Democrats are masters of creating new terms and phrases that stick in the minds of the people they wish to influence. Republicans, by contrast, have little or no such capabilities.
Terms that Stick
The all-time stroke of Democrat wordplay genius happened several decades back. Everyone knew that Democrats, by and large, were for abortion and that Republicans, by and large, were not. The terminology for the two sides was pro-abortion and pro-life. Democrats came to realize that pro-abortion didn't sound all that palatable.
Sure enough, when the dust settled, Democrats began calling their view pro-choice, with that new term effectively eliminating the use of pro-abortion forevermore while standing in juxtaposition to the term pro-life. This was a stroke of genius because pro-choice implies that a woman could choose whether or not to have a baby. It seemed quite egalitarian.
Republicans, by contrast, were pro-life. The meaning of that term equated to no other option besides carrying the baby to term. Since then, Democrats have slaughtered Republicans at every turn in terms of terminology.
Voter Suppression By Any Other Name
Consider the Inflation Reduction Act. A more accurate name would be the Inflation Enhancement Act or the Inflation Acceleration Act. Biden and company knew, however, that calling the Act what it actually leads to would never work.
How about the Voting Rights Act? The name sounds great, doesn't it? Ergo, the Act wins the hearts and minds of millions of low-information voters. Such voters do not pay attention to anything more than the name itself. Hence they are easily misled. ‘Voting rights,' that sounds good. Why would anyone want to be against that?”
What was the Republican response to the introduction of this intentionally misnamed piece of legislation? A big, fat nothing. Republicans could have immediately called it the "voter fraud establishment act.” That would have perked up some ears. They could have called it the "citizen disenfranchisement act."
Alas, in their mysterious ways, Republicans, and Conservatives in general, don't seem to have a clue as to why carefully chosen words, specific terminology, and keenly crafted phrases matter in politics. Over many, many years the Right has been blowing grand opportunities to participate in the catchy characterization contest.
The Reverse Name Game
One has to wonder, how many under-informed voters end up pulling the tab for Democrats only because of terminology that sounds more appealing?
George Soros organizations, among the most leftist on Earth, play the name game expertly. Among the hundreds of organizations that Soros founded or otherwise supports, their names are ALWAYS the direct opposite of what they actually stand for.
His Open Society Foundations and Foundation to Promote Open Society are two multi-billion dollar far-left grant and advocacy foundations bent on restricting freedoms everywhere. His Institute for New Economic Thinking advocates unorthodox, radical, far-left economic policy positions. Review 100 or more Soros organizations and you see the reverse name game employed every single time.
Liberal no More
When the quintessential term liberal began to fall out of favor with legions of voters, Democrats/Leftists migrated to the more palatable-sounding progressive. Notice that Democrats didn’t move from liberal to socialist or Marxist, which would have been completely accurate. Marxist, they knew, carried highly toxic connotations. Socialists were not quite as onerous as Marxists, but still needed to be avoided.
Oddly enough, the few souls who are aware of the history of the American progressive movement know that progressive means socialist. Since most people are unaware of history, have never heard of Eugene Debs, and couldn’t give a hoot about any of it, Democrats felt reasonably safe using progressive. When “Democratic Socialist” Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016, the term socialist re-emerged.
When low-information voters encounter the term progressive, the thought pattern is, “Why wouldn't I want to be progressive? That’s a good thing, right?”
Once Democrats devise a catchy name that will stick, whether or not it has any basis in reality, they blast it all over creation, aided and abetted by the sycophantic mass media which covers for them 24/7.
Like a Sledgehammer
With the winning terminology in place, Democrats pound it into all of their talking points. Then, in a short period of time, invariably these catchy characterizations become the everyday reality with which we all must deal.
To this day, pro-choice – which means pro-abortion – is the prevailing term for those who want to abort babies. Meanwhile, sadly, Republicans and Conservatives don't merely lose the word game, they simply have no game.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member