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...for example, they use the expression "Raising taxes on Americans" every time the tax issue comes up. Thereby masking the issue, acting as if there are proposals for large tax increases for ALL Americans, whereas the reality is we are talking about raising taxes on the rich and the super-rich. But the Republicans are masterful at framing, as we know and moan about on this board frequently. Their phrasing gets the attention of the low information votesr (and I use this term without contempt, most people are not political junkies like us here, and don't have time to seek in depth political information and are fed lies all day by the media) -- and they think "Yeah, I don't want my taxes raised!". Yet poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans, including Republicans, would favor raising taxes on the rich.
The Republicans also use the expressions "The American people want" and "The American people don't want" to preface their statements and proposals, implying that they are championing what The People want over the Big Bad Government. Again, this is, unfortunately, an effective ploy.
They are very good at this. We are not. I wish I understood why we have an aversion to sound bites -- not saying we should mislead with them, but we should use them whenever possible to our own advantage.
Of course then there is the issue that "our side" has adopted the terms "austerity" (thanks, Nancy Pelosi) and "entitlement reforms" (thanks Obama and most of the Democrats in Congress) as though those are desirable and inevitable. I can't help but believe at this point that our politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, with but a few exceptions, serve the interests of the wealthy elites, period, end of sentence.
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