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The Occupy protests seem to have captured the attention of one of the top Republican pollsters — and they’ve scared the hell out of him. Chris Moody has a terrific report on this today.
The Republican Governors Association met this week in Florida to give GOP state executives a chance to rejuvenate, strategize and team-build. But during a plenary session on Wednesday, one question kept coming up: How can Republicans do a better job of talking about Occupy Wall Street?
“I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation’s foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. “They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
As is his wont, Luntz provided Republicans with a series of carefully-crafted rhetorical suggestions in order to help manipulate audiences. For example, “waste” and “government spending” are apparently supposed to be interchangeable. Calls for “sacrifice” and “compromise” are easily misunderstood. Voters don’t believe Republicans are defending the middle class, so GOP officials should instead talk about “hardworking taxpayers.” And Americans are supposed to be told that government “takes from the rich,” not “taxes the rich,” because taxing the rich is popular.
That last point was of particular interest, because Republicans, polls to the contrary notwithstanding, like to pretend that asking more from the very wealthy isn’t popular at all.
And as Greg Sargent noted, that suggests Luntz’s research includes “a pretty striking concession.”
This longtime GOP pollster, adviser, and messaging expert is admitting that the Dem push for tax hikes on the rich has Republicans on the defensive, and that Republicans need to come up with a better way of obscuring what Dems are trying to achieve on the issue. He’s also admitting that the public isn’t inclined to believe Republicans represent the interests of the middle class.
No wonder Republicans are so worried they’re losing the message war over jobs and the economy — they are losing.
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DAY on December 01, 2011 4:46 PM:
Hey, Frank: How does your focus group feel about the phrase "EAT the Rich?"
Danp on December 01, 2011 4:54 PM:
If a Republican politician starts complaining about "taking from the rich", I will assume he is whining about this week's cash flow.
stmojo on December 01, 2011 5:02 PM:
Is there anyone more cynical than Frank Luntz?
June on December 01, 2011 5:05 PM:
Is it possible that Luntz is finally experiencing "create-the-next-pack-of-vicious-GOP-lies" fatigue?
Tyler on December 01, 2011 5:07 PM:
What did they think was going to happen? No on wants our country to go back to the 1800s, besides the Tea party. The Republicans did this to themselves, no one trusts anything they say anymore. I was telling my dad and friends that all the Republian party is now is the Rich and the scandal party. This idea that we cant tax the job creators, what jobs? After ten years of losing millions of US jobs, how is this even credible. The Dems, media and protestor should start asking that question, after ten long painful years of giving the rich whatever they want, where is our jobs?
Peter C on December 01, 2011 5:20 PM:
Wait! you mean that the group holding a 'plenary session' is calling other people 'socialists'????? Is that the same party that touts one of its presidential frontrunners as a history professor?
T2 on December 01, 2011 5:22 PM:
crooks like Luntz and Rove have made a living out of lying to the public, misinformation. They know their Party's actual platform is a loser, so they come up with different ways to win. Question has always been- what happens when people stop buying it. OWS is the answer. When people get the simple plain truth, the Luntz's of the GOP world start to choke on their own lies. Sure he's scared. Just think about this for a minute: what if the Bush Supreme Court had not allowed unlimited PAC secret money? Right now, that's all that's keeping the GOP in the game.
c u n d gulag on December 01, 2011 5:26 PM:
100% of Luntz = 1% Rich putz.
Spin, putz, spin!
I'm waiting for him to absolve Newt by saying, he was never involved with "lobbying!"
No, it was 'enhanced historification!"
Not enough bad shit can happen to Luntz and Rove.
The only thing that would make me happy, God (whom I don't believe in) forgive me, is to find they have one another AIDS!
liv on December 01, 2011 5:31 PM:
Why do Republicans keep talking about Social Security and Medicare when there is an unending supply of waste to get rid of.
anonymoose on December 01, 2011 5:36 PM:
When I said to the wife that Luntz wanted them to use the phrase "takes from the rich" she immediately replied "and gives to the poor". I'm glad that Luntz wants the GOP to portray the Democrats as modern day Robin Hoods.
I'm wondering if Luntz had any suggestions for what the GOP should call themselves because I am sure "Republican Party" is not polling that well right now.
rrk1 on December 01, 2011 5:53 PM:
Luntz, like Rove, is very good at what he does. However, both of them are sociopaths lacking a conscience and moral compass. Somehow they manage to look themselves in the eye every morning and aren't revolted at what is staring back. It isn't just cynicism in the name of personal enrichment. These guys have probably convinced themselves they are doing the 'right' thing by using their extensive propaganda skills to confuse and distract the gullible.
They are both evil. If there is any justice something pretty awful would happen to both of them, and all the other political operatives who think these guys are geniuses.
Captcha is having acid reflux.
Werewolf on December 01, 2011 6:40 PM:
Frank Luntz, meet Nelson Muntz-"HA ha!"
exlibra on December 01, 2011 7:28 PM:
Sounds like -- following Luntz's admission of fear -- the new fashion for Republicans will be brown pants, to match the shirts.
pj in jesusland on December 01, 2011 9:35 PM:
If Republicans are so certain they know the answers, why do they need the services of a wordsmith like Frank Luntz?
c4Logic on December 01, 2011 9:38 PM:
The Sociopathic Republican Party pays the master of Newspeak to poll and research public opinion to find the most effective way to practice the art of deception on a somnambulant and hypnotized public to conceal the true meaning of their agenda, their actions, and their policies, which are designed to enslave the masses using fear, mystification, mythification and reification.
Republicans are pure unadulterated evil. Someday the 99% will awake, and realize they are a giant, and the 1% is a malignant dwarf.
burro on December 01, 2011 10:25 PM:
Thankfully, Grover isn't nervous like Frank. Grover despises the middle class, and their pathetic desire not to become serfs and hobos. And he's not afraid to let his freak flag fly and be right up front about where his allegiance lies.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/12/01/380129/norquist-gop-middle-class-ta/
The r's have provided, and are providing, a really deep well of material to use to cast the hammer with which to beat them. It's really a lot to hope that the last three years have been a honey trap designed to fix them in amber, alongside their bullshit, for all to see. But they've done it anyway. It's so sad that the Dems make their competence so questionable on this stuff. They are handed gold and they turn it into straw. But there are some new ads that make one wonder, hope, dream.
The r's aren't down, but they deserve to be kicked. Grover, along with others, is providing the steel toed boots. Use 'em.
Joe Friday on December 01, 2011 10:32 PM:
Luntz isn't gonna be able to word-substitute his way out of this one.
jjm on December 01, 2011 10:36 PM:
Identification is the only mechanism that keeps the rich in charge: people are supposed to adulate wealth, imitate the wealthy, and imagine they can do no wrong: after all they are the winners, no?
OWS has accomplished the disconnect that has long been needed and should be very salutary for our culture and our society.
One trader on Wall Street complained to the NYT that OWS has made it so traders are no longer 'lionized'!
thebewilderness on December 01, 2011 10:40 PM:
I think he is making a mistake with regard to the term capitalism. It has been a stand in for democracy for some time now. Most people don't have a problem with capitalism. They have a problem with corporate crime not being addressed. Reframing capitalism as the economic freedom to lie cheat and steal is not likely to sell that well.
zandru on December 02, 2011 1:17 AM:
@Tyler: you said it! "Occupy" is breaking through the Republican smokescreen. The news media are trying to cover it up, but it's not working this time. Everyone understands how things have changed, and if you're in the bottom 99%, you're not getting ahead anymore - but the top 0.1% are going gangbusters.
Frank Luntz amazes me. Before seeing the videos, I imagined him as middle aged, maybe older, a consultant type. But he's this kid who looks like he still lives in Mommy's basement, feeding massively on Cheetos. No corners or sharp edges on Frank, no sir! And how tragic that one so young could be so enmeshed in evil.
I do apologize for the "weightist" reading on Luntz.
bob h on December 02, 2011 8:00 AM:
The Republican problem here isn't so much OWS's fault as the steady, daily drumbeat of arrests, fines, and indictments of Wall St. figures. The American people don't need OWS to tell them something is wrong.
Objective Dem on December 02, 2011 10:53 PM:
I wish Luntz would poll "Goebbels" and see what people think of him.