Outrage sets Dean apart from the pack (Boston Globe)

[dajabr]

PELLA, Iowa -- Some voters in Iowa and New Hampshire know Howard Dean's catch phrases so well that they can recite them like lines from a Schwarzenegger movie. The phrases explode off the tongue so easily that rival candidates repeat them when attacking Dean, assuming that everyone in their audience is familiar with them. Congressional Democrats are "GOP-lite." The Bush tax cut is "$3 trillion for Ken Lay and the boys." President Bush's education plan is "No school board left standing."

Beyond the catch phrases there is Dean's tendency to paint complex issues in very stark terms. Affirmative action, which others discuss in civil-rights platitudes or torturous discussions about balancing assistance for minorities with fairness for nonminorities, is, in Dean's hands, a loaded weapon: By calling affirmative action a quota program, Bush "was using code words," insinuating that white people were losing ground to minorities, "and that's divisive and just plain wrong."

--snip--

Lakoff, who met with Dean in San Francisco last June, said in an interview yesterday: "There's a big difference between anger and moral outrage. In language they may sound very similar. To claim someone is angry is to say the person is likely to go out of control. Moral outrage is the opposite. Moral outrage is the expression of being a moral person.

--snip--

Democrats, Lakoff said, tend to be the candidates of empathy and responsibility for others, but they communicate it softly, in the Clinton mode, without a moral imperative: "There's another style, which is the Dean style -- `I'm listening to you. I care about you. And I'm going to do something about it.' "

More: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/primaries/iowa/articles/2004/01/13/outrage_sets_dean_apart_from_the_pack/

Fightn' fire with fire...

[Padraig18]

1. What a WONDERFUL article!

We know the difference between anger and outrage at the Dean campaign, and it's nice to see that someone in the media also 'gets it'. :)

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. Yep....

It's not a style. It's who he is. He knows how dangerous Bush is to the country, and he understands the dirty politics the Repukes play.

The other candidates seem to live in a fantasy world where the Repukes play fair and the media calls it like it is.

[dajabr]

4. "It's not a style..."

True! Excellent point!

[candy331]

7. Nice to read the real truth for a change

I can empathize with Dean(personal life experience I want tell) so much because people paint you in a corner whether true/not and then moan and complain because you don't agree with their assessments and even if you make changes and guess what? they keep on painting the same color with the same brush.

"As for me and my household Dean 04"

[blm]

3. Demagogues reduce issues to stark terms.

Dean had to deceive his audiences into seeing HIS position on Iraq as antiwar and Kerry and the others' position as prowa, even though they actually had just the slightest variation with Dean's 30-60 day ultimatum actually a bit more hawkish.

Dean gets away with his deceptions on this issue and the taxcut issue thanks to those supporters who will not hold him accountable for his own words.

Demagoguery plain and simple. Dean is following the Sean Hannity mode.

[Padraig18]

5. Spin, ballerina, spin. n/t

[RetroLounge]

11. Blah blah blah

Now Dean is Sean Hannity? :boring:

[chiburb]

12. On the other hand...

"Reducing issues to stark terms" is often (anymore) the only way to get your message heard in today's media. It is possible that other candidates have better plans or positions, yet Dean gets the publicity because of his "plain" speaking and soundbites.

I don't disagree that WE have to see the candidates for what they are, compare platforms and details, etc. However, when the GE comes around, Dean's style may play well with the 20% or so that will decide the outcome.

Once again, I think you're right (in principle).

[Hep]

6. Dean is the only one addressing the fact the RW controls the language

while Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, and Gephardt tout their three year records of CONCEDING the language of the debate to the RW.

[loyalsister]

13. YES!!

This is what attracted me to him in the first place. He understands the propagandistic tactics that the Republicans have used so successfully much better than the other candidates.
It's because they spend their days dealing with language at a different level entirely. They have a habit of communicating differently because they are absorbed in the language of writing bills. This includes compromise and reacting in debate. And minimizing going on the offensive.
Dean is now detached from the legislative process and uses language toward an opponent more effectively.
He has watched and learned and knows what he needs to do with language to take it to the pukes in an election.

[On the Road]

8. Anyone See the Daily Show Last Week

in which Dean's "anger" came up?

The video clip is right here:

http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/

under the title "Colbert -- Mean Dean." It was not only one of the funniest bits I've seen in a while, it was the best riposte to the "anger" issue I've seen so far.

[Capn Sunshine]

9. kick

this hasn't gotten enogh abuse yet

[chiburb]

10. Wow... how long can this reporter keep his job?

Not one mention of clothes, fair and insightful...

A VERY nice read for this undecided Dem. Thanks for the link.