Confront all right wing opponents' lingo, pretexts, rhetoric -- A content strategy inspired by The Bulwark.
Last edited Fri Jan 24, 2025, 08:20 AM - Edit history (1)
Moving forward requires honesty, whole truth and nothing-but-the-truth language.
Assume that humans are equal, facts and opinions are not -- some facts & opinions are more relevant, workable, helpful, and responsible than others. Context is everything.
Republican Party lingo, pretexts, legalese and empty rhetoric will not be stopped through being labeled BS.
1.
Every day we must
a) really listen to their words (because those lead to, or follow from, what they do) and
b) relentlessly confront the whole Republican caucus every single time even one of them defend, excuse, and dodge Trump's BS, and
c) repeat-repeat-repeat to their whole caucus to choose:
do the right thing for the right reasons, or obey their master, a convicted felon.
Every day. 
The Bulwark offers 10 counter-rhetoric answers as one of our 'ways' forward. This list underscores what Dems' do well in communications.
2.
But, imo, we can use this list (ideas that aren't new) to press for a unified party comms strategy to shut down Republicans' defense of the indefensible. Congressional and state caucuses need to
a) unite under a national list of counter-messaging,
b) get on the news,
c) use one or more of that messaging every night across cable news & in weekly press conferences to
d) review Republicans' political lingo that enabled political violence that week through the midterms;
e) get on the news again, win or lose, and
f) use the new Democratic content strategy that contrasts our reality with their destructions/empty promises/proven lies to show what viewers' future will look like.
(My only disagreement with The Bulwark is the writer's title. Republicans didn't "learn to excuse."
They have a history of obeying in advance when they just get The side eye or The call from Big Money or a cursing vigilante. My title: Republican Talk Enables Political Violence )
How Republicans Learned to Excuse Political Violence
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-republicans-learned-to-excuse-political-violence-trump-january-6th-pardons
“It’s the president’s sole decision,” Johnson declared on Tuesday. “And he made a decision, so I stand with him on it.”
That’s the authoritarian spirit. No matter what the leader does, his allies fall in line.
2. The pardons show Trump is a man of his word.
“He talked about that during the campaign,” Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, told reporters when they asked about Trump’s pardons for people who assaulted police. “President Trump is a man of his word. He’s going to follow through on his commitments.”
This, too, is the language of autocracy. The moral content of the leader’s threat or act is irrelevant. What matters is that he deserves praise for following through on his threats.
3. This is what the people voted for.
In a CNN interview on Wednesday, Senator Markwayne Mullin noted that during the 2024 campaign, Trump “did not hide that he was going to pardon January 6th individuals.” By electing Trump, Mullin argued, Americans gave Trump a mandate to do just that: “The American people [on] November 5th chose to move on past January 6th.”
This is the easiest way to unravel a constitutional democracy: You turn democracy against the constitution, by claiming that an election gave the winner a mandate to suspend or ignore laws. In reality, Americans gave Trump no such mandate. Multiple polls have found that they oppose pardons for people convicted of violent crimes on January 6th.
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