Coop's Corner
October 29, 2009 6:05 PM

Are The Dems (Finally) Learning From Luntz?

By
Charles Cooper
Topics
In The News
(AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)
Long before the current health care debate got underway, the Democratic Congressional leadership could have done itself a huge favor by getting reacquainted reading George Orwell's famous essay on politics and the English language. In an increasingly Orwellian world, the great writer is there to remind readers that yes, words do, in fact, matter.

So it was that soon after the elections, when Democrats first began talking about health care reform, they ran into resistance from conservatives and many independents who hated the sound of a "public option." Could you blame them? Talk about monikers from hell. When people heard the term, I bet they had little notion what it meant.

The Republicans, who seem a lot savvier than the Democrats when it comes to this, were able to suggest sinister scenarios where distant bureaucrats would wind up dictating terms and conditions to hapless consumers.
For example, House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) just yesterday called the plan as "a freight train of mandates, taxes and bureaucracy." House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) summoned every potential boogeyman he could think of as he labeled the bill a "monstrosity."

"It's going to kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates in it and it's going to cut senior's healthcare benefits," he said. "If all that isn't bad enough, the mandates on states are going to bankrupt states that already have huge financial problems to deal with."

Translation: Government diktats will produce more unemployment, higher taxes, and less money for grandma. (Goodbye Norman Rockwell, hello Commissar Nogoodnikchev.)

This is straight out of the Frank Luntz playbook. A pollster who has advised Republican politicians on language issues over the years, Luntz who is credited with helping develop the terminology for the `Contract with America" has a knack for renaming policies in ways that motivate the Republican base (and beyond.) The short list includes coming up with the term "death tax" as a substitute for "estate tax" or "inheritance tax," "energy exploration" instead of "drilling" and "climate change" instead of "global warming."

Putting lipstick on a pig? You bet but isn't that what politics is all about. The liberals only wish they had a Luntz in their corner. If they had, there's no way they would have wound up with a clunker like the public option.

Considering all that, it's still remarkable how many people continue to support the inclusion of a government-run health insurance program (65 percent in favor versus 26 percent against, according to a late September CBS News/New York Times poll.) But with the end game on health care reform finally coming into view, the Democrats are getting somewhat smarter about naming conventions. In talking about the public plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has begun referring to the "consumer option" or the "competition option."

That's a more appealing way to describe the public option, though it's unlikely Democrats will drop the former nomenclature entirely. A staffer from Pelosi's office explained that Congress is just too far down the road to drop "public option" from its lexicon. "Certainly, words do matter. But it takes a long time to rebrand something. If we were just starting out now, that would be something else."

  • Charles Cooper is an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie.

Add a Comment
by Ferrell-2 October 30, 2009 6:06 PM EDT
Vote baiting by any other name is still vote baiting. The Democrats thought they were masters at this until Republicans re-educated them. Now, both parties need to go back to square one and get us voters involved in naming of proposed bills. A financial disaster by any other name is still a financial disaster.
Reply to this comment
by inketolstoy October 30, 2009 1:34 PM EDT
It says a lot about the state of our society that the use (or abuse) of language by politics to sway the ignorant masses is now considered normal. Change, hope, freedom, reform; they are just words in today's politics, not ideas or goals. Or as Orwell said, "all animials are equal, but some are more equal than others." Better to say something that sounds good but is bad, than to say something that sounds bad but is good.
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by koko98-2009 October 30, 2009 12:23 PM EDT
The only thing that bone-head can teach you is how to get fired from FOX.
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by Floretta52 October 30, 2009 10:12 AM EDT
Here's my suggestion (listen closely): Medicare. for. all.
Reply to this comment
by mem18 October 30, 2009 12:28 PM EDT
I think it should be Medicaid for all Medicaid is funded by the states and the feds. Each state can make it's own changes to the plan.
Example there are more skin Cancers cases in FL than in NH, so higher payments in fla would case more skin cancer doctors to located in Fl.
by inketolstoy October 30, 2009 3:48 PM EDT
Here's my problem with that (listen closely): Medicare spends millions more than it brings in every year (despite more people putting into it than take out). What happens to the federal deficit (already growing exponentially) when everyone gets medicare but only sixty or so percent are putting money in?
by rightbehind October 30, 2009 9:27 AM EDT
Problem for the republicans is the voters are on to them. They wrap themselves in the flag to steal rights and freedoms. They will cover poop legislation with a title like the "Postal Accountability Act". This law forced the United States Post Office to pay for "health care" insurance 10 years in advance which sent the post office budget into the red. Then the republicans had the gall to say look at the Post Office another government failure. 18 more republican senate seats on the ballot in 2010. We need to send them all packing. We might get lucky and the good people of Connecticut might recall lieberman and his seat might be on the ballot to.
Reply to this comment
by hungry1968-17 October 30, 2009 9:14 AM EDT
Advocating FOR Frank Luntz?

I knew this Cooper guy was a moron, but I didn't realize he hated America too.
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