Smoke, Mirrors and Republican Messaging

According to Newt Gingrich, "This is the most radical administration in American history." Really? Barack Obama is more radical than say Abraham Lincoln who declared war on half the nation, dismantled a 240-year-old slave-based economy and suspended habeas corpus? More radical than Teddy Roosevelt who busted up corporate America? More radical than FDR who launched Social Security, tried to pack the Supreme Court and interned Japanese-American citizens? Hmmm.

Another slur cons love is "socialism." According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, socialism is "an economic system in which the means of production and distribution of goods are owned and controlled by the state." Evidently for conservatives, a temporary ownership stake in GM and Chrysler, which together may be worth around $150 billion out of a total private economy of $14.2 trillion, is enough to be considered ownership of the means of production! (You do remember the banks were on W.'s watch.) Jeeze. Talk to some real socialists and see what they think about Obama.

So how does this drivel get started? Millions of tea partiers didn't wake up one morning, smack themselves on the head and yell "Eureka! Obama is a radical socialist!"

No. Right-wing political operatives like Frank Luntz -- if you google him be sure to have a rag handy to wipe the sleaze of your monitor -- focus-group words and phrases to determine which evoke the most negative emotional response. These get ginned up into talking points, distributed to GOP speech writers, conservative yakers and friendly op-ed columnists and eventually filter down as right-wing group think on tea party Websites, at protest rallies and in letters to the editor.

Recently one of Luntz's memos, this one intended to defeat meaningful Wall Street reform, got outed. It listed 19 "Words to Use" such as "red tape," "fine print," "unintended consequences" and the Big Kahunas, "endless taxpayer bailouts" and "big bank bailout bill," that have been repeated shamelessly and endlessly by the right in recent days. Someone suggested a drinking game: a shot every time you hear one of the 19 phrases and you'll be plastered after an evening watching Fox News.

Folks, Obama may not be your cup of tea -- cheap pun intended -- but he's simply pursuing a classic center-left agenda, for which he was elected, and that is completely consistent with two-party, mainstream tradition. Want more proof? The Dow is up nearly 40 percent since he took office and investors don't like radical socialist presidents.

So go ahead, attack his proposals on their merits but don't demonstrate an ignorance of history by throwing around words like "socialist" and "radical" that have no basis in reality. And stop letting highly paid, political hacks like Luntz dupe you with creative wordsmithing. I know you're smarter than that.