The Most Important Words Democrats MUST Start Using Immediately

In my most recent post, 5 Words And Phrases Democrats Should Never Say Again, I talked about how critical "framing" is in defeating the GOP.

Remember the major success they had with their "death panels" at frightening people who actually supported all of the policies within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into vociferously opposing the entire bill? Here's Dr. George Lakoff, professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley:

One of the reasons that it is not happening is that there is a failure to understand the difference between policy and morality, that morality beats policy, and that moral discourse is absolutely necessary. This is a major reason why the Democrats lost the House in 2010. Consider how conservatives got a majority of Americans to be against the Obama health care plan. The president had polled the provisions, and each had strong public support: No preconditions, no caps, no loss of coverage if you get sick, ability to keep your college-age child on your policy, and so on. These are policy details, and they matter. The conservatives never argued against any of them. Instead, they re-framed; they made a moral case against "Obamacare." Their moral principles were freedom and life, and they had language to go with them. Freedom: "government takeover." Life: "death panels." Republicans at all levels repeated them over and over, and convinced millions of people who were for the policy provisions of the Obama plan to be against the plan as a whole. They changed the public discourse, changed the brains of the electorate — especially the "independents" — and won in 2010.

We have the moral high ground on this issue and we need to frame it that way. The Ryan plan will devastate seniors and continue the downward spiral of the middle class into poverty.

And we must say it that way.

Democrats must use the same tactic to take down Paul Ryan and his new plan that the GOP used to poison health insurance reform.

We must call the Ryan plan exactly what it is: The Ryan Path to Poverty.

It is a Path to Poverty for seniors and it is a Path to Poverty for America.

The Ryan Path to Poverty

We need to use that term and only that term when talking about, or posting about, the Ryan Plan. And say it without a shred of irony, but in full earnestness.

The Ryan Path to Poverty.

Republicans know there isn't a shred of hope of actually getting this past the Democratic Senate and Administration, but there's a strategic reason they're trotting it out now: They plan on using this as a campaign tool for the rest of the 2012 election cycle.

We need to turn it against them so it backfires.

Tweet, Facebook and call your representatives in congress and tell them that whenever they get on the air or go out into their districts, that this is how we expect them to talk about this issue.

Paul Ryan and the Republicans are proposing a Path to Poverty for America.

Rob Zerban, who is challenging Paul Ryan for his seat in Congress, issued his official response to Ryan's "Path to Poverty" in a diary on Daily Kos this morning:

As Paul Ryan likes to preach about in his new taxpayer-funded campaign ads, we do have a choice between two futures. One future, under Paul Ryan’s “Path to Poverty”, ends Medicare for our senior citizens, provides tax breaks only to Paul Ryan’s campaign contributors and places the weight of making up the loss in revenue on our already struggling families. The other future is one that puts people over corporations and begins the long haul of an economic recovery that doesn’t place the blame and burden on our working families.

Please consider tweeting the following to anyone and everyone on this list. Getting this into the hands of our media and representatives on The Hill will move us a long way towards ensuring this falls into mainstream use. Thank you so much!

The Single Most Important Words Democrats MUST Start Using Immediately:   #TheRyanPathToPoverty http://bit.ly/GBBzwy

MEDIA	SENATE
Dylan Ratigan @DylanRatigan	Bernie Sanders @SenatorSanders
Bill Press @bpshow	Jay Rockefeller @SenRockefeller
Bill Maher @billmaher	Maria Cantwell @US_Sen_Cantwell
Randi Rhodes @randiradio	Mark Warner @MarkWarner
Stephanie Miller @SMShow	Senator Patty Murray @MurrayCampaign
Thom Hartmann @Thom_Hartmann	Sen. Patrick Leahy @SenatorLeahy
John Fugelsang @JohnFugelsang	Senator Tim Johnson @SenJohnsonSD
Joshua Holland @JoshuaHol	Senator Jeff Merkley @SenJeffMerkley
Nicole Sandler @nicolesandler	Ron Wyden @RonWyden
Robert Reich @RBReich	Senator Kay Hagan @SenatorHagan
Paul Krugman @NYTimeskrugman	Chuck Schumer @ChuckSchumer
Thomas L. Friedman @NYTimesFriedman	Tom Udall @SenatorTomUdall
The Colbert Report @ColbertReport	Senate Energy Cmte @SenateEnergy
Stephen Colbert @StephenAtHome	Frank R. Lautenberg @FrankLautenberg
The Daily Show @TheDailyShow	Sen. Jeanne Shaheen @SenatorShaheen
David Shipley @davidjshipley	Senate Finance Cmte @SenateFinance
Markos Moulitsas @markos	Al Franken @alfranken
Fareed Zakaria @FareedZakaria	John Kerry @JohnKerry
Moyers & Company @MoyersStaff	Barbara Mikulski @SenatorBarb
Bill Moyers @BillMoyers	Tom Harkin @SenatorHarkin
Keith Olbermann @KeithOlbermann	Senator Dick Durbin @SenatorDurbin
Maureen Dowd @NYTimesDowd	Daniel K. Akaka @SenatorAkaka
Joan Walsh @joanwalsh	Daniel Inouye @Daniel_Inouye
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi	Senator Chris Coons @ChrisCoons
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald	Mark Udall @MarkUdall
Andrew Sullivan @sullydish	Senator Mark Begich @SenatorBegich
Gerald F Seib @GeraldFSeib	Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse
James Fallows @JamesFallows	Jon Tester @jontester
Ezra Klein @ezraklein	Debbie Stabenow @stabenow
Mother Jones @MotherJones	Ben Nelson @SenBenNelson
Kevin Drum @kdrum	Sen. Robert Menendez @SenatorMenendez
Kurt Andersen @KBAndersen	Claire McCaskill @clairecmc
Michael Pollan @michaelpollan	Senator Joe Manchin @Sen_JoeManchin
Lawrence O'Donnell @Lawrence	Kirsten Gillibrand @SenGillibrand
Ed Schultz @WeGotEd	Senator Bob Casey @SenBobCasey
Ed Schultz @edshow	Senator Tom Carper @SenatorCarper
Goldie Taylor @goldietaylor	Senator Ben Cardin @SenatorCardin
Melissa Harris-Perry @MHarrisPerry	Richard Blumenthal @SenBlumenthal
Charles M. Blow @CharlesMBlow	Senator Carl Levin @SenCarlLevin
Rachel Maddow MSNBC @maddow	Senate Democrats @SenateDems
Reverend Al Sharpton @TheRevAl	Sen. Barbara Boxer @SenatorBoxer
Matt Miller @mattmillernow
Andrea Mitchell @mitchellreports
Ben Smith of Buzzfeed @bensmith
Prof. George Lakoff @GeorgeLakoff

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