***CSPAN2 at 10pm - "Talking Right" -Time for us to change the language***

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into A Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show
Geoffrey Nunberg

In "Talking Right" linguist Geoffrey Nunberg argues that Republicans are more successful than Democrats in the use of political language. Mr. Nunberg explains that in order for Democrats to overcome their linguistic problems they should recapture an alternative set of words to use in political discourse. This event was hosted by Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC.

Geoffrey Nunberg teaches linguistics at the School of Information of the University of California at Berkeley. He is also the chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. Mr. Nunberg's commentaries have been featured regularly on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" since 1987. He is the author of "The Way We Talk Now" and "Going Nucular."

Publisher: Public Affairs Books 250 W. 57th Street, Suite 1321 New York, NY 10107

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. kick!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. on now kick!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. says 'catch phrases' are over-rated

surveys show asking about death tax vs. estate tax doesn't poll much differently.

They have captured "ground level language" by using the same language we do in everyday conversation...

[SoCalDem]

4. The co-opting of language was useless without the MICROPHONES

and presses to broadcast it.. That's why the takeover of all the radio stations. newspapers and tv stattions MATTERED..


This did not just "happen".. It was a well-planned methodical campaign..It's been in the works since just after Watergate...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. He hasn't gotten into the media aspect yet...

but he did go over the organization and discipline they used to keep everyone in line and spouting the same message. says it was easy for people like Brownback and Frist, who have "negative Charisma"

[SoCalDem]

7. A message HAS to have an outlet, for it to succeed..

No matter what our message is, who do we have with regular airtime....?

And it's easy to make catchy NEGATIVE comments...but it takes TIME to explain the nuances of various programs and bills..

That's why this shit works:(

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. agreed

I'm hoping this guy has some good advice...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. He took first 2 days of RNC speeches, and ran them through a program

distilled down, matched themes and catchphrases. Ended up with a 5 sentence speech, that sounded like every other repub speech you have heard.


did the same with the first 2 days of speeches at the dem convention - and got word salad - no particular themes, or trends, no repeating mantra

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. "stop aping the language of the right"

Traditional is not a word that liberals are fond of.

Traditional Liberal values has no meaning, because when has being Liberal ever had anything to do with tradition?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. Dems need a Narrative more than they need to change language

[Jim__]

11. He gave an interesting description of the problem.

I really didn't get any idea as to how democrats can change it.

I agree with what was said above about the media. The media carries the repub message. They laugh when dems try to change the message; the media mocks the dem message. That's not a failure of the democrats.

Most Americans get their ideas, their conversation, from the media.