How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Republican Governors Association met this week in Florida to give GOP state executives a chance to rejuvenate, strategize and team-build. But during a plenary session on Wednesday, one question kept coming up: How can Republicans do a better job of talking about Occupy Wall Street?

Yahoo News sat in on the session, and counted 10 do's and don'ts from Luntz covering how Republicans should fight back by changing the way they discuss the movement.

1. Don't say 'capitalism.' "I'm trying to get that word removed and we're replacing it with either 'economic freedom' or 'free market,' " Luntz said. "The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem."

2. Don't say that the government 'taxes the rich.' Instead, tell them that the government 'takes from the rich.' "If you talk about raising taxes on the rich," the public responds favorably, Luntz cautioned. But "if you talk about government taking the money from hardworking Americans, the public says no. Taxing, the public will say yes."

3. Republicans should forget about winning the battle over the 'middle class.' Call them 'hardworking taxpayers.' "They cannot win if the fight is on hardworking taxpayers. We can say we defend the 'middle class' and the public will say, I'm not sure about that. But defending 'hardworking taxpayers' and Republicans have the advantage."

4. Don't talk about 'jobs.' Talk about 'careers.' "Everyone in this room talks about 'jobs,'" Luntz said. "Watch this." He then asked everyone to raise their hand if they want a "job." Few hands went up. Then he asked who wants a "career." Almost every hand was raised. "So why are we talking about jobs?"

5. Don't say 'government spending.' Call it 'waste.' "It's not about 'government spending.' It's about 'waste.' That's what makes people angry."

6. Don't ever say you're willing to 'compromise.' "If you talk about 'compromise,' they'll say you're selling out. Your side doesn't want you to 'compromise.' What you use in that to replace it with is 'cooperation.' It means the same thing. But cooperation means you stick to your principles but still get the job done. Compromise says that you're selling out those principles."

7. The three most important words you can say to an Occupier: 'I get it.' "First off, here are three words for you all: 'I get it.' . . . 'I get that you're angry. I get that you've seen inequality. I get that you want to fix the system." Then, he instructed, offer Republican solutions to the problem.

8. Out: 'Entrepreneur.' In: 'Job creator.' Use the phrases "small business owners" and "job creators" instead of "entrepreneurs" and "innovators."

9. Don't ever ask anyone to 'sacrifice.' "There isn't an American today in November of 2011 who doesn't think they've already sacrificed. If you tell them you want them to 'sacrifice,' they're going to be be pretty angry at you. You talk about how 'we're all in this together.' We either succeed together or we fail together."

10. Always blame Washington. Tell them, "You shouldn't be occupying Wall Street, you should be occupying Washington. You should occupy the White House because it's the policies over the past few years that have created this problem."

news.yahoo.com...

Speaks for itself.

I've actually mentioned some of these things in prior posts on ATS. Rarely do Republicans mention the middle class....but mention "taxpayers." Rarely do they ever call the wealthiest "rich"....they are called job creators.

Originally posted by David9176
Speaks for itself.

Sure. It's the flip side of what goes on with OWS and far left democrats. Just like the Republicans .... I'm sure the far left and the dems have their little power sessions where they get together and figure out what the right phrases are and what key words to use. Nothing is as it seems. Both are mirror images of the other ...

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by David9176
Speaks for itself.

Sure. It's the flip side of what goes on with OWS and far left democrats. Just like the Republicans .... I'm sure the far left and the dems have their little power sessions where they get together and figure out what the right phrases are and what key words to use. Nothing is as it seems. Both are mirror images of the other ...

I was just thinking that while reading it myself. This is the flip side, but the same kind of chat going on in Democrat and Union meetings to set talking points for THEIR side. Gee... Remember when OWS was actually a movement of the people and just for the people, not the Union bosses or White House? Well.. That lasted all of a couple months.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I don't remember that. From the beginning it was orchestrated by the left and Unions and while targeting business rather then the real issues.

reply to post by FlyersFan


So where are the memos instructing Dems how to talk about OWS, hmm?

Back to the OP, this isn't much different than the internal memos FOX 'News' circulated telling it's people how to talk about certain topics;

33 internal FOX editorial memos reviewed by MMFA reveal FOX News Channel's inner workings

This guy Luntz also works for FOX (big surprise, right?) This guy is a master of the psy-ops and pyscho-babble, crafting messages to appeal to raw emotion and to exact the desired response.

Luntz frequently tests word and phrase choices using focus groups and interviews. His stated purpose in this is the goal of causing audiences to react based on emotion. "80 percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than how you think." "If I respond to you quietly, the viewer at home is going to have a different reaction than if I respond to you with emotion and with passion and I wave my arms around. Somebody like this is an intellectual; somebody like this is a freak."

(from Frank Luntz

All this talk about "Well, the other side does it too" um NO, the other side doesn't engage in these sort of sleazoid tactics. What Luntz does is borrow a page straight from Goebbels and engages in pure propaganda that appeals to the basest and meanest emotions of the bottom demographics.

I've actually mentioned some of these things in prior posts on ATS. Rarely do Republicans mention the middle class....but mention "taxpayers." Rarely do they ever call the wealthiest "rich"....they are called job creators.

The only job creators the left seems to think exists is the Unions, which is flat out wrong.

reply to post by thehoneycomb

The only job creators the left seems to think exists is the Unions, which is flat out wrong.

I'll tell you who the job creators are. People who buy American products....that includes those in unions, those who are not, and the poor. DEMAND creates jobs. Profit does not...although it is needed obviously.

A business is dependent on average americans AND it's workers....who are buying another businesses products.

reply to post by David9176


Thats an interesting point. But you know what? Many of the american manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas to China. Why, because with Labor Unions demanding more and more pensions, pay and benefits it has become more cost effective for businesses to ship manufacturing jobs overseas to a communist country called China, where it's citizens make prison wages. If we relied on the Unions here and did not ship jobs overseas, most businesses would go out of business, simply because they can not afford to pay union wages.

reply to post by thehoneycomb

Thats an interesting point. But you know what? Many of the american manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas to China. Why, because with Labor Unions demanding more and more pensions, pay and benefits it has become more cost effective for businesses to ship manufacturing jobs overseas to a communist country called China,

The loss of manufacturing to China is not the fault of unions. FREE TRADE caused the loss of our manufacturing. Without a tariff on imports, the only way to keep the jobs here is to accept slave labor wages.

Is that what you want? I assure you, that's not what Unions want....

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by David9176
Speaks for itself.

Sure. It's the flip side of what goes on with OWS and far left democrats. Just like the Republicans .... I'm sure the far left and the dems have their little power sessions where they get together and figure out what the right phrases are and what key words to use. Nothing is as it seems. Both are mirror images of the other ...

Not at all. Not because Democrat strategists would not want as disciplined of a message machine, but they simply don't have it. It is like herding cats.

Aside from idealogy, republicans have a loud and disciplined (consistent) message machine...and Luntz has been a large part of it in recent years. More on him later...

reply to post by David9176


Frank Luntz was the strategist in 2009 that got everyone saying "Government takeover of Healthcare"...no I am not kidding, the language was researched and polled to confirm it's emotional hot button potential and then Lutz directed the GOP to start using the phrase...

Here is his advisory document on healthcare reform.

wonkroom.thinkprogress.org...

BTW "Government Takeover of healthcare" was such a blatently false description of the healthcare reform law that the non-partisan/stick it to both parties...site Politifact ranked it as the "Lie of the Year!"

Lutz is famous for being the language "genius" behind most GOP rhetoric.

When you see all the GOP using the same language or phrase...look for a memo from Lutz. Every time..

He is an expert in selling crappy ideas via carefully chosen language.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by David9176
Speaks for itself.

Sure. It's the flip side of what goes on with OWS and far left democrats. Just like the Republicans .... I'm sure the far left and the dems have their little power sessions where they get together and figure out what the right phrases are and what key words to use. Nothing is as it seems. Both are mirror images of the other ...

I was just thinking that while reading it myself. This is the flip side, but the same kind of chat going on in Democrat and Union meetings to set talking points for THEIR side. Gee... Remember when OWS was actually a movement of the people and just for the people, not the Union bosses or White House? Well.. That lasted all of a couple months.

..."Democrat and Union meetings"...

How much do you make a year? What is your job position and title? If you are going to criticize workers for trying to do something better for themselves by collectively bargaining, then you need to tell us why it is wrong to do so.
Ultimately, who is your"boss"? Put that fair tax sticker on the back of your '98 Taurus and rage against those unions.

"The last thing abandoned by a party is its phraseology, because among political parties, as elsewhere, the vulgar make the language, and the vulgar abandon more easily the ideas that have been instilled into it than the words that it has learnt." - Alexis de Tocqueville

"Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." - H.L. Mencken

Really I should add more but I think what I posted above is that really needs to be said.

Originally posted by Misoir
"The last thing abandoned by a party is its phraseology, because among political parties, as elsewhere, the vulgar make the language, and the vulgar abandon more easily the ideas that have been instilled into it than the words that it has learnt." - Alexis de Tocqueville

"Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." - H.L. Mencken

Really I should add more but I think what I posted above is that really needs to be said.

Do unto others...
Where did I hear that before?
Rich man, camel, needle?
Suffer the poor?

Your Christ that you have espoused love for in the past must be an a**h01e compared with the one in the bible...

Kinda like the left keep have been taught that the Tea Party folks are a bunch of racist rednecks.
Ha.

I heard a caller on a local black radio show say today that that Herman Cain is being targetted by racist white republicans and the tea party because he is black.
HA.
Extremely out of touch.

He is being targetted by the racist liberal media and partison liberal white women.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer

All this talk about "Well, the other side does it too" um NO, the other side doesn't engage in these sort of sleazoid tactics. What Luntz does is borrow a page straight from Goebbels and engages in pure propaganda that appeals to the basest and meanest emotions of the bottom demographics.

If you really, truly believe that only one political view does this, then I, really and truly, feel very sorry for you, and for your ignorance.

You need to turn off the LSM crapola news that is input into your brain.
Republicans AND Democrats are WHORES.

Can you not see that each is but a twig on the same branch?

Pelosi saying that "we have to pass the bill to see what's in it..... away from the controversy."
(note that is a slight paraphrase to remove her errs and ahhs. link here.
Speech like that is not an issue to you?

How about "Let us all remember who the real enemy is. The real enemy is the Tea Party."

I would happen to guess that you think the tea party are a bunch of extreme wingnuts who should be locked up. I would also happen to guess that you think that OWS is a proud and true organisation.
Well each group has some of each in it.

What now? Are you going to make excuses for one group and not the other? You may not realize this but both groups have a similar goal.

Your idiotic partisanship only furthers the negative towards the USA as a whole.

reply to post by sporkmonster


Do you see Jesse Jackson or Maxine Waters distributing memos to news agencies or Democrats with talking points on how to demonize the TP? They have their opinions and they are vocal about how they feel - last time I checked, still permitted in this country.

The difference here is with characters like Frank Luntz - a non-public shadowy figure - crafting these memos and talking points in language designed to demonize OWS and distributing those talking points to Republicans and FOX 'News'. Are they incapable of thinking for themselves?

Another example of this tactic is here: Lobbying firm's memo spells out plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street

A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “Up w/ Chris Hayes.” The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association. CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead. According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.” The memo also suggests that Democratic victories in 2012 should not be the ABA’s biggest concern. “… (T)he bigger concern,” the memo says, “should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street companies.”

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by David9176
Speaks for itself.

Sure. It's the flip side of what goes on with OWS and far left democrats. Just like the Republicans .... I'm sure the far left and the dems have their little power sessions where they get together and figure out what the right phrases are and what key words to use. Nothing is as it seems. Both are mirror images of the other ...

I look forward to your thread exposing those memos and meetings with great enthusiasm. Otherwise, are you just saying is so because "you are sure" it is? Why are you sure? Can you make me sure?

Don't say Inheritance tax..say "Death Tax"
Don't say Healthcare Reform...say "Government Takeover of Healthcare"
Don't say corpoorations or Wall Street...say "Job Creators"
Don't say Oil Drilling...say "Energy Exploration"

Luntz literally gave us those phrases...he is like the serial killer of the English language.

Luntz will take a crappy proposal or political position and sit groups of folks in a room and Poll them until he figures out specific language that works. By works...he proudly looks for emotional responses that over-ride actual intellectual consideration of the issue.

I am not exagerating. He brags about this talent. Que the "lizard brain".

reply to post by Indigo5


Yep I have seen him on politically incorrect not only bragging about his methods and means but also admitting that he knows much of it is intellectually dishonest and meant purely to find a way to serve his masters by properly propagandizing their message. He knows what he is doing. People like you and me know what he is doing. His target audience falls for it hook line and sinker.