Frames, Frames, Everywhere Frames….
If this George Lakoff observation is accurate, I have a question: Why did Obama piss away the “overriding narrative” that he used to pwn the GOP during the 2008 campaign? The generous side of me says that keeping the economy from falling into a full blown depression, learning the nuclear lunch codes and seeing the alien spaceships and shit housed 10 miles under Area 51 kept him busy. The less generous side of me says that Obama hasn’t really changed anything, but he is now being contrasted with a GOP that is SOOOOOooooooo…. ‘effed up and off on an ideological bender that he looks like a goddam strategic genius by comparison.
For the first two years of his administration, President Obama had no overriding narrative, no frame to define his policymaking, no way to make sense of what he was trying to do. As of his 2011 State of the Union Address, he has one: Competitiveness.
The competitiveness narrative is intended to serve a number of purposes at once:
1. Split the Republican business community off from the hard right , especially the Tea Party. Most business leaders want real economics not ideological economics. And it is hard to pin the “socialist” label on a business-oriented president. He may succeed
Lakoff goes on to say that, as he is working it now, the President’s “competitiveness” frame doesn’t give much to progressives. Don’t worry George… we are used to it.
Normally competitiveness means “lower your standard of living to that of a Chinese peasant.”
The moment Obama said that I immediately started listening for code words about union-busting and pay cuts. But I was encouraged though to hear Obama talk about investment rather than cuts.
With this president though you have to watch what he does, not what he says. Time will tell whose pocket the investments end up in.
Basically, to get the investments through Obama’s enthusiasm gap GOP House, they will have to be skewed almost entirely toward the rich. I sense another Obama “victory” in the making.
he is now being contrasted with a GOP that is SOOOOOooooooo…. ‘effed up and off on an ideological bender
If the GOP moved from “crazy right” back to “center right” they would be in full agreement with Obama, and they can’t have that.
Whether it is by accident or design, people are looking at the Republicans and thinking, “holy shit! These guys want to kill Democrats with guns, blow up railroad bridges because they are socialist, and think that preventing incest victims from getting abortions is the the most pressing issue facing the nation.”
people are looking at the Republicans and thinking, “holy shit!
I’m not getting that vibe. If that is happening anywhere, I think the media will bring those wayward independents back into the he said/she said fold. Just give them time.
Obama will help with the process by pre-compromising and then compromising with his compromise.
If it ain’t broke…