There’s an old argument: control the language, and you control the argument. The GOP is very good at reshaping language to their needs. And they use that skill exclusively to swindle us.

In another post (Democratic Moral Amnesia), I talked about how, when the GOP brands a liberal idea with scare words, Democrats promptly hand over their lunch money. My beef there was with our hapless Democrats, but it’s also worth talking about the Republican techniques themselves, and where they came from.

The GOP’s Southern Strategy was their decision to win white, southern voters by appealing to their racism, their sadness about civil rights and the slight reduction in Jim Crow laws, and the increasing racial tension because African-Americans were actually voting. Maybe it’s my age, but I see Lee Atwater as a seminal influence who revved that up even higher during the 70s and 80s. Newt Gingrich added to that with his pugnacious campaigning. Both were willing to damage America to get what they wanted.

Atwater came out of South Carolina politics and unvarnished segregationists like Strom Thurmond. Atwater moved wedge-issue politics to a whole new level of tribal affiliation. He ran dirty tricks during Reagan’s re-election campaign, and managed George H.W. Bush’s campaign. He didn’t create the GOP’s racist Southern Strategy, but he built it up.

Here’s a quote from Atwater’s infamous 1981 interview:

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

 

Atwater was focused, vicious and, to my eye, a miserable piece of work.

Newt Gingrich took those ideas about language and tribalism and ran with them.

In 1990, after consulting focus groups^[37] with the help of pollster Frank Luntz,^[38]GOPAC [Gingrich’s Political Action Committee] distributed a memo with a cover letter signed by Gingrich titled “Language, a Key Mechanism of Control”, that encouraged Republicans to “speak like Newt.” It contained lists of “contrasting words” — words with negative connotations such as “radical”, “sick,” and “traitors” — and “optimistic positive governing words” such as “opportunity”, “courage”, and “principled”, that Gingrich recommended for use in describing Democrats and Republicans, respectively.^[37]
— Wikipedia, Newt Gingrich

You can find a copy of the Gingrich “Language, a Key Mechanism of Control” memo on the Information Clearing House site. I recommend at least skimming through. It’s only a couple of pages, and every Republican since then has been using the same tricks.

You need to know this stuff. You’ll hear those same words every time Steve Bannen opens his mouth. You’ll see that same approach from every elected Republican.

Do you think you’re not influenced by their tricks? Really?

They scam us over and over, and we fall for it. Read Gingrich’s strategy; you’ll see what I mean. And the best part is that, once you’ve read their secrets, you’ll be harder to sucker-punch the next time.