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Various opinions on this thing, both pro and con: First of all, I am sick of the silly opinion that "only Thomas Frank," or "only Thomas Frank and one or two others" understand this thing. This then dislocates the issue so that it is not people thinking about the problems, but everyone, like fans, praising "their leader." Get out into the real world, ESPECIALLY among us "sheeple/inferiors" of the Midwest, and hear the populist, anti-corporate statements, that we have been saying for generations, that you claim we do not...because you don't listen.
More importantly, I'm tired of the "I control you psychologically by 'framing' " attitude, that is too lazy to read about the issues and actually learn anything specific--(because of course, their consciousness towers above all and encompasses it by reaching into the very wellsprings of reality and thought, and affecting your very unconscious itself, dont'cha know)--and who then give the most egregiously ignorant "explanations" of things, and why they are. There are only two groups left that think Karl Rove, or George Bush, are "brilliant" or even intelligent--the ass-kissing corporate media, and the "framing" types. No matter how hated these two, and their whole Republican Party, become, these two groups, alone now, tell us slogans and phrases from the neo-cons, and marvel at how "wonderful" they are--as Bush's, Cheney's, the Republican Party's, approval ratings sink right into the sea. "Framing" types also never give the correct explanations for why anything is happening. As to why, up until now, the Republican Congress has voted lock-step, even when they didn't want to, the "framing" ilk tells us how "wonderfully disciplined" and "organized" they are--and always, always, that "we should be like Republicans"--when the actual reason for this behavior is that the Republican leadership changed the rules governing the way committees in Congress appoint the Chair of the committee. No longer earned by seniority, the Chair is now appointed by the Party leadership, (DeLay until now, for Christ's sake!), who punished severely anyone who did not tow the Party line, pool the money, keep quiet, vote as they were ordered, etc., etc. "Framing" types still tell you Republicans have their fingers on the pulse of--God help us, you call it that--"the Heartland," and this is "why they win." Are you completely ignoring the issue of the voting machines? I for one do not believe Bush won either election; we know Gore won, and the more that comes out about Ohio, the more it adds up to hundreds of thousands of lost Kerry votes. It seems WE have our pulse on what the American people want.
The Clinton type "D"LC pseudo-"Democrats" lost the Congress and further elections because they stabbed the American people in the back, with NAFTA, GATT, no National health care after promising it, no regulation of corporations, etc., etc., and not because they didn't have good slogans or because the country "is getting more conservative," which it is not. They also lost because of Clinton's personal selfish immorality, and the more the "liberal" males make "blow job" "cheating is okay" "jokes," the worse they make it all.
A few words about the great Roosevelt, with my hope that Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt will become the teachers of all in Government again, and the standard for how to do things: One of the typical ways that "the enemy" discredts the New Deal programs is by pretending that Roosevelt "didn't really do anything," but just pepped up and cheer-led the country while the capitalists, the "real source of good," "ended the Depression by just being themselves." This vicious lie, perpetrated by corporate propagandists, is then advanced by "framing" types, who are so ignorant that they do not even know what they advance. I cannot go over all the wonderful programs and departments that the New Deal had to help people, how it ended the Depression until Republican/corporate assaults on these programs during the late '30s returned higher unemployment and poverty figures, how Roosevelt won a few more battles, instituted new public works programs at the end of the '30s, ended the recession of the time, etc., etc., but I know that it is general ignorance and "D"LC anti-Roosevelt lies that have helped to ruin the reputation and memory of the great Roosevelt and the New Deal, as much as it was the original Republican devil who started the lie.
Roosevelt did not save the Nation by brain-dead "cheerleading" but by brilliant and economically sound programs, getting money to the unemployed, creating jobs programs, helping with personal debt, etc. The Fireside Chats often referred to, were not "happy talk," but explanations of upcoming programs, letting the American people know what their Government was doing about things. The very first line of the first Fireside Chat, about Roosevelt's new banking reforms, so people would not lose all their savings when banks failed, began this way: "I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be." Roosevelt then explained how banking works, what the disaster is, and how it will now end--and it did. Banks, now Federally-insured, do not fail. Quick quiz: What is the C.C.C., why was it so wonderful (list many reasons), and why would it help today? Also, what two problems did Roosevelt's farm subsidies to families solved, (for example)? What--where did the "framing" types go?...
My parents were of that New Deal generation, and I remember, and can feel, what they thought about things, how they hated Republicans--Roosevelt called Wall Street bankers and stockbrokers "crooks," because they are, and my parents knew that too--and how they loved this country and knew what kinds of programs it deserved. The older I get, the more I think that the most important thing that Democrats should be doing is to get rid of the "D"LC corporate slogans and "image," and re-educate people about Roosevelt and the New Deal--and what it REALLY was. If it slips away, we are all slaves. Once upon a time, the premises of New Deal programs were commonsense and commonly held--poor people need help, corporations need to be regulated, corporations that price-gouge or underpay employees are traitors--but all these ordinary opinions were attacked, laughed at, and discarded, not only by extremist Republicans, but by the corporate "They are too liberal for Amercia" "D"LC! When "your own" group attacks you, then who will set the record straight? You are doomed. The "D"LC helped to begin this horrific and totally anti-intellectual era of "characterizing" everything--liberal?, or conservative? whaddaya think: is it liberal? is that more liberal? conservative?, is this part of the country liberal?--incessantly, which nobody used to do. With the arrival of the corporate "D"LC, giving us the Republican Party's slogans themselves, there was nowhere for the New Deal mindset to go, and it was killed. Oddly, they made the mainstram New Deal thought sound "extreme" and "fringe," and so since it had no advocates in the public square anymore, it itself became disconnected from the apparent "way of things," and did not fit--deliberately. None of these traitors even uses the word "commercial" anymore; now they ALL use "private," which is a very threatening word. Clinton never had a program to help the poor; only: 1) cut them off; 2) deregulate; 3) you can give to charity, or volunteer--with what money, I don't know. This type does not even think of government as the source of democracy anymore, and so, it isn't. If people do not learn about the New Deal and how it worked, then any lie will work.
"Framing" types sound like assholes when they do not understand how issues work and what people's problems are, yet give us ultra-groovy catchphrases we are supposed to be impressed, and "controlled" by. It is really insulting, and noticed as such. It is not "clever," "brilliant," blah--it only works because people are civically ignorant, and so tricked, and because the rules and procedures of Congress were changed, allowing totalitarian rule, not "popular." The corporations that pay for elections and candidates are running things now. You have a crisis to deal with, not a TV commercial. Well, the issue goes on and on, but this is part of it. Learn your history--just don't now hold a "revolutionary 'framers' and bloggers" converntion at the Hyatt-Regency, the way they do, where only they can attend.
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