Everyone know the left deals in reality and a lot of the time it actually works to our disadvantage. When it takes you more than a few words or even takes a few sentences to counteract a Republican talking point, you lose the "gut feeling argument" more often than not. Well I think the solution is that we need to develop our own slogans and then back them up with irrefutable facts. Progressives and Democrats can use those slogans first as a rebuttal, before getting into wonky policy details that will turn some off. And those that truly understand the slogans and the details can easily reinforce the ideas they contain during the election campaigns to their friends, neighbors, and co-workers. While I don't think this list is complete or necessarily prioritized right, it is easier to demonstrate with examples and let the DailyKOS community take it from there.
1) Tax Cuts For The Rich Destroy Jobs
Every time you cut taxes for the rich you destroy tons of jobs, you don't create any. We have lost so many police, firefighters, teachers, and construction workers to tax cuts for the rich. We no longer have enough people to protect us, educate our children, or repair our roads and bridges, that everyone agrees are falling apart. None of those jobs are welfare or handouts, and every one of those lost jobs results in less money being spent in the economy. But, as bad as that is alone, the reality is actually so much worse than that.
When you cut taxes for the rich you end up sending more jobs overseas. This results in the destruction of a lot more private sector jobs too. Corporate profits are at an all time high and taxes are at an all time low, so why aren't there more jobs? The answer is that the rich took their tax cuts and invested in factories in China, India, Mexico, etc...; the rich did not invest in the United States. So not only did we lose the public sectors jobs from the cuts, the private sector invested in other countries sending more jobs overseas and destroying even more jobs in the United States. And Republicans refuse to eliminate tax breaks for the rich that are sending those jobs overseas. The rich are paying even less in taxes precisely because they are sending your jobs overseas.
The basic idea is this. Every time a Republican says "Tax Cuts For The Rich Create Jobs" , any Democrat can counter with, "No they don't. Tax Cuts For The Rich Destroy Jobs", and then lay into the facts that back it up. If we start with the facts we will continue to lose the messaging war. If we counter with our own slogan that is very easy to remember, and then get into the details, we will win the messaging war every time. On the majority of issues the American People are on the side of the Democrats. We are only losing as much as we do because we haven't communicated that very well.
Follow me below for a few more examples that will give Frank Lutz & his Messaging Machine of Lies a well deserved heart attack.
2) Republicans Are Weak On Defense
There has been a myth in politics for a long time that Republicans are stronger on defense than Democrats. Nothing could be further from the truth.
a) The lie we went to Iraq for was that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 and that he was an immediate nuclear threat to The United States. If we ignore that lie and assume it to be true, how did that happen? It happened because President Ronald Reagan sold weapons to Saddam Hussein and gave him millions of U.S. tax dollars in free money, allowing Hussein's murderous regime to flourish. Every Democrat should carry a picture of Donald Rumsfeld meeting with Hussein in his or her wallet at all times, to pull out whenever the "Stronger On Defense" lie is trotted out.
b) Reagan also violated international law by selling arms to Iran. At the same time he was doing that, Reagan used the U.S. military to give away Iranaian troop positions to Iraq. Reagan knew Saddam would use that information to gas the Iranians with chemical weapons, in violation of international law, making Ronald Regan a War Criminal.
c) When the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed in 1983, Ronald Reagan cut and run by IMMEDIATELY pulling us out of Beirut altogether. Osama Bin Laden said Regan's cowardice led him to believe The United States was nothing more than "Paper Tigers".
Osama said, "This was proven in Beirut when the Marines fled after two explosions, showing they can run in less than twenty-four hours"
d) Ronald Regan gave millions of aid to Afghanistan in their war against The Soviet Union. The U.S. Military under Reagan's leadership helped to train the very terrorists that actually did attack us on 9/11.
e) After going to war with Iraq in the 1990's, President George Herbert Walker Bush left Hussein in power. If Hussein actually the threat the second President Bush claimed he was, it was his own father that left Saddam in power to become that threat.
f) George W. Bush was warned multiple times that Osama Bin Laden was "Determined To Strike In The U.S." and he did absolutely nothing. Because of his incompetence close to 3,000 Americans were killed in the biggest attack on U.S. Soil since Pearl Harbor.
g) Despite being the leader of the greatest military in Earth's History, George Bush was unable to capture and kill one man, despite having over 7 years and two terms in office to find him. Something Obama accomplised in less than one term of office. It's even worse because George W. actually shut down the unit hunting for Osama allowing Osama to continue to plan terrorist attacks against The United States.
Again the idea is to keep repeating over and over that "Republicans Are Weak On Defense" and only get into the details when challenged on that assertion. We need to associate Republicans with "Weakness On Defense", not every individual fact of weakness. We need "Republicans Are Weak On Defense" to burrow into the brains of all Americans.
3) Republicans Have Never Been About Small Government
Republicans have always been about big government for the rich and have never been about smaller government.
a) The last 3 Republican Presidents increased the size of government and dramatically increased the size of the debt. Ronald Reagan increased the debt by almost 2 trillion dollars, George H.W. Bush increased it by 1.5 trillion, and George W. Bush increased it by almost 5 trillion dollars. The idea that Republicans fight for smaller government and less debt is a bald faced lie.
b) The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans fight to give more of your tax dollars to the rich. While those Republican Presidents were increasing the debt, they also fought to cut all sorts of social programs like welfare and food stamps. So where did the money go? In Republican Government, tax dollars are taken from the poor and given to the rich. All 3 of the last Republican Presidents fought tooth and nail to give your tax dollars to hugely profitable oil companies through subsidies they didn't need. Dick Cheney gave no bid contracts to Halliburton for weapons systems the military doesn't even want. Cheney still owned stock in the company he used to be the CEO of, while at the same time he was steering them billions of dollars in contracts to line his own pockets.
4) Republicans Are Not Christians
You can also phrase it as "You Can Be A Republican Or a Christian, But You Cannot Be Both At The Same Time."
a) The Bible says "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." It also says to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give shelter to the homeless. Do Republicans give the majority of their money away to help the poor? No, they demand that they be allowed to keep more and more for themselves because of their never ending greed. Do they demand the government feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless? No, they throw hissy fits about every program to help the less fortunate and demand the government end all social welfare programs.
b) The Bible says "Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged", "Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone", and "Whatever You Do To The Least Of My People, That You Do Unto Me". Now it would be one thing if Republicans were sitting outside abortion clinics, crying and praying for the souls of the mother and the baby. Or if they welcomed gays into their churches with love while trying to convince them they are worried for their souls. BUT THEY DON'T. They sit outside abortion clinics screaming the most hateful things while taking perverse joy that the women are going to hell. They do everything they can to hurt homosexuals and never once treat them with love or compassion. They also never consider the fact that God might be testing them to see how they treat the least of his people. Never crosses their mind even though the Bible is full of those kinds of stories. They gleefully sit in judgement of others whild ignoring their own sins.
c) Republicans are even wrong on abortion itself. The point of The Garden of Evil was that man chose free will over paradise. Democrats aren't outside abortion clinics handing out money and cheering the women on. They are saying each person was given the right to make their own choices and it is up to them to make peace with God for what they have done. Republicans on the other hand are sitting outside abortion clinics while gleefully sitting in judgement of these women when the Bible repeatedly tells them not to.
5) Republicans Are Willfully Ignorant
Republicans proudly claim that the Earth is 6,000 years old even though our entire nuclear industry couldn't exist if that was true. Tell them to Google half life or Nuclear Decay. Never mind all the other evidence proving The Earth is billions of years old. Republicans also deny the overwhelming science behind evolution and global warming. The reason the Republican Party has so much crazy in it is precisely because of these very denials. Once you say you no longer have to accept science or facts, every single deranged person has to be given equal weight because you have no way to refute them. Facts and science are no longer enough. The other reason their wilful ignorance is so dangerous is because it makes it impossible to govern. The world is an incredibly complex ecosystem and if we can't agree on what the basic facts are it is impossible to govern. We need to hammer their ignorance so it becomes easier to refute their never ending stream of lies.
I could go on, but that is not the point. The point was to show that in my 5 examples the longest slogan uses 7 words and that it is not hard to counter Republican Talking Points. Some of you will have better ideas and better ways of reflecting those ideas. I think the next step is to find the issues that resonate the most with voters and do our best to come up with slogans to refute Republican talking points.