Words Have Power

"How's that hopey changey thing working out for ya?" asked Sarah Palin.

Hope and Change were two of Obama's most important slogans, but they lacked substance. While "health care reform" or "health insurance reform" are more substantive, they don't lend themselves to sloganeering.

Democrats have a problem, including Obama, conveying their agenda in non-wonkish terms. It would have been so much more easily sold, and understood, if Democrats had campaigned for Medicare for All, rather than health insurance reform. If Medicare for All was too radical for Congressional Democrats (according to polls, it isn't for most people), they should at least have tried to come up with something less opaque and colorless than "Health Insurance Reform."

"Global warming," was easily ridiculed when Washington DC was blanketed in feet of snow (an effect of global warming). I propose a better tag: Bad Climate Change. Cap and Trade? Forgeddaboutit. How about: Stop Bad Climate Change? The tag would make it obvious: we have to do whatever we can to avert as much of the bad effects as possible.

What does 'bad' climate change do, that climate change does not? It adds a value charge, which is what Democrats, and Progressives more generally, have been so bad at conveying: there are values here that we all share. Unless we are awaiting the end of the world, aka the Rapture, we want to continue to live on this bountiful planet.

Another example: when Obama came into office, people were looking for him to proclaim something like The New New Deal. What did we get instead: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the stimulus! It could have been Rebuilding a Better America Act, or even A New Way Forward.

When it comes to the finance industry: everybody outside it loves to hate it, and with good reason. A bill to stop bad practices, to discourage risky behavior and to prevent bankers from ripping off everyone else, is what we need. It could be called Making Bankers Honest Act, which could be wildly popular, despite all the bank money ranged against it. Instead, we have Financial Regulatory Reform. Bank money will be flung against it anyway, but it will be a lot harder to rally troops to counteract those millions of dollars.

Screw bipartisanship! If Obama is going to push through real change, he'll have to do what he did with health care. Politically it would work better if he could package it to sell, like Stop Bad Climate Change. Otherwise:

The best lack all conviction
And the worst are filled with passionate intensity…


Just listen to John Boehner on health care!