Talking The Talk

by digby

This article delves into one of the interminable debates among liberal activists for the past few years:

THINK BACK to these phrases: “The flip flopper,’’ “Compassionate conservative,’’ “Death tax,’’ or even the “Domino theory.’’ They were magic words and they changed history. The Domino theory was an entire foreign policy reduced to just two words that gave the nation permission to go to war in Southeast Asia.

They’re called micro-scripts, and they are the lethal weapons in any war of words or ideas. They work because people love to repeat them as much as hear them. They instantly enable any Joe at the coffee shop to conduct a pointed political argument because they give him the lines. He can say to his friends, “I’m not voting for a flip flopper.’’ They’re more than sound bites – they are idea bites.

And they are a big problem for President Obama and the Democrats, especially on the health care debate. Democrats are going into this battle without these powerful rhetorical weapons – while Republican micro-script masters are gleefully mowing them down, armed to the teeth.

Consider some of the phrases the right is using to derail health care legislation: “Death panels,’’ “pull the plug on grandma,’’ “the efficiency of the post office with the compassion of the IRS,’’ “rationed care,’’ “socialized medicine,’’ “government care,’’ “it’s the French plan,’’ “Obamacare,’’ and on and on.

And what is the left saying? Stuff like: “What they say isn’t true. If you have health coverage today, your plan will not be worse.’’ That isn’t going to beat death panels.

Maybe “The Republican health plan is to die quickly” will.

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