Funny video clip that aired in the Jimmy Kimmel show possibly in 2013 showing people in the street being interviewed about "Obamacare," or better said, the Affordable Care Act.
There is an older lady I have known for many years. She is very conservative and has been so for a long time. She is well educated, but I don't know if she knows anything about strategic morally grounded communications, or about the importance of having an overarching moral worldview, or about cognitive science, linguistics, psychology, values framing, moral branding, what side owns what term, "toxic" words, changing neural connections in the brain, focus groups, or even what DC-based consultant Frank Luntz does for living.
However, I'd argue that she knows that in discussing any kind of political issue, there are some words that need to be repeated and some that need to be avoided. If we briefly discuss an issue, her goal doesn't seem to be to convince me of anything. Her goal seems to be to mention as often as possible a few key words, terms, mataphors. She reminds me a bit of former President George W. Bush, who mastered strategic repetition. Bottom line, unlike many Democrats and progressives, this conservative older lady seems very aware
of the power of words and of a few values.
_______
In my years of school teaching, I learned to address right off the bat a few potential obstacles to what I call smooth learning. This can be particularly critical with logical/mathematical learners of any age. By the end of this training, you should know I few things well:
1) In today's political communication, the plain facts and the plain truth don't really matter.
2) Nevertheless, Strategic Morally Grounded Communication (SMGC) is not spin. (It's science. We'll get to that later.)
3) By the end of this training you should know that the other side is years ahead of us in the use of SMGC. However, you'll also know that when I say we need to catch up, I am not proposing adopting a facts-don't-matter-at-all approach or the-end-justifies-any-means approach that we are so accustomed to from the other side. We don't have to get there to be effective!
Some of you may remain skeptical or may just want to go back to the old ways of communicating, to what you know best and you're comfortable with, which you know is safe and has worked in the past. Here's what I know and what I would say to them: You don't believe in spin and you understand that this is different. You want to be truthful and authentic.
That's great. Two questions: 1) How much do you care about being an effective communicator, the most effective you can be? 2) Do you believe in science?
\/ \/ \/
4) You should know that SMGC represents an evidence-based approach based on research from scientific fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science (a multidisciplinary field that includes linguistics, psychology, sociology,
and anthropology). Neuroscience is not just a medical discipline, but one that literally underpins every human discipline. By learning how the brain works and by mapping the brain, we learn a lot about ourselves, about our behavior, our moral choices, our decisions.
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In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama compared today's research on neuroscience and how the brain works to the space race of the 1960s. (By the way, he also said that "every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy." If you are curious about neuroscientfic research,
google a TED talk from brain researcher Paul Zakwho studies morality.)
5) You need to build onto the things you already know such as about public speaking:
Listen to, understand your audience. Don't force issues on people. Ask questions (Socratic Method).
In speeches, use "ethos, pathos, logos" 1) establish trust, 2) emotional connection, 3) deliver mssg
The emphasis needs to be on the pathos step and you may achieve pathos with values.
6) Some say, we are a big tent that includes many diverse views and interests, and that it's unfeasible to achieve greater message consistensy and unity. I disagree. We can. A broad conversation about values would show that we all share the same core values, and outreach should emphasize the branding of those values.
7) Some insist that not only do we have the facts and the truth on our side, but that the polls show a majority of the American people agree with us. I repeat (as I should), the plain facts, the plain truth, and what the people think to some extent, don't really matter. Someone once said, the truth will set you free . . . after it's through with you.
8) By the end of this training, I hope people will reflect on what they learned and make a choice. Of course, you could continue doing what you've been doing for years, but doing it harder. However, will that take us anywhere?
How positive for America would it be to have a Koch brothers'-backed Republican in the White House after 2016 with nearly absolute power
and an edge in strategic communication?)
FRAMING ISSUE: How the Dems lost the health insurance reform debate.
Lakoff: "All politics is moral"
* * * LIFE & LIBERTY * * *
How does a healthcare reform helping so many while reducing the deficit -- the ACA/Obamacare -- becomes so unpopular?
Lakoff explains that the White House presented health care as a consumer good (helped name it The Affordable Care Act), put out a fact sheet outlining the program's benefits, and largely ignored the moral dimension of reform, or thought that it would OK to be addressed it indirectly as opposed to directly. (White House: "Health was and is a huge economic issue because we paid so much for health care." True, but . . . WHAT ABOUT THE MORAL DIMENSION??)
Lakoff wrote: "(The GOP) effectively attacked the President’s health care plan on two ideas taken from the right-wing version of morality: freedom (“government takeover”) and life (“death panels,” "pulling the plug from granny")." "The attacks were successful even though Americans preferred the President’s health care policies (no preconditions, universal affordable coverage, reducing healthcare costs, reducing the deficit, reducing the number of abortions, etc)." Furthermore, they avoided the term "Affordable Care Act" and instead methodically, massively branded "Obamacare" very negatively.
\/ \/ \/
"The lesson: morality at the general level beats out policy (and plain economic benefits) at the particular level.
The reason: voters identify themselves as moral beings not policy wonks."
In his latest book, The All New Don't Think of An Elephant, which came out in 2014,
Prof. George Lakoff, PhD, writes:
Conservative messaging dominates everyday public discourse.
Conservatives have come to own the words "freedom" and "liberty."
Freedom is central to democracy.
Framing the truth at the deepest moral level matters!
Here's something what wasn't effectively communicated about the ACA by the White House and by most Democratic leaders natiowide:
Ill health enslaves you. Disease enslaves you. If you get cancer and don't have access to healthcare, you are NOT free.
You may end up disabled for life, or die.
Having cataracts without access to healthcare can lead to blindness.
These are freedom and moral issues.
In fact, lack of adequate, preventive, affordable healthcare can compromise your freedom forever, as well as your life.
Healthcare is a moral issue affecting your freedom and your life.
Medicaid expansion is a freedom and life issue as well.
Freedom issues are powerful! Freedom is central to democracy. Freedom is central to who we are.
Similarly, the right of human beings to control their own bodies is a freedom issue. Reproductive health is a freedom issue. Ensuring that the body of every American, including a woman's body, is given the dignity and respect it deserves is a freedom issue.
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Control of reproduction such as legislating, regulating when or how a woman is to start or expand a family, for instance, is a deeply rooted freedom issue regardless of whether it's done by men, politicians, extreme religious leaders, corporate executives, or by any government. This freedom issue relates not only to unintended pregnancies and how society addresses the needs of rape victims, but on attacks on family planning, forced transvaginal ultrasounds, mandatory parental notifications or waiting periods, and restricting effective reproductive education programs.
Also, the quality of life of an American is as much a freedom issue as a life itself. And the role of government and the leaders we elect goes far beyond the literal and overly narrow reading of the phrase "life, libery, and the pursuit of happiness" that right-wing idelogues are trying to impose on us.
"Wherever you're heading, ideas provide the roadmap, but emotions provide the fuel. A successful message is one that moves people. Persuasion is about activating the right neural networks connecting ideas, images, and emotions."
Drew Westen, PhD:
STRATEGIC MORALLY GROUNDED COMMUNICATION: Main Concepts
When we frame issues on bedrock, mainstream American values, and pursue sysematic values-and-moral branding, we can inspire people in our base,
help persuade people outside our base, and create longer-lasting impressions. Values appeal to emotions, which can trigger visceral, gut-feeling reactions that
move people into action. Issues, plain facts, stats, accusations, and just-the-plain-truth appeal to intellect (and to the choir).
All politics is moral. (George Lakoff)
Those who control the language, control the debate.
Unless you frame yourself (ie, define yourself morally in a way that’ll sink in) others will —
the media, your enemies, your competitors, your well-meaning friends.
Human reasoning is approx. 95% unconscious and 5% conscious.
Eighty (80%) percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent (20%) is intellect. (Frank Luntz)
Human reasoning is frame-based, not fact-based,
Language evokes frames. Frames trump facts.
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The meanings of most words can best be understood on the basis of a semantic frame (a script-like structure of inferences). Words that evoke a frame are called lexical units (LUs). For example, the FrameNet Project used “Apply_heat” as the frame associated with cooking and words such as fry, bake, boil, and broil as LUs.
“Frames are MENTAL STRUCTURES that shape the way we see the world.” (Lakoff) These frames tend to be tied to a set of values. Another way to look at frames: A frame is a schema of interpretation that individuals unconsciously use to quickly make sense of the world around them, to understand things and to respond to events. Frames work as a series of unconscious “mental filters." People’s choices are influenced by their frames. Frames can be a collection of morals, stereotypes, assumptions, anecdotes and are formed through biological and cultural influences. // A schema (plural schemas) describes an organized pattern of thought or behavior. Schemas entail mental categories, structures, bins, boxes, or a mental framework of preconceived ideas, as well as connections among these, and that helps us automatically, quickly process, perceive, organize, and learn new information.
People are more likely to notice things that fit into their schema, while re-interpreting contradictions to the schema as exceptions or distortions.
(Frames → unconscious “mental filters.")
For some viewers of Fox (deceptive) (propaganda-as-) News), their eyes can only see what their minds want or allow them to see, whether it’s based on facts or not.
Values explain political stance more strongly than socioeconomical status.
Know your values! Know your side's overarching moral worldview (OMW)!
Is it "We're ALL in it Together?"
Know that our Democratic and progressive values are bedrock mainstream American values.
Use your values and OMW to frame and reframe messages all the time. Use facts, stats, policy achievements only to support values. Political leaders must turn their values and life story into a vision for the future. (Drew Westen, PhD)
Translate progressive policy ideas into fundamental human values that can win hearts and minds
When you communicate, take an issue and try to boil it down to
life, freedom & the pursuit of inclusive prosperity,
and that's what you'll prioritize in your branding. How does it advance freedom and life?
Always reinforce a positive vision of America.
Speak from the heart, with conviction, and truthfully.
Political language -- like everyday language -- is fluid, dynamic and constantly evolving.
Despite the fact that effective strategic communicators sound authentic, speak from the heart, with conviction, and truthfully, they also use certain words repeatedly and avoid "toxic" words like the plague.
If you hear from a good source the need to avoid terms like “liberal" (elites), “gun control” or “abortion,”
don’t think of it as some sort of retreat in a battle of ideas.
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No. The world around us is fluid, dynamic and constantly evolving. Regular language changes: we adopt new words and leave some behind. Through systematic, methodical repetition, the other side has turned some perfectly good terms into “toxic” terms. When the other side "owns" a term, we must leave it alone and instead focus on effectively reframing. And by the way, I'd argue that we're not engaged in a battle of ideas, and I'll expand on that below.
Dems too often unintentionally AMPLIFY voices that not their own. Avoid "toxic" terms (highly politicized) like the plague.
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It's not an arbitrary thing or represent any sort of retreat. It's not even quite psychology. It's biology. It's how the brain works. One of the first rules in message framing: Do not use the other side's toxic, buzz words (often repeated slogans, concise metaphors...such as "Right-to-Work-State"). Always reframe: Right-to-Work becomes Right-to-Work-for-Less. Never use the term "unborn" child or baby to refer to a blastocyst (zygote?), embryo, or a biological fetus. In 2012, many Republicans in the U.S. House supported a bill named "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" that contained language essentially redefining rape, among other things (It restricted rape to only "an act of forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest."). George Bush's Clear Skies Act becomes the "Dirty Skies Act." Once the other side (creates and) negatively brands a term like "Obamacare," we cannot use a slightly changed term like "ObamaCare" or "Obama Cares." Once branded, the other side owns a term. Once the other side has branded a term like "tax relief" as a tax cut that supposely benefits everyone, they own the term. If we use it publicly, we help the other side. In a way, we help move forward the other side's entire agenda. Essentially, when we use toxic terms, we help brand the other side's overarching moral worldview. Instead, we must reframe by using terms putting a positive value on our ideal case.
(From years ago . . . "Tax cuts for the rich" put a huge debt burden on future generations.)
The other side is years ahead of us on moral framing and the use of strategic morally grounded communication.
It’s a well-oiled machine that can be activated at any time, on any issue.
As opposed to Democrats, the other side seems to have in place a strategic communication strategy focused not only
on short-term emotional impact (that can win an election), but also on longer-term adoption of an overarching conservative moral worldview helping persuade across multiple issues.
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I wrote earlier that we're not really in a battle of ideas. I think we’re in a battle between a fairly well-established, unifying conservative overarching moral worldview
and a somewhat vague or scattered set of well-intentioned, more-progressive values and policy ideas.
The other side's superior strategic communications strategy can be seen in the polls following a political debate.
A boxing match comes to mind in which the GOP is represented by a tough former marine armed with machine guns and machetes and our side is represented by a child with a pocket knife. That's what we're facing on moral framing, and it's likely to get worse.
Studies show the average American voter does not know some of the basics
about civics or how our government is set up or works.
http://www.newsweek.com/how-ignorant-are-americans-66053
Effective messages are concise, clear, credible, and trigger a gut reaction by communicating values, beliefs, moral convictions.
Favor simple multisensory messages with lively, authentic metaphors, stories, images, sensory information.
Frame values to push multiple moral buttons across many issues. Here’re the 5 gut-feeling, moral buttons according to
Prof. J. Haidt: suffering (compassion), reciprocity (fairness, anger), in-group (pride, belonging, patriotism),
hierarchy (respect, fear), purity (cleanliness, chastity).
Practice framing and reframing every day, on every issue.
(In a way, framing is not about convincing anyone of anything in the traditional sense of the word. It’s about changing people’s perceptions and the way they perceive reality.)
When was the last time you INSPIRED, ELEVATED some one to support you or your cause? Try SMGC!
(Watch a great TED talk: Simon Sinek, How great leaders inspire action)
Convey moral clarity!
Always frame issues in terms of your values and your overarching moral worldview.
Move voters from a “me-only” to a “me-and-us” mindset, from a "you're-on-your-own (Yo-Yo)" mentality
to a "we’re-all-in-it-together” mindset.
Dems must constantly aim messages at moral frames, not plain intellect, and pursue moral branding systematically,
methodically. The target? Activating a single overarching moral worldview.
The ultimate goal is promoting a unifying overarching moral worldview (OMW).
The other side has one that voters more or less can recognize. We don’t. That leaves a dangerous void
that makes us vulnerable to all kinds of unfair well-framed attacks aimed at defining us morally.
Our primary goal may not be to persuade on an particular issue or just to motivate some short-term action. Our primary goal should not be to inform or to entertain. Our primary goal should not be to appear philosophically or intellectually clear or persuassive.
Our primary goal should be to be MORALLY CLEAR, to brand our values, and to brand our side's overarching moral worldview (OMW). Our primary goal is to move the needle in the right direction.
Traditionally, as we focused on what we say to the public, have we spent enough time learning about what people actually hear, and how they process and remember what we say?
People sometimes struggle with the idea of key-word repetition, which is something conservatives have mastered.
BRANDING WORKS - BRANDING WORKS - BRANDING WORKS
BRANDING WORKS - BRANDING WORKS
Repetition/branding of morally grounded key words is essential . . .
. . . and has a long track record of success.
There's a simple rule:
You say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again,
and you say it again, and then again and again and again and again,
and about the time that you're absolutely sick of saying it
is about the time that your target audience has heard it for the first time.
-- Frank Luntz
(cited by Joseph Romm in LANGUAGE INTELLIGENCE )
__________
Joseph J. Romm in Language Intelligence:
Repetition works. Repetition sells. That's why the world's major companies spend their money on repetition.
Many studies find that repeated exposure to a statement increases its acceptance as true.
Repetitio mater memoriae (Repetition is the mother of memory.)
Joseph J. Romm in Language Intelligence:
Metaphors are not just a pleasing figure of speech we use by chance. The reflect the very structure of our thinking and of our brain itself.
Cognitive Science journal: Studies reveal that virtually all of our abstract conceptualization and reasoning is structured by metaphor.
__________
Years ago, during the Bush administration, I attended a great train-the-trainer workshop on strategic morally grounded comm here in Washington by Prof. Jeffrey Feldman, an NYU cultural anthropologist. He told us about his "big aha!" moment when he started realizing the immense power of framing after a 2004 presidential debate. On one corner, we had the folksy-sounding, largely inarticulate and repetitive George W. Bush and, on the other corner, we had the well-spoken and experienced statesman John Kerry.
There were so many isues at the time. We were involved in a costly, bloody and increasingly controversial war in Iraq. How was Bush able to pass so much controversial legislation? How is it possible at one point for some 70% of Americans to believe there were WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was linked to terrorists? Kerry's strategy before the debate seem obvious to Prof. Feldman: Hit 'em with the hard facts. The truth is on our side.
\/ \/ \/
During the debate, Kerry gave eloquent, yet at times overly lengthy answers, while Bush repeated the same key words over and over again.
Political success tends to be tied to those who control the public debate, which influeces public opinion and voting. The key to controlling the debate has become clearer and clearer over the past decade: it’s language. (For instance, it’s the way most people define fundamental moral concepts such as freedom, patriotism, and security in our evolving society and democracy, or more importantly, how people define right and wrong, good and evil.)
In 2004, Arianna Huffington wrote that Republicans had appropriated and perverted words like “responsibility,” “values,” “family,” “security,” “strength” and, yes, “morality,” which they had reduced to sexual morality exclusively.
How much progress have we made since 2004?
Without knowing if there's a more effective phrase to get this point to sink in, here's something we could be repeating over and over again:
The private depends on the public. (Lakoff)
The private (like a so-called "self-made" corporation) depends on the public, because personal responsibility without public resources gets you nowhere.
The conservative view of democracy has radically false consequences. It's also immoral for its lack of empathy and dishonesty.
People should frame with values to push multiple moral buttons across many issues.
People respond according to their sense of right & wrong. Language evokes frames. Frames trump facts.
(Jonathan Haidt, Paul Wellstone, George Lakoff)
For reflection, discussion: I hope the other side has not already preempted us from fully embracing a leadership on values.
It's only natural to feel some degree of skepticism or rejection after decades of seeing a sort-of deeply flawed moral righteousness crusade being shoved down the throats of the American people.
__________
Remember how they rebranded our party “the democrat party?”
Remember what they did to “Obamacare?”
(“pulling the plug from granny," "death panels," “government takeover”)
Why do you think they constantly tie themselves to the Founding Fathers, the "framers" and the Constitution?
2014 Elections
In the 2014 campaigns, some Democratic candidates seemed vastly outgunned by the opposition, despite possibly having enough resources and volunteers. My sense is that many voters who skipped voting were aware of the high stakes of that mid-term election.
Lakoff on Dem political leaders distancing themselves from President Obama and moving to the right:
“This has left no room for the Democrats to have an overriding authentic moral identity that Americans can recognize.”
NO OVERRIDING AUTHENTIC (DEMOCRATIC) MORAL IDENTITY
THAT VOTERS COULD RECOGNIZE. Many people didn't vote.
Candidates need to give a true, deep, and moral picture of what progressive politics is about -- one whose content and authenticity will resonate with, and inspire, a majority of Americans.
________
Where do we go from here? Though I’m not a cognitive scientist, I’ll borrow from the scientific method to start with questions:
Will Democracts nationwide ever create in voters a sense of moral clarity — a sense of who we are and what we believe?
Could a broad and diverse national coalition of Democrats agree on, and adopt, a unifying overarching moral worldview (OMW) to guide our strategic communications?
In the absence of one, how do we move voters from a “me-only” mindset (mental framework), which is heavily promoted by the other side, to a “me-and-us” mindset?
How do we move people toward something like “We’re-all-in-it-together” or “forward-together-responsibly?”
Are Dem leaders nationwide — at all levels — capable of systematic moral branding? Could they ever put aside old, misguided communication habits relying heavily on tossing plain facts at moral frames and fully adopt a brain-research-centered strategy? Will Dem leaders nationwide take seriously the need
to rethink our communication strategy?
Will we ever get to the point where we can effectively and consistently morally preempt the other side?
CRUCIAL LEARNING: FACTS vs. FRAMES
Throwing plain facts at mental frames is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
________
All Democrats — conservatives, moderates, progressives — need to convey moral clarity above all.
We need to be clear on what values we hold dear and then use framing and reframing to define the terms, the assumptions, the premises of any debate.
A typical, swing-voting American tends to have some progressive values and some conservative values. (Therefore they are considered “bi-conceptuals.”) Our job is to craft messages appealing to people’s Dem/progressive values and that activate nurturing-parent-oriented frames and an overarching moral worldview.
Regardless of where you stand on a particular issue, when you appeal to conservative frames using conservative buzz words, for instance, you are strengthening the other side on most issues because you’re endorsing and strengthening the strict-father overarching moral worldview (or moral standing or value system).
Know your values.
Democratic and progressive values are bedrock mainstream American values.
Conservatives tend to already know what Lakoff writes in his new book: All politics is moral.
Below you will see a list of progressive values associated with a nurturing-parent conceptual framework/worldview
(linked to the family-as-nation metaphor), as opposed to conservative values that are linked to a strict-father conceptual framework.
WE NEED AN OVERARCHING MORAL WORLDVIEW (OMW) REFLECTING OUR BROAD-BASED DEM COALITION. WE NEED SHARED NARRATIVES.
CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT A DEM OMW COULD LOOK LIKE
Overarching Moral Worldview
What values do we want to highlight in our OMW?
Using the Values Circle as a starting point and after much research, I created the following . . .
It includes many key words that can be used in conceptual framing (prints on legal-size paper).
In his book Thinking Points, Lakoff outlined six essentail American values
(and how progressives and conservatives understand them differently):
FAIRNESS, FREEDOM, EQUALITY, RESPONSIBILITY, INTEGRITY, SECURITY
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PROGRESSIVE / DEMOCRATIC VALUES.
THEY ARE EXPLAINED IN SIMPLE TERMS, AND YOU CAN SEE HOW THEY INTERCONNECT.
(For a more complete list, refer to the Universal Values Inventory).
CLICK HERE TO SEE CONSERVATIVE / ULTRACONSERVATIVE VALUES
(For a more complete list, refer to the Universal Values Inventory . . . scroll up).
Thoughts from framing expert Susan Nall Bales
President of the FrameWorks Institute
(www.frameworksinstitute.org), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank
that studies public thinking about social issues and helps
reframe public discourse.
Human reasoning is frame-based, not
fact-based. … And if the facts don’t
quite fit the frame, it is the frame that
triumphs over the facts.
You can lose entire constituencies on
policies they would otherwise endorse
by the way you orchestrate these basic
frame elements: who speaks, how they explain
the problem, and what values they invoke.
The FrameWorks Institute
1776 I Street NW, 9th floor
Washington, DC 20006
info@frameworksinstitute.org
CLICK HERE to LEARN ABOUT LEADERS WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO STRATEGIC COMM
(except for George Lakoff who's mentioned throughout this site)
and/or LEADERS HELPING BUILD a MORE CARING WORLD
HAVE YOU BEEN FRAMED BEFORE?
Hands-on Practice -- Discussion
Think about these terms, analyze them and figure out what value/s they are grounded on:
Government Takeover (of healthcare), Washington Takeover, Death Panels, Pulling the Plug on Grannie, Healthcare Rationing, Socialized Medicine, Unborn Babies, Pro Life, Partial-Birth Abortion, Abortion on Demand, Baby Killer, the Homosexual Agenda, Raising the debt limit is giving the president a Blank Check, Family Values, The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), The Contract with America, Tax Relief, the Death Tax, the Marriage Tax, Class Warfare, War on Terror, Mommy State, Nanny State, Welfare Cardillacs, Frivolous Lawsuits, Tort Reform, Couch Generals, Kitty Hawk Journalism, Compassionate Conservative, Cut and Run, UnAmerican/Unpatriotic war dissenters (Iraq war), Support the Troops, Clear Skies Act (Bush), Healthy Forests Initiative (Bush), American Job Creation Act (Bush), Right-to-Work bill/state, Tax-and-Spend Liberals, Fox News: Fair and Balanced, Quotas (affirmative action), Government Handouts, Democrat Party, Remember 9/11, etc.
The list goes on and on. You know the Republican buzz words used in framing. Language evokes frames, often moral frames, which are overarching ideas through which we understand reality and see the world. In politics, those who control the language control the debate. When you are asked questions like: When does life begin? or Do you want to keep more of your money?, you shouldn't struggle to find the right answer. You need to change the questions and the terms of the debate. And the questions have to be about what kind of America we want to live in, as Arianna Huffington puts it. To the 2nd question, Huffington would answer: "Do you support an America where your taxes guarantee you a safe neighborhood, a good school, healthcare and a safety net if you stumble?"
You could also find examples of political metaphors and well crafted framing language in the names given to legislative proposals, bills, laws at the US Congress and state legislatures.
Read the following Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/post/congressional-bill-names-unspun/2013/07/24/44b2be70-f2df-11e2-ae43-b31dc363c3bf_blog.html
Find bill names here:
https://www.congress.gov/
<-- Questions about this post-2014-elections cartoon
Do these types of public attitudes result
solely from low information?
What else is going on? Why did so many people
skipped voting in 2014?
The same goes for when you see visually toxic framing, especially when aimed at children. Speak up!
All politics is moral (AND EMOTIONAL).
How Emotional Intelligence Creates Effective Leaders (April 30, 2015)
Research indicates that Emotional Intelligence (E.I.) – how we handle ourselves and our relationships – can determine success more than I.Q.
In fact, E.I. may determine as much as 80% of a person’s life success. Cognitive ability or what we call I.Q. is only about 20%.
Quality leadership training is a combination of E.I. and cognitive ability.
People's attention span is short and getting shorter.
A perceived MORAL VOID makes a political candidate perhaps the most vulnerable to attack. That's when people don't know your core values or what you stand for
. . . not on issues, but in terms of values. People don't know what you believe or what moves you to get out there and try to make a difference. It's hard to trust
or feel connected with a person like that. You may have said it, but not in a simple and concise way for people to get it. You may have said it, but not enough for it to sink in.
GATHER for the Greater Good
Perhaps the steepest mountain to climb in the rugged path toward increased uniform moral branding across our broad progressise and Democratic coalition:
Getting at the same table leaders and organizations that are much more focused on the issues and facts dividing us than on the core moral values uniting us.
Imagine what we could accomplish together -- not just every four years for a presidential election but all the time -- if we were more aware of the critical moral dimension in politics and policymaking.
One verb comes to mind: gather.
PERCEPTION is 90 percent of REALITY.
People respond according to their sense of right and wrong. (Late Sen. Paul Wellstone) (. . . which involves emotion)
Mental frames affecting the way we vote often are morally grounded metaphors. A concise morally grounded slogan tends to more easily fit
into morally grounded frames, and help trigger an emotional, gut-feeling, snap-judgement reaction and /or connection.
"(INCLUSIVE PROSPERITY) is about giving ALL our kids a fighting chance."
@SenWarren
At the end of a training, I will have one request for attending political leaders, When you reflect about you got out of this training and you decide on whether to change the way you communicate, please don't be like "Cam Brady" in The Campaign
when told why his poll numbers had dropped.
Here's Cam Brady in The Campaign:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgQGA1lhQ4o
BTW, I know you won't bury your head in the sand because you're a true leader and you care.
I wrote this letter to the editor years ago
about politiziced framing in an article. The Washington Post published it on 24 March 2007.
By the way, if you see a media outlet using what even seems like “toxic” language,
do something about it.
Revealing news story:
Is the FRAMING of questions
in abortion-attitude POLLS
all wrong?
"Many people are morally opposed to abortion, yet don’t necessarily think it should be out of reach for other people
who feel differently, and they may struggle with not knowing how to represent both of those views equally."
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/04/20/3648051/abortion-polling-issues/
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Some time ago, I tried to figure out ways to help depoliticize sexual morality and to help broaden an overly narrow definition of morality
mostly referring to sexual, bedroom, or lady-parts morality.
When confronted with abortion, one could bring up the Republicans' widespread opposition to prenatal and postnatal care. (Women are 2 to 3 times more likely to die in childbirth if they don't get prenatal care. Children are 6 times more likely to die in the first 12 months of life if the mom didn't get prenatal and postnatal care.) THIS IS A HUGE MORAL ISSUE. GOP-controlled states have stricter laws against low-income women seeking prenatal and postnatal care for a child than against criminals trying to get their hands on military assault weapons. GOP-controlled states have stricter laws against (pregnant) women than against criminals trying to get their hands on guns.
Tara Culp-Ressler, ThinkProgress, Feb 27, 2013 (Center for American Progress):
Republicans have waged a ruthless war against women's reproductive health and rights for years, but especially since 2010.
The GOP attacks are often against women's reproductive health.
Criminalizing abortion is the battle. Women's health is the war.
And it has become increasingly clear that the forget-jobs-go-after-women GOP leadership has its sights way beyond unintended-pregnancy terminations.
It's going after family planning/birth control as well.
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HOW DO WE GET THERE? HOW DO WE ACTIVATE
THE RIGHT NEURAL NETWORKS?
HOW DO WE ACTIVATE THE "WE'RE-IN-IT-TOGETHER"
SIDE OF PEOPLE,
AS OPPOSED TO THE "YOU'RE-ON-YOUR-OWN" SIDE?
LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES
ICEBREAKING VIDEOS
Why should I invest time to learn how to communicate better,
when I’m already a good communicator?
Pay now or pay more later.
-- from a FrameWorks Institute tweet
VALUESMATTER.LIFE is an effort to raise awareness about the critical, yet sometimes neglected moral dimension of politics or other communication, outreach campaigns. It should be part of a strategic communication strategy aimed at connecting with targeted populations at an emotional level. Effective campaigns often are aimed primarily at winning hearts and minds, much more than at appealing intellectually by informing or educating a target audience about the plain truth. How do we get there? Values matter! Moral framing of issues matters! Having an overarching moral worldview matters! Methodical, systematic moral branding matters partly because cognitive science and neuroscience research matters! Avoiding highly politized, toxic words matters! Repeating key words over and over again matters! Compelling, pertinent personal stories reinforcing an overarching moral worldview, as well as personal values, matter! Vivid metaphors matter! Visual framing -- pictures, memes, infographics, event backdrops, logos, license plates, bumper stickers, t-shirts, graphic designers, etc -- matter! Short, compelling videos matter! Preparation & rapid response matter! Relationships, mutual respect and trust matter! Political preemption matter! Broad, cross-issue coordination matters! Partnerships and coalition building matter! Not reinventing the wheel matters!
Browse through, play with this website to learn more about these important matters. VALUESMATTER.LIFE is also meant to promote trainings, coaching sessions, workshops, and training/brainstorming/soulseaching seminars on shared core values. For trainings, I typically pull information from this website, and my files, to create 12-slide presentations targeted to specific needs and that include lots of crucial, hands-on-learning and roleplaying opportunities appealing to several learning styles to enhance learning. The website is also meant as an informal proposal for creating or expanding an critical strategic communication training institute. Such an institute -- with a nationwide reach -- could help generate key words, identify toxic words, quickly disseminate all of these, as well as hold or arrange trainings nationally on strategic comm. It could serve as the hub for a network of political communication experts, cognitive scientists including political psychologists and linguists, neuroscientists, pollsters, trainers, and social media coordinators.
Strategic Morally Grounded Communication (SMGC) also goes by other names including framing, values framing, strategic framing, and conceptual framing. Although the word framing can trigger a nagative reaction, especially when linked to politics, the use of framing in everyday life is nothing new. An ad for an used car or to hire a secretary will likely use the terms “pre-owned car” or “executive assistant.” Similarly, in political communication the terms people use for partisan or for any other political purpose need to be well thought out partly because so much tends to be at stake.
You already know that consevatives and us use different words for the same thing. For instance, we may talk about an advocacy group and while the other side calls it "pro-life," we generally call it "anti-choice." Some folks on our side think of this difference as simply a case of tamato vs. to-mah-toh. However, make no mistake: Republicans tend to be very aware that word branding, repetition works, especially when words are grounded on moral values like "pro-life. As evidence that the other side knows word repetition works, we can look at efforts in state legislatures to do away with the term catastrophic "climate change." If unfamiliar, click here to read a news story about this practice.
For a long time, the US Congress has used clever framing to name legislation or programs, some of which strengthened freedom and democracy for all. Ex: FDR’s “Social Security” and the “New Deal,” LBJ’s “Great Society,” “War on Poverty,” and the great work of LBJ’s Office of “Economic Opportunity,” Harry Truman’s “Fair Deal,” or Kennedy’s “New Frontier.”
This training is partly about the use of morally grounded terms and metaphors to help a leader, communicator or campaign volunteer, for instance, better connect with any kind of audience because people tend to relate to these terms at a gut, viceral level and make choices based on activated deeply held moral values.
What are we up against?
Look at the morally grounded language Rand Paul uses to announce
his candidacy on 7 April 2015.
(This was about 1 hour after posting on social media.)
-----------------------
ALSO, here's an interesting recent Washington Post article worth a read:
Charles Koch invokes fight for civil rights
as model for political activism
While the other side for the most part keeps using values framing and repetition to sway public opinion, some on our side may be too focused on things like: “All politics is local;” “it’s the economy, stupid;” “the other side is too extreme, will overreach while in power, and we’ll get them next time;” “the other side is divided by serious battles over issues and may eventually implode;” “voters are uninformed or misinformed, or are not seeing the truth;” “voters may be too dumb and easily manipulated;” “voters are uneducated about what government does,” "we need better education," “we need more commitment, more money and bodies in campaigns . . . turnout, turnout, turnout;” "we need to incorporate more technology in campaigns," “better candidates will do the trick;” “it’s mostly the corporate media’s fault;” “conspiracies are keeping us down;”"we're a much larger tent than the other side, we can't really agree on much," "I'm a politician, and neither a religious leader nor a perfect person," "it's too late," "the Clintons' fundraising machine and demographics will save us at the end."
(Regarding any prospects for a major demographic advantage, click here for A sort-of wake-up call.)
VISUAL FRAMING IS ESSENTIAL. Just like VISUAL PERCEPTION influences our buying decisions far more
than any other of or senses (93%), visual framing influences voters big time.
The opposite message -- related to radical individualism --
is constantly being activated by the other side. For example,
here's an important effort to get the Latino vote through
the Koch-funded shadow org LIBRE Initiative.
“All politics
is moral.”
Conservatives tend to already know what cognitive scientist, linguist Prof. George Lakoff, PhD writes in his most recent book (late 2014)
that all politics is moral.
The opposite message -- related to radical individualism --
is constantly being activated by the other side. For example,
here's an important effort to get the Latino vote through
the Koch-funded shadow org LIBRE Initiative.
How did Fox (deceptive) News got to be poll ranked the "most trusted news source" on TV?
1) EFFECTIVE MORAL FRAMING & BRANDING (verbal, visual, auditory . . . around trust, integrity, personal responsibility, patriotism): For years, Fox personalities REPEATED over and over again that all other news soures
were biased, untrustworthy, while branding itself as "fair & balaned."
2) Also, one major right-wing TV "news" source VERSUS many news sources watched by non-right-wingers
EFFECTIVE MORAL FRAMING & BRANDING (verbal, visual, auditory)
There are a few terms the other side doesn't want you to repeat any more:
1) legitimate rape (or enjoyable rape) . . . resulting in a gift-from-God
1) catastrophic climate change (click here to see what FL Repubs have done about it)
A moral compass informs people’s voting often more
than pocketbook/economic interest.
These pics illustrate something important about Dem political communiction:
We need a new thinking.
What we’re doing is not working.
WE NEED A NEW WAY
OF THINKING.
Enter . . .
Strategic Morally Grounded Communication (SMGC)
PRESIDENT OBAMA's REPEATED USE OF MORALLY FRAMED MESSAGES SHOULD BE A CALL TO ACTION FOR US ALL.
Read his speeches.
What have we been doing when facing trouble on the messaging front? Look at the 2014 elections. Candidates moved to the right and distanced themselves from President Obama.
(Let's see, Joe. What do we need to emphasize in speeches to win this thing?
Campaign manager Joe: Independence from President Obama and his way of thinking, guns, armed forces, war, God, guns again, and freedom.)
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“Too many progressives make the mistake
of believing people are galvanized around
10-point programs. They’re not! People respond according to their sense of right and wrong. They respond to a leadership of values.”
– Late MN Sen. Paul Wellstone
THE VALUES CIRCLE:
In 2005, I took the nurturing-parent values outlined in Lakoff's books and arranged them in a circle. I liked the design because, to me, the circle implied that most of them are interconnected, and also suggested a circle of life.
Amusing movie clip from The Campaign -- When I watch it, I think of people who insist the plain truth is all you need to win an election even when they know better. Watch this and you'll see incumbent Rep. Camden Brady struggling to defend himseld with plain facts. He even repeats a term introduced by his opponent that some would consider toxic: "Rainbowland is fiction."
"You do not have to live in Rainbowland!"
JOE ROMM:
*** IF YOU DON'T REPEAT, YOU CAN'T COMPETE. ***
*** THE (systematic use of) FIGURES (of speech) ARE THE GRAMMAR OF LANGUAGE INTELLIGENCE. ***
A SINGLE, WELL-CRAFTED METAPHOR (eg: a slogan), LIKE A WELL-CRAFTED BUILDING, CAN ENDURE FOR AGES.
THE SUBTEXT IS AS IMPORTANT (or more) AS THE TEXT.
WE THINK IN FIGURES (like metaphors, similies, ironies, sarcasm, foreshadowing/building anticipation), AND SO THE FIGURES CAN BE USED TO CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK.
THE (King James) BIBLE (or biblical translation) MAY BE THE GREATEST SINGLE WORK OF (highly persuasive) RHETORIC EVER WRITTEN.
(At the time of Shakespeare, in 1604, England's King James had some of the best language scholars of his time [4 dozen men] re-translate the Bible into what would become the King James Bible. The intense interest in poetry and prose had began before King James, with Queen Elizabeth.)
LIKE ALL TOOLS INVENTED BY HUMANS, (effective) RHETORIC (or language intelligence) CAN BE USED FOR EVIL PURPOSES (like fear mongering, deception, phony nationalism, false promises, emotional manipulation . . . that can result in policies hurting a majority).
THE MANNER OF SPEAKING IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE MATTER. --Lord Chesterfield
GEORGE LAKOFF:
ELECTIONS HAVE TO DO WITH HOW BICONCEPTUALS HAVE ADOPTED THE MORAL VISION
OF ONE SIDE OR THE OTHER. --George Lakoff
ELECTIONS DEPEND ON THE LANGUAGE VOTERS HEAR AND THE IMAGES THEY SEE E-V-E-R-Y D-A-Y
AND NOT JUST DURING CAMPAIGN SEASON. --Lakoff paraphrased
THE DOMINATION OF EVERYDAY PUBLIC DISCOURSE ... MOLDS OUR POLITICAL REALITY. Lakoff paraphrased
Great clip of a father-son conversation from the movie Thank You For Smoking (ice cream scene) (a must watch!)
Look at this cartoon. After a disappointing election, some blame it on voters who may vote against their economic interest, or who may be easily manipulated, or who may seem stupid or uninformed, or too lazy to turn out, or because we didn’t shout loud enough, or had enough volunteers or resources, or because we had a flawed candidate, etc, etc.
However, how often do sit down and analyze the moral dimension, and figure out a way to better communicate and connect with voters?
For your grandma.
For someone special.
For our shared future.
Donate in honor of who or what you love, then share your custom graphic:
http://hrc.io/2f37sY8
What if love was holy and hate obcene?
If political leaders' greatest asset is character and their currency trust -- all closely tied to their brand, Why do so many of them insist
it's all about proving personal accomplishments & qualifications with facts, stats and policy proposals?
To their detriment, they tend to relegate moral framing, moral branding to the sidelines
partly because don't fully understand this:
ALL POLITICS IS MORAL (G. Lakoff)
Why Does This Election Have Us So Down? Social Science May Have an Answer.
George Lakoff
say what u think ...
love who u love ...
believe what u believe ...
VALUES MATTER
Strategic Morally Grounded Communication
Training & RESEARCH
antiwomen antigay & antidifferent
GPOs: grupos de
propagación de odios
For years, we've seen GOP politicians spend an awful lot of time on what seemed like symbols and symbolic things such as naming an important airport after Reagan while Dems were often focusing on solutions to real problems facing our constituents and the American people.
It turns out that they were building a solid foundation for long-term political domination -- to make themselves inevitable.
SYMBOLS MATTER! BRANDING MATTERS!
***WHAT MAKES THESE PHRASES MEMORABLE?***
(...WORDS THAT TOUCH & LINGER):
DON'T TREAD ON ME, IN GOD WE TRUST, EMPTY RHETORIC, LIBERAL ELITES, JUST DO IT, BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE, MILK: IT DOES THE BODY GOOD,
***GOVT TAKEOVER (of healthcare), DEATH PANELS, OBAMACARE***,
ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL, IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID, ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN 4 YEARS AGO?, THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE,
PRO-LIFE, UNBORN CHILD, THE UNBORN, DO ONTO OTHERS..., LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, I HAVE A DREAM, ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU BUT WHAT YOU..., ALL WE HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE, IT'S YER MONEY; FLIP-FLOPPER,
DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL; TAX-AND-SPEND LIBERALS, GOVT WASTE, FRAUD & ABUSE, CADILLAC-driving WELFARE QUEEN, LIBERAL MEDIA, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,
THE 1%, BINDERS FULL OF WOMEN, NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, ...THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, ...A RIGHT TO LIFE, FREEDOM AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, ...ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE...
SHOULD PEOPLE TURN "WE'RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER" INTO A MEMORABLE PHRASE?
WOULD THAT HELP? What do you think?