Mind the Gap
One of the most fascinating concepts in politics is the concept of gaps. It is a difficult concept to put into words, but it is a natural phenomenon that occurs in any number of areas. Essentially, there is a gap between perception and reality. Occasionally, there is a gap between how people feel about something depending on what it is called. If you simply describe the Affordable Care Act you’ll find that the individual planks that make up the law get very high approval ratings. Usually, the law itself gets solid marks for favorability if you use the specific label of the ACA. If you call it Obamacare then it suddenly tanks. We’ve seen this for years. It isn’t a new thing.
There are countless examples of people screaming “keep the government out of my Medicare!” Either way, the favorability for the ACA is at nearly 60 percent presently. Yet, many of those same people are screaming at their representative to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better. We can dwell on this and I could be mean here, but we will just leave that here as an example of what we are talking about.
Liberals, progressives, and leftists have been dealing with this for years. The greatest example would be the scourge that is socialism. Most people would tell you they hate socialism and think that everything evil is socialism. Yet, when you break it down brick by brick you suddenly find that they support the individual aims that many socialists support. Even when we aren’t talking about socialism itself, the challenge is fighting against the overwhelming perception of what we (whatever you want to call all of those groups collectively) support. For one, we* are not the same. We do not support the same things no matter how often right leaning politicians want to paint us that way.
The challenge for the Democratic party in general and for each of those groups specifically is to find a way to convert people’s approval of the ideas into approval of the platform in general. If you support a majority of the aims within the platform then you support the platform. That seems overly simplistic, but sometimes we need to make things simple.
All politicians label their opponents. It is blood sport in Washington and at the statehouse. Yet, conservatives have been better at it. Somehow a collection of common sense suggestions have become socialism. Socialism has somehow become a Venezuelan hell scape where everyone goes hungry and all of your freedoms get suspended. Most of Western Europe is socialist. The only thing happening there is that people have a robust safety net. Their college education is paid for. Their health care bills are taken care of. They get help with family leave. Their retirement benefits are better. It sounds like hell on earth.
I am not an expert on messaging and that sort of thing. Maybe I could have become a speech writer if I had gone another direction in graduate school. What I know is that we got here through a very targeted and purposeful campaign by conservatives and right wing media. They played the long game. I know that people left of center tend to look at these faulty perceptions and assume that the folks are just stupid. We have to start the slow and painful process of repeating the truth over and over again. Maybe people will start waking up and supporting the things they actually say they support.
Socialism.
1A four letter word for people who can’t count.
Can’t count on their retirement without it. Can’t count on their healthcare without it.
Interesting piece Nick that seemed to channel one of my weird thoughts today. How in the H did crazy people get to be called “right” or “extreme right?” That adjective is what our children look at when they are taught the difference between “right” and wrong. There are so many positive uses of the word “right,” and just as your article suggests that adjective has long been co-opted by conservatives, and today by extreme MAGAs and their enablers that advocate and support any and everything that is not “right” in any normal use of the word. But when kids growing up see the word “right” attached to the crazies how can they think anything other than the crazies are in fact “right” and are therefore the good guys, while people on the left, whether designated liberals, democrats, or socialists must be the evil opposite of what is “right.”
2A few years back a friend of mine moved from austin to the middle of nowhere in NM and became one of those antitax nuts. When he came back for a visit he was going on about why we shouldn’t have to pay taxes. I asked “how didyou get here?” “I drove.”
3I said “Did you drive on the highway or cross country?” Then I pointed out if you don’t want to pay taxes then stay off the public roads, don’t call police, fire, or EMS, don’t use the public water supply, stay out of the public library and don’t send your kid to the public schools.
He got all bent out of shape over that.
I have to wonder how reactions would have changed if it’d been branded as “FairCare” (or something similar).
4Mike and Alan are talking different problems. Assholes that want to be Libertarians are not the demographic I’m talking about here. Branding and issue framing is what I’m talking about. It isn’t health care reform. It’s insurance reform. I’ve got no issue with doctors. I have a problem with a bunch of English Lit majors making my health decisions. I’ll take the guy or gal that went to medical school. Pure issue framing. Most people think the same thing and don’t realize the insurance companies are the death panels they fear. Those are the people we need to capture. The wing nut tax freaks aren’t going anywhere.
5Funny thing. I don’t remember if I’ve said it here before, but in my book, health insurance IS socialized healthcare.
6It spreads the costs,etc. etc.
But here in Murica we let private companies administer it (when it’s profitable) and skim a fortune off the top.
Land of the free.
In the UK, when you retire, medication is free .
7Whoever wrote Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech last year needs to step forward. He lured the GOP into saying they would never gut Social Security and Medicare even though they constantly threaten them. Democrats need to say things in a way that GOPers won’t disagree, like “aren’t you glad Granny in the nursing home has healthcare”, they’ll agree, and we say yes, Medicare helps so many seniors!
8A few years ago, my brother in Ideeho (he’s 3 yrs younger) was railing about Obamacre and socialism. He was pretty much glued to F news which shaped his personality. At the time he was about 60 and had become unable to work. We told him he should look into medicaid because he was not able to work or get insurance. Well he took our advice and it made a huge beneficial difference in his life and his family. It got him medication he had to have to live and heart surgery. So, what do you think he has to say about social safety nets today. Same crap he said for a decade. He’s a magat through and through.
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