Rhetorical Inversion

Via TAPPED I see that John Edwards has begun to use some of his great primary speech in the stretch of this campaign.

I posted a glowing review of this speech back in June of 2003 because I thought it was one of the best examples of reframing the economic issues I had seen in many a day. He takes the language of the right and throws it right back at them in a way that’s very difficult for them to deflect:

“It’s the most radical and dangerous economic agenda to hit our shores since socialism a century ago. Like socialism, it corrupts the very nature of our democracy and our free enterprise tradition. It is not a plan to grow the American economy. It is a plan to corrupt the American economy,” he told an audience outside in Cleveland. “We don’t know all of the details, but we know that people who inherit hundreds of millions will pay nothing; firemen and waitresses and working people will pay everything. And we know his plan will take away the most important incentive for the single most important form of ownership: it will eliminate entirely the tax deduction for home mortgage interest.”

Now, I don’t happen to think that socialism corrupts the nature of our economy, but you can bet that most Americans have been brainwashed to think that. The key here is to jettison the word “socialism” on to the ashheap of history and tie the Republicans into it by saying they have a similarly “radical and corrupt” economic plan. This is using their own propaganda against them and it’s very smart.

The TAPPED post goes on to point out that Bush really has proposed changes to the tax code that would eliminate the home mortgage deduction. That fits in nicely with another part of Edwards speech that goes like this:

Our economy, our people, and our nation have been undermined by the crony capitalists who believe that success is all about working the angles, working the phones, and rigging the game, instead of hard work, innovation and frugality. And these manipulators find comfort in an Administration which, through its own example, seems to embrace that ethic. We will never turn this country around until we put our economy and our government back in line with our values.”

[…]

It’s time for a new approach that trusts people to make the most of their own lives and gives them the chance to do so. It’s time to stop emboldening entrenched interests and start empowering regular people. Above all, it’s time to end the failed conservative experiment and return to the idea that made this country great: Instead of helping wealthy people protect their wealth, we should help working people build their wealth.”

I just love the way this appropriates all the comfortable GOP catch phrases — projecting their own critique back back at them while redefining the positive ones for our own purposes. It’s a very effective way to make the permeation of GOP rhetoric in the national subconscious work for us instead of against us.

It also has the value of confusing the Republicans. It’s one of the most creative uses of political rhetoric I’ve seen in this campaign. I’m glad they are using it.