DU'ers Who Don't Think The GOP Since Reagan Have Excelled At Controlling Public Perception [View All]

[KittyWampus]

and framing the debate to their favor are a drag on the Democratic Party and preventing progressive ideals from being implemented.

You can't just have a wonderful group of public policies. A purely rational debate over policies doesn't win people over.

You need to be able to package those policies using symbolism so they appeal to a majority indirectly through their subconscious. Like it or not, getting people behind you to implemente change is largely like advertising for soap.

You can either use symbolism to shape public perception and charge public emotions towards the negative and have fear move the populace towards policies against their own interest.(Example, mention myth of 'Welfare Queen" to appeal to racism).

Or you can use symbolism to engender positive perceptions and emotions and move people toward policies FOR their own interest. (Example, "We have nothing to fear except fear itself").

The Republican party have managed to sell their message to American workers even though their policies HURT those same voters. And because the GOP understands social psychology and the importance of packaging they've been able to implement their policies with few really big failures.

It took the devastation of Katrina to really throw back the curtain on how little GOP policies further the Common Good.

The Democrats, meanwhile, SUCK at framing their message.

We can bitch all we want about how the Liberal (see how successful the GOP have been) Media is really corporate media, but there is no disputing the fact the Left has not engaged in any successful attempts to shape policy by coming up with a workable message.