Diarist jillwklausen has a great post up called 5 Words And Phrases Democrats Should Never Say Again that I highly recommend. I too have been frustrated over the years how good Republicans are at framing issues and how bad Democrats are. Not only bad, but even adopt GOP framing! It's like the Democrats have never heard of George Lakoff.
The recent diary inspired me to add my own framing ideas in a diary. I'm not going to go into the nuts and bolts of framing here, so first read jillwklausen's diary and follow some of the links at the bottom to get a better idea of what framing is all about and why it's so important.
Personally, I'd love it if someone with more juice than me decided to put together a petition trying to get Democratic politicians to start learning about framing and employing progressive framing language.
With that said, follow the squiggle to read some framing ideas....
I mostly agree with jillwklausen's suggestions:
Entitlements -> Earned Benefits
Redistribution of Wealth -> Fair Wages For Work
Employer Paid Health Insurance -> Employee Earned Health Insurance
I would make small changes to the last two:
Government Spending -> Public Investment
Corporate America -> Corporate Elite, Corporate Oligarchy, 1%
Besides these excellent suggestions, I humbly submit some other ideas, most of which are not unique to me.
Not all social programs are earned benefits like Social Security. Medicaid is an example of this kind of "unearned" benefit. I think it is important that we identify such programs as part of the Social Safety Net.
Pensions -> Deferred Wages
Tax Penalties -> Financial Obligations
Corporate Subsidies -> Corporate Handouts
Single Payer -> Medicare for All
Gay Marriage -> Marriage Equality
Pro-choice -> Reproductive Freedom, Reproductive Rights
Marijuana legalization -> Decriminalization (this is a stopgap solution)
Austerity -> American Divestment, Repossessing America, Dismantling America
Regulation -> Safety Measures; Our government does not "regulate business", it "Protects Americans from corporate irresponsibility and malfeasance".
Capital Gains Tax -> Unearned Income Tax
Flat Tax -> Regressive Taxation
Right to Work Laws -> Anti-Labor Laws, Free Rider Laws, Right-to-Fire Laws
Pro-life -> Anti-choice, forced reproduction, anti-woman
A note on the abortion thing: I think progressives should co-op the pro-life label. There is nothing inherently contradictory about saying one is pro-life and pro-choice. Pro-life should be redefined to mean caring about the life of everyone, including mothers and children across the lifespan. Being pro-life includes respecting the reproductive rights of women and making good policy choices that will make abortions safe and rare, but not illegal or unduly restricted (esp. based on SES). Life does not begin at conception---it continues at conception...eggs and sperm are both alive, after all. The issue is really personhood, and a very good argument can be made that a fetus is not a person as such. The issue doesn't have to be resolved into complete social consensus...as long as a good argument can be made, then any laws that restrict choice are unethical....it is up to the woman (and her doctor) to decide the issue. Period.
I also think it is important for us, including politicians, to start using consistent language when describing the two parties. Some easy examples:
Progressive-Liberal-Democratic Party should be described using words like:
fair, responsible, forward-thinking, pragmatic, effective, inclusive, respectful, compassionate, empathic, thriving, prosperous, in it together, protective, ethical, efficient, optimal, 99%, cooperative, healthy, empowerment, democratic.
GOP-Conservative-Right should be described using words like:
regressive, harsh, selfish, unforgiving, hard-hearted, intolerant, partisan, unfair, narrow, dogmatic, short-sighted, dog eat dog, suspicious, elite, hypocritical, miserly, wasteful, predatory, 1%, Wall Street, unforgiving, incompetent, ineffective, alienating, neglectful, anti-science, confrontational, disagreeable, ideological, corrupt, misleading, slippery, dangerous, deprivation
These are all just ideas for consideration. All I want is to keep the conversation going. Framing is an important issue and we can't keep ceding it to the GOP.