Bush didn’t win because people like his policies. His policies are unknown to most people, and appalling to people that understand them. He won because he talked about values. People vote on values. Democrats talk about “programs” and “solutions” which are cold and boring. In the last 2 weeks of the campaign Kerry started talking about values and sounded 100% much more electable. It just wasn’t enough.
The issue is framing and controlling the perception.
Once again, the Democrats let the right do all the framing, and let
the right tell the voters what the Democrats are about. Once again,
the Democrats came off poorly. That is the problem -- letting
the right complete define the dialog.
And if you want to learn how the Democrats can turn this around read George Lakoff’s book (Don’t Think of an Elephant). It’s short, to the point, and inexpensive. Buy it today. It should be required reading for all people that wish Bush had lost. It will be the basis of the next Democratic victory.
(note: the middle paragraph is thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kimuchi.)
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