Republicans are extremists, and should be labeled as such
Republican and other US conservative political messaging is relentlessly negative.
- Since Ronald Reagan, Republicans have communicated negativity about almost any government activity except law enforcement and military defense.
- Republicans relentlessly attack “libtards”, “feminazis”, the “lamestream media” and, above all, out-of-touch radical socialist secular America-hating Democrats who insist you eat tofu.
And the Trump era has taken this to a new level of screeching. The “fake news” press are “enemies of the people”. Patriotic bureaucrats are a “deep state” “swamp”. Impeachment is a freedom-destroying “coup”. Anybody who opposes Trump should be locked up for treason. Above all, Democrats are nuts and want to take your freedoms away.
Democrats can use negative messaging too. But they face obstacles, including:
- Republicans have done a devilishly effective job of making bogus “both sides do it” arguments, claiming Democrats are as bad as Republicans in lying, general corruption, or election fraud. (They even paint liberals’ support for the traditionally disadvantaged as being racism, sexism or religious bigotry in reverse.)
- Republicans, in line with their anti-government beliefs – and also in line with Trump’s l’etat c’est moi solipsism – don’t even try to govern well. But given the low opinion in which government is held, it’s hard to convince people Democrats would govern much better. That’s an obstacle to many kinds of policy messaging.
- If Democrats got nearly as nasty as Republicans, they would likely undermine the basic Democratic love-everybody brand.
I think that Democrats should tie more messaging to the concept of extremism, a label that has many, many proof points. For example:
- “Extremism” is a natural charge to make against religious fundamentalists.
- “Extremism” is a natural charge to make against people who dispute overwhelming scientific consensus.
- “Extremism” is a natural charge to make against people who want to completely ban abortion.
- “Extremism” is a natural charge to make against people who put children in cages and then refuse them flu vaccines.
- “Extremism” is a natural charge to make against people who want to build a thousand-mile wall along a border that’s been peaceful for 170 years.
- “Extremism” is a natural charge to make against state officials who decline Medicaid expansion when Uncle Sam is donating 90% of the costs.
Indeed, given the loyalty-test campaigning that occurs in so many Republican primaries, a large fraction of the resulting candidates could simply be called “Trump-enabling extremists”.
Other than being true, what’s so promising about the “extremism” frame?
- It strikes at all Republicans, not just Trump.
- It’s strong against the “both sides do it” counter. Republicans have been seen as “extreme” longer than Democrats have. (Hence the famed 1964 Barry Goldwater quote “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”.)
- It’s useful in policy arguments. The extremism frame is strong when pointing out Republicans don’t even try to govern well, because it defangs the core rebuttal of “Why even try?”
- It sounds like a big deal (terrorists are commonly called extremists), …
- … yet it’s (optionally) not all that nasty, because charges of extremism don’t have to be personally accusatory.
- “Extreme” can be a critique of actions, words or ideas rather than of people themselves.
- Similarly, you can attack “extremists who xyz” without saying exactly who is or isn’t such an extremist.
And conveniently, the “extremism” frame is:
- Semantically flexible: You can say “extremist”, “extremism” or “extreme”.
- Synergistic with any other messaging that boils down to “These guys are crazy – or worse.”
Of course, all simple positioning or messaging strategies have drawbacks. For one thing, as I wrote in my post about slamming Republicans for their liking of dictators(hips) and their dislike of democracy:
The “extremism” frame … is a poor fit here – for when democracy itself is at risk, the good guys should be even more extreme than the bad.
Also, “extremist/extremist/extreme” could be more awkward to work into conversation than certain other perjoratives, such as “crazy”, “idiot”, “traitor”, or “f****** a******”
Where I think the “extremism” framing could shine is on social media, and in advertisements of all kinds. Particular formulations might include:
- “Extremist Republicans want to ban ALL abortions.”
- Many of them actually say this, often in quite incendiary fashion, so there are loads of quotes as proof points.
- There are also a lot of state bills passed to prove this is not an idle threat.
- So this is a compelling message that could be repeated in many different forms.
- “97% of all climate scientists warn of man-made climate change. Extremist Republicans are in denial.” This sounds compelling and believable too.
- “Medicaid expansion would bring $X into our state to treat Y poor patients, saving Z lives per year. Extremists in [state capital] are refusing this gift, just to save $X/9 in rich people’s taxes.” Medicaid expansion has proved to be a great Democratic campaign issue.
- “Republicans want to build the second-longest wall in the world, on a border that’s been peaceful for 170 years. Extreme waste. Extreme stupidity.” For the right graphics, that could probably work as a caption.
- A picture of a cage full of kids could be captioned simply with “Extreme cruelty”. Ditto for stories of admirable Americans being ripped from their families and deported to countries where they don’t belong.
- Another phrase to try might be “extreme immigration hysteria”.
- Any sufficiently stupid Republican quote could get the tag: “Extreme nonsense”.
Yeah, this could work.
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[…] betrayals, far beyond what is being said about impeachment. But how should we tell this story? The extremism frame, which works for much anti-Republican messaging, is a poor fit here – for when democracy […]
[…] favor all sorts of crazily extreme […]
[…] likely to understand or acknowledge that danger, yet another post suggests hammering the theme of Republican extremism. The words “crazy” and “cruel” resonate too, and are often easier than “extreme” to […]