked how the debate changed. FOX is a major portion of the debate, and their starting point is Obama is a Nazi-Socialist looking to take over health care and kill off old people. Just look at the nonsense coming from the pathetic little right-wing trolls wandering around this blog as an example.
That pulls the debate to the right, a lot. Overton Window.
@Liam
Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree that we’ve seen a dearth of leadership from Obama on this issue. The debate has been framed by the right, but Obama certainly hasn’t (in my view) properly articulated the message. It’s been truely dissapointing so far – but the party isn’t over yet either.
This battle is still a ways from finishing, and it’s called sausage making for a reason. This has been the most intense coverage of a bill I’ve seen. I mean, s**t, look at all the craziness an “unnamed administration official” in a freakin’ politico article produced today. The ups and downs in the news cycle is just becoming absurd.
It’s a slog. And I’m hoping (and pressuring in any way I can) Obama will come out strong after Congress gets back.
When Big Businesses screw up, who do they turn to for to get rescued; why it is Big Government, that is who. Bush/Cheney/Paulson ran Big Government to bailout their Big Business pals.
The right wing is all for Big Government that bails out their big failures, but only against government that helps the little guys.
I will take FDR’s big Government any day, over Hoover camps, and Bush’s Katrina, failure to rescue the little guys, but make sure to rescue the Wall Street Robber Barons.
You missed the point, oddjob. The Democrats clean up the messes the Republicans leave behind.
I’m aware that is how it’s been since Reagan was in office, but I’m old enough to remember the prior era, so my perspective is a little different.
@kathleen: “I just think it proves that people goof off at work when they’re bored.”
The picture is not meant to “prove” anything. It is meant to show that a simple-minded, Dick & Jane, “Government is good” argument will easily be countered.
it’s called sausage making for a reason. This has been the most intense coverage of a bill I’ve seen.
The last time I can recall coverage this intense of a domestic issue was when the debate was about “Hillarycare”, and the one before that was when Pres. Clinton was proposing to drop the ban on homosexuals from serving in the military.
Democrats have been cleaning up Republican messes far earlier than the Reagan period.
That was some mess that Republican Hoover created, and FDR had to clean up.
Oh, so the picture doesn’t prove anything. Got it.
Remind me what mess Ike cleaned up. And Nixon, for that matter. Because he escalated Vietnam further, and he campaigned on getting us out of there, post haste. Remind of how Reagan improved things, aside from the smiley face. Nancy did a lot for Lenox China, I do recall that.
I believe if you go back to Ike’s time you’ll see the greater debt back then was taken on when Democrats were in the White House.
That was some mess that Republican Hoover created
That is very true.
Are you talking about his big speech to public school students that’s coming up? I think that one is going to be more general indoctrination, not so much healthcare-focused. I believe it is timed to coincide with the older kids’ units on George Orwell and 1984.
But seriously, the problem is that people cannot trust Obama on this issue. We have seen him say he wants single payer and thinks he can get there by stealth (he said so on video to union groups). Most Americans do not want this. You can call me a liar because “Linda Douglass says that Barack Obama doesn’t support single payer now” but that isn’t very persuasive. Someone is lying, it is just very clearly President Obama.
Sen. McCaskill memorably asked/pleaded at one of her townhalls “you don’t trust me?” Apparently they don’t. And they don’t trust a (former?) Community Organizer to do anything but raise their taxes to give away money to, in no particular order, public employee unions, regular unions, and welfare payments. It is that crime against humanity, the dreaded, “what’s in it for me” question. I know this isn’t a legitimate question to this crowd, but it is in much of the country, and the majority of voter/taxpayers think it is their ox that will be gored.
Remember the plan all along was to push this thing through before anyone had read it and then present voters with a fait accompli. The way the public has rallied against Obamacare, I kind of wish that had happened. If it had, I think we might have seen Obama sent to live with his good buddy Zelaya by now.
oddjob, we just came off World War II, and social security was a newbie. Yeah, I’d say there was debt. Fhe post-war economic boom would have happened on any president’s watch. Too bad the rise of middle class incomes and education levels (that damned gummint GI bill) was so sucky for everybody.
And the republican party of Ike’s era hardly resembles the republican party of today.
And I was making a joke of the democrats playing solitaire while a republican speaks.
I forgot to credit you, oddjob, for acknowledging Hoover’s bad.
Linda, except those Ike-era Repubs had that pesky Joe McCarthy-John Bircher branch. Too bad they let the weeds overrun the garden.
In what world to you live that the public has rallied against Obamacare? You see a few town hall looney tunes and think the rest of us agree? What’s in it for me? Affordable health care.
Kathleen, I know I forgot the fringe was there even then, they’ve just grown.
As I said, “Deciding which is the less fiscally destructive is easy, and it ain’t the GOP!”
Conservatives and Republicans succeeded in reframing the argument as one over how to prevent bad government from doing bad things.
Because — and the so-called “liberal media” is certain of it, of course — Conservatives and Republicans are all about preventing bad government from doing bad things.
BBQ:
FOX is a major portion of the debate, and their starting point is Obama is a Nazi-Socialist looking to take over health care and kill off old people.
I watch FOX pretty regularly, and I haven’t seen anyone suggest that Obama is a Nazi-Socialist. (Maybe Beck has, but I don’t watch him, and he is hardly the agenda-setter for FOX, much less the wider media.)
But, hyperbole aside, I ask again, how is it that FOX has managed to gain the power to set the news agenda for the nation? And when, exactly did they get this pretty impressive power? They didn’t seem to have it 9 months ago, for if they did, Rod Blagojevich would probably still be the governor of Illinois.
Just look at the nonsense coming from the pathetic little right-wing trolls wandering around this blog as an example.
I’m curious…am I a troll? My sense, from much of the banter here, is that for this blog, “troll” simply means someone who disagrees with leftist dogma, in which case I guess I am one. But I guess I could be wrong. Let me know.
BBQ, I think you don’t understand something. When people call you or President Obama a commie or a socialist, that is not parroting the FNC line, it is a heartfelt insult. We cannot believe you push these absurd, job-killing, centralized economic policies. This is not something a lot of us feel civil about.
For example, taking the profit motive out of healthcare will not make healthcare either better or more affordable or more available. You are an idiot if you think otherwise. How do you think the bread on the grocery store shelf gets there? Some dirty farmer makes a dime selling grain to someone who makes a dime making bread. Then someone makes a dime bringing it to the store. And even the store only wanted the bread to sell it to some filthy consumer and make a profit. Why do I bring this up? Because this is where CT/MRI scanners, cancer drugs and Alzheimers’ drugs come from too. Where did you geniuses think they came from?
Suggest things that would improve the best healthcare system in the world, not cause it to be put under government and union control. The unions love the idea of working for the government, but it will delay development of drugs and medical technology. And you pinkos lose all credibility when you have Michael Moore and Diane Watson exclaiming the virtues of the Cuban healthcare model.
Obama had plenty of opportunity between January and August to make the positive argument, even if only in general terms, and he sat on his ***. He could have defined the parameters of the debate. Instead, he let the lunatic fringe define it for him. One would think he could see this coming. The 24 hour news cycle needs to be filled. If it isn’t filled by Obama’s people, it will be filled by someone else.
It’s weird to find out just how many different websites the internet has about this topic! I don’t know if I’ll need to be back here, but it’s good to know I found the one that offers a lot of practical information if this should come up for me another time.