Memo To Harry Reid: It's the "Bigotry Amendment"

You'd think after Lakoff and Thomas Frank and two or three years of endless theoretical discussion on how the Democrats need to learn to reframe the debate and use language effectively, they would actually start to put some of what they've ostensibly learned about framing into practice in the real world of rough and tumble political gamesmanship.

But, no.

We have been subjected to the sight of a parade of Democrats this week referring to the "Marriage Amendment" that the GOP is dragging out for yet another vote in June.

Instead of effectively reframing the debate on a hot button, cultural issue, Democrats have been regurgitating the very language the Republicans employ to put a positive spin on Republican hatemongering.

When are Democrats going to learn that when the Republican trot out a pig, all dressed up in taffeta and lipstick and called "Monique," that the Democrats need to immediately hose it down, with ice cold water, and present it to the public... as a naked, grunting PIG.


Harry Reid, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi et. al: It is the Bigotry Amendment. And that's what you should be calling it every damn time you talk about it publicly.

But teaching dems to win by framing has got to be just as important.

Maybe it's because the Republicans are a bunch of ditto-heads, but why can't Democrats seem to work ANYTHING in their favor? Do we have a Karl Rove type, minus the law breaking? Don't we have strategists that can advise Democrats to do as you suggest? Why do they just seem to accept getting slapped around by silly, pointless, wedge issue politics?

I know that they aren't in power, therefore can't do much when it comes to preventing crap like this from being brought up, but they don't have to play into the Republicans' hands either.

It can actually be playing it clean, and taking the dirt away from the GOP's frame.

Politics is a hard edged, rough and tumble sport. You win by convincing the most amount of people that your argument has more merit than the other guy's.

Where Democrats fail miserably, time after time, is the strategic follow through on issue after issue. They don't frame the debate. And worse, they mindlessly repeat Republican framing as a mantra when they talk to the press.

I agree with you. This is as important as election reform and taking back the media. If we don't frame issues properly, we're never going to get off first base.

...they need to start doing something else. All they've done is played right into Republican hands when it comes to wedge issues like these.

And I'm not so sure playing the nice guy is helping either. Granted, I'm not in favor of them bringing up pointless amendments that denigrate a portion of our society for political gain, but I wouldn't have any problems if the Democrats found a way to divide the Republicans against themselves. It's semantics whether you call that "dirty" or not.

All I know is that the last six years or so has pretty much proven to me that nice guys really do finish last. Sitting there and taking this sort of crap is not working. Why can't the Democrats come up with a united message, one way or the other, and then devise ways to use that message against the Republicans when they bring up crap like this?

Democrats -- including some otherwise-progressive (seeming) Democrats -- remain cravenly terrified of offending America's legions of Abrahamic homophobes.

I emphatically agree this should be openly labeled "the Bigotry Amendment," and my friends and I even call it that in private, as I suspect many other true progressives do. Congratulations on your insight for making it a public issue.

If they are too afraid to call it the bigotry amendment, come up with another plan to tackle the issue. We need to stop letting them divide the party over silly issues like this. They need to devise a plan to handle this issue that most, if not all, Democrats can agree with.

Whether they tackle this as the "bigotry" amendment (unlikely)...

Or whether they tackle this as a states' rights issue...

Or whether they tackle this by portraying it as a slippery slope into governmental intrusion into our private lives...

Or whether they tackle it by emphasizing that there are more important issues in this country than keeping gay people from getting married...


WHATEVER it is, the Democrats as a whole need to come up with something that most everyone can get behind, and hammer that home everytime the Republicans bring this issue up. Right now it's some Democrats saying one thing, and another bunch saying another thing, and another large bunch saying this, etc.

Sen. Reid: pls. sign anti-discrimination declaration to be sent to Frist

Each week, Senator Frist and the Republican Leadership make choices about the Senate agenda. They could focus our work on record high gas prices, the war in Iraq, or skyrocketing health care costs.

But there's an ugly truth: it's election season and down-in-the-polls Republicans are turning to their same old playbook - fear and division. During the week of June 5th, Bill Frist, in an attempt to appease extreme right wing elements of the Republican Party, has promised that the Senate will vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment and attempt to write discrimination into the Constitution for the first time in 230 years.

Join me in telling Senator Frist, "The Senate should be working on real issues - not writing discrimination into the Constitution" by visiting:

http://giveemhellharry.com/realissues

This divisive and unnecessary amendment that would undermine the Constitution has overwhelmingly failed each time the Senate has voted on it. We don't need another Terri Schiavo moment where we spend valuable time away from the important work that needs to be done. Now, more than ever, it's time to focus on security, solutions for the high cost of healthcare and gas prices.

We need a President and a Congress that doesn't play divisive politics. At a time of war, Republicans should unite the country, not divide and undermine its founding principles.

http://giveemhellharry.com/realissues

Thank you,

Harry Reid

and I know his heart is in the right place.

But that was five paragraphs that could have been condensed into one sound byte: the Bigotry Amendment.

Which might have made the news and would catch people's attention.

hate-filled rhetoric, and his affiliation with bigots Robertson,Falwell and Dobson. ("the naked, grunting pig") He should start speaking about it now.

of non-English speakers.

They don't have even close to enough votes to get it out of the Senate. It's just a lame wedge issue vote that they can scream about to their base about and try to get some support going for November. If I was Harry Reid, I'd say nothing about it. Let the vote come then fail. Then go back to the vast right wing corruption scandal of your choice.

A bunch of people who see themselves as better than THOSE people.
Snobs.
Better than thou's.
The "thank God I'm not as one of THESE!"
Christian snobs who know God, but God would say He NEVER knew them.

The idea expressed in the word bigotry is not deemed applicable by the people it tries to reach and cajole.