The Frame

Editor's Note: The Frame, by Don Hazen, will be a regular column on AlterNet, often featuring George Lakoff, linguistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

How the candidates frame key issues and messages is a crucial factor in how the public perceives them and how voters are motivated. A frame is a mental structure used in thinking. All words are defined relative to frames; basically it's the image that comes into one's mind in association with a particular word or phrase.

One of the most effective frames used by the Bush Administration is the term "tax relief. " For there to be "relief" there must be an affliction, an afflicted party and the reliever -- in other words the hero. And those who resist "tax relief" become the villain. In other words Bush and Co. has effectively used "tax relief " so that both his opponents and the media use it without thinking. The result is that the responsibility for and the benefits of taxes are lost in the discussion.

Don Hazen: Despite a long period of bad news for the Republicans, John Kerry doesn't yet seem to have made much progress in bringing the voters over to him. A front page story in Sunday's New York Times quotes Democratic party officials concerned about his trouble in settling on a defining theme for his presidency. One difficulty he has had is in framing a consistent message that is easy to understand and would resonate with voters. If you were in charge of the messaging, what would you be saying?

George Lakoff: Kerry should be saying "Let's make America stronger again." The message should be: The Bush guys and the conservatives in general have weakened the country. I would say the same thing over and over again, emphasizing all the different reasons: In Iraq, our soldiers are being shot at in impossible situations. They have stretched the armed forces so thin that there is serious talk of reinstituting the draft. Overall the conservatives have weakened health and environmental protections, they have weakened the Medicare system, and they have weakened the country fundamentally by pushing a culture war that is vicious and separates people. That is a big part. They have also made us hated around the world, which doesn't make us stronger. They have made the dollar weak. People aren't focused on it right now, but if go abroad you find out how weak the dollar is.

If the Democrats want to succeed, it is necessary to pin this weakness on Bush. People have to say this really loudly. And Bush himself is a weak president. When he testified to the 9/11 commission, he needed Cheney to be there to hold his hand, like a little kid going with his mommy. Is he a president or isn't he? What kind of president can't talk for himself? This weakness should be a national issue.

What else should the Democrats be saying?

Speakers should continually recall the Clark and O'Neill books, which have separate independent testimony to the fact that Bush doesn't read his briefings. Important information about 9/11 -- he didn't get. Weak presidents do not pay attention. There is a pattern of him not paying attention to things about the defense of our country and the protections of our citizens. That seems clear regarding 9/11. He also ignored all the warnings about why we shouldn't go into Iraq -- the same reasons we didn't march to Baghdad in the first Gulf War; you 'll have civil war; you'll have guerilla war. it will be a quagmire.

How do you get this message out? The Dems right now don't have a hit man like Cheney.

That's right, but there are many people among the conservatives who are going out there ahead of Cheney. If the Democrats are to succeed , this focus on weakness needs to be said by everyone, by candidates running for office all over the country. There needs to be more spokespeople. The Republicans have agents who constantly call up TV stations and get their people on the air. Democrats, progressives need the same kind of aggressive agents -- a network of experts. They have not organized the academic world, but the conservatives have organized theirs. They have not organized NGO leaders who can speak on their own. Kerry needs not to be out there all by himself, so they can take shots at him. He should be in the middle surrounded by many people saying the same message.