It sounds strange to say, but when people like Frank Luntz get nervous, I get calm. For people who don’t know Frank Luntz, he’s a character right out of the pages of Orwell. His specialty — testing language and finding words that will help his clients sell their product or turn public opinion on an issue or a candidate — has helped conservatives use words that trigger emotions, not thought, to stir public opinion and produce votes.
Along with Karl Rove and his predecessor Lee Atwater, another Orwellian character, Luntz has been critical to the success of conservative politics in America. He is the ventriloquist behind most of the dummies: famous for coining the phrase “death tax” to vilify proposed inheritance taxes on the wealthy; the softer term “climate change” replacing the more alarming “global warming” and transforming the already baggage-laden “oil drilling” into the safer, more vague “energy exploration.” Luntz’s clients include the Republican Party, the Tories in the UK and Australia’s conservatives.
So here’s the deal. Luntz is scared. Last week, in a speech before the Republican Governors Association, Luntz said bluntly that he’s not just scared of the Occupy Movement, but that he’s “frightened to death” of it, because the movement is “having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.” He urged the governors to stay on message:
Don’t Mention Capitalism. Luntz said that his polling research found that “The public … still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we’re seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we’ve got a problem.”
Empathize With The 99 Percent Protesters. Luntz instructed attendees to tell protesters that they “get it.” “First off, here are three words for you all: ‘I get it.’ … ‘I get that you’re… I get that you’ve seen inequality. I get that you want to fix the system.”
Don’t Say Bonus. Luntz told Republicans to re-frame the concept of the bonus payment — which bailed-out Wall Street doles out to its employees during holidays — as “pay for performance” instead.
Don’t Mention The Middle Class Because Americans Don’t Trust Republicans To Defend It. “They cannot win if the fight is on hardworking taxpayers,” Luntz instructed the audience. “We can say we defend the ‘middle class’ and the public will say, I’m not sure about that. But say defending ‘hardworking taxpayers’ and Republicans have the advantage.”