Messaging Alert: Let's start changing people's minds about tax cuts! Turn them into something bad.

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A post by DUer madamesilverspurs about "Messaging 101" -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x758733

inspired me:

The thing to do is hijack a page from the bad guys' book: add something negative or offensive or off-putting to a word or phrase they worship: like for example, tax cuts.

The Cigarette Tax Cut.

The Pirates' Tax Cut.

The Cheaters' Tax Cut.

The Oil Spill Tax Cut.

The Toxins (or Toxic) Tax Cut.

The Plutonium Tax Cut.

The Corporate Padding Tax Cut.

The Gluttons Tax Cut.

The Tax Cheaters Tax Cut.

The I-Hate-Families Tax Cut.

The Screw Families Tax Cut.

The I-Hate-Kids Tax Cut.

The Anti-Family Tax Cut.

The Child-Cheating Tax Cut.

The Family-Killing Tax Cut.

The Child-Starving Tax Cut.

The Anti-Children Tax Cut.

The Anti-Christian Tax Cut.

The Traitor's Tax Cut.

The America-Haters' Tax Cut.

How 'bout:

The Job-Killing Tax Cut. WHERE THE HELL HAVE THEY BEEN ON THIS ONE??????? WHY IS THIS ONE NOT ON EVERYONE'S LIPS???

And they should revive the concept of Paris Hilton Tax Cut and update it. Maybe the Trump Palace Tax Cut? The "You're Fired" Tax Cut?

How 'bout let's just cut to the chase and bundle it all into one: The Screw-You Tax Cut.

Or The Screw-America Tax Cut. Or the alternate - The Screw-Your-Country Tax Cut. Or The Hurt-America Tax Cut. The Starve America Tax Cut. The Torture America Tax Cut.

Start using these. Start planting the seeds. Embed it in the consciousness. Use it in your emails, your blogs, your tweets, your replies, your posts, anything you write.

Do what LBJ did - throw it out there and force them to respond. Force them to react and deny. Then keep calling 'em that. And you can do it backhanded, too, like - "of course I'm not going to call it the 'Screw-America Tax Cut,' because I guess maybe calling it the 'Screw-America Tax Cut' could be misconstrued. I don't know if anyone's calling it the 'Screw-America Tax Cut' over and over and over again, but maybe you do have to look at what it means to 'Screw America with Tax Cuts'. Is America being Screwed by Tax Cuts? I don't know but a 'Screw-America Tax Cut' is, ... well, I'm just sayin'..."

You get the idea. Plant the seeds. Poison the well.

:evilgrin:

And it can work in the other direction too. "Oh wow (snicker) - you got a TAX CUT! Ooooooooooooh! Oh yeah, like THAT'll really help any. Geez, what a frickin' JOKE!" :rofl:

Make it something that's not terribly attractive OR desirable. Make it something stupid and useless and I also like the "Dollar-98 Tax Cut" - which is about what it amounts to when you get your fabulous wonderful republi-CON tax cut that's supposed to solve all your problems and increase your take-home and make you suddenly rich - but in reality can barely cover maybe a single car payment or part of one month's utility bill - if you're lucky. The idea is to make the whole tax-cut idea icky and awful and negative and demeaning and undesirable, and yes, maybe even UNpatriotic, too. And really not all that great OR helpful, despite what the bad guys are claiming. Think about it. How much of a real, legitimate, perceptible difference did YOUR tax cut make in YOUR finances? If, indeed, you even qualified for a tax cut? "Wow! Golly-gee! Tax cut! Say! How'd it work out for you with that lavish Dollar-98 Tax Cut? Did that Dollar-98 Tax Cut do you any good? Did it give you that express ticket to Easy Street that the republi-CONS assured you it would? How's life on Easy Street since you got that fabulous Buck-98 Tax Cut? Do tell! How's that Buck-98 Tax Cut thingie workin' out for ya?"

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1. Let's hijack a page or three (thousand) from frank luntz, and turn his lessons into

something that will benefit OUR SIDE. And OUR PHILOSOPHY!

Turn his teachings to the bad guys into something helpful and advantageous for US. He's certainly proven that proper messaging, with carefully and strategically-chosen words and phrases, repeated and repeated and repeated yet again, WORKS. It sinks into the public consciousness til it becomes part of the cellular structure. And then it becomes "true." WHY CAN'T WE DO THAT? Only, in our case, it's genuinely true. Not allegedly, pervertedly, falsely "true."

A message from the reality-based community, if you will.

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2. Kicking.

[Ian David]

3. The Paris Hilton Tax Cut is what Thom Hartmann calls it. n/t

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7. Who else is very rich and relatively useless, and has a net negative public image?

We shouldn't confine it just to Paris Hilton. It's a good one. I wish Thom Hartmann weren't the only person out there who IS using it. We ALL have to use it and enlarge it and build upon it and compound it the way the banksters compound their own interest.

Kate Gosselin? Charlie Sheen? Donald Trump? The idiot rich - who are undeserving and really deserve, in a perfect world, to be scrubbing floors or picking up trash for a living and actually getting their hands dirty like the rest of us do. How 'bout the "david koch Tax Cut"? "The koch brothers Tax Cut"? "The Wall Street Tax Cut"? "The Banksters Tax Cut"? "The Marie Antoinette Tax Cut"? "The Let 'Em Eat Cake Tax Cut"?

Negative connotations. That's what's vital. You have to graft a negative word or concept onto the idea or thing you wish to pervert, or transform from a positive to a negative. That's why the bad guys' buzzphrase "tax relief" is significant. They perceive the word "tax" as bad, and to make it so in other people's opinions, they add negative modifiers to the word "tax." The word "relief" implies a rescue or protection AGAINST something bad - which in this case is the word "tax." It's why they've consciously added "job-killing" to ANYTHING of Obama's. "Job-killing" Obamacare. "Job-killing tax," "Job-killing this," Job-killing that." That artificially but deliberately and calculatedly portrays anything you attach the phrase "job-killing" to - as being bad. Or, indeed, "job-killing." And the listeners mind makes that connection and internalizes it, and makes it thus true.

DAMMIT, WE HAVE TO DO THAT TOO!!!!!

AND IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!

[Qutzupalotl]

4. Focus on the budget too:

The Budget-busting Tax Cuts

This is a kick to the nuts of anyone who worries about the deficit and debt, as the teabaggers claim to. Cutting income for government reduces its buying power and status, just like for a household.

If they have the blinders on and say that tax cuts pay for themselves, point out that they haven't yet. Under W, the surplus turned to a deficit and the debt skyrocketed. If they say tax cuts create jobs, point out that W had a net loss of private sector jobs.

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8. Whatever has a negative connotation is good.

And VERY useful.

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5. it's easy to make greed sound good; not so easy to show it for what it truly is.

so many people WANT to have an excuse for their greed. they FEEL it, and they WANT to feel good about it, not shameful about it.

so really getting through to people that tax cuts are bad is more complicated; for one thing, you have to make it someone else's tax cut. people are fine with the feeling that someone ELSE's greed it bad. so when republicans leaders say crap like "it's your money", you have to be quick with a retort like, "not after greedy fat-cats like you refuse to pay your fair share and stick hard-working americans with the bill, it's not!"

this is why they always cry "class warfare" when we challenge them. because prying rank-and-file republicans away from the ultra-rich class is necessary to make our arguments work.

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6. Truly! You HAVE to have a good retort, and hit back IMMEDIATELY.

That's why threads like these (not just this one but ALL the great idea-threads and essays and posts that so many other DUers post here!) are valuable because they generate and inspire TALKING POINTS. WE ARE OUR OWN frank luntzes. We can't afford him, and he wouldn't work for our side anyway - especially since our side probably wouldn't pay as well. So WE can do it for ourselves.

VERY important!

I like pointing out - "hey, I thought you guys didn't like the whole idea of 'The Redistribution of Income'! You sure don't seem to mind it when YOUR money's being redistributed to the billionaires!"

"... but, but, but, that creates JOBS! You GOTTA give it to the corporations and the rich! When's the last time you got a job from a poor person?"

"Indeed? Have you checked the unemployment figures over the last decade or so? How about LATELY? The rich and the corporations have gotten TONS of tax breaks. Where are all the jobs then? Shouldn't there be TONS of jobs by now? What have they been doing with all that money? Buying more yachts? Shipping more of our jobs overseas? Where ARE the jobs, then, huh? How's all that workin' out for ya?"

Throw. It. Back. In. Their. FACES.

If you don't answer their assertions, and those assertions stand, they become de facto truths. For the very fact that they're not challenged or refuted.

And yeah, many people will refuse delivery on this message - at first. That's why you DON'T EVER STOP delivering it.

Repetition is CRITICAL!!!!

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9. Kicking again.

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10. And some more.

For the messaging!

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11. Great thread from jorno67 that works this, too!

I believe we need to learn from the enemy and market our cause

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x739448

YES!!! We need EVERYBODY thinking about this. And working on it. We have some FABULOUS minds here!

And make no mistake. The enemy is exactly that. And that's what they should be called, and how we should refer to them. When we're not calling them bad guys, that is.

Demean, Destabilize, Defeat the enemy!

[Hannah Bell]

12. kr.

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13. Thanks! I don't want this to sink too fast.

I hope everyone starts working their brains! We need it all!

This should be OUR "Manhattan Project."

[gracchorumspes]

14. Yeah good point, rec.

"Tax Cuts" basically mean "can you eventually pay for my jet plane and mansions by having less public services and stuff?" Not a bright idea overall.

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15. Definitely. IGMFU.

Stands for "I Got Mine, F-U."

Which makes the GOP the IGMFU party.