Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Headline from the right-wingers at NewsMax:

Pro-choice Congressman Infuriates Democrats

Hunh?

During the presidential campaign, Sen. John Kerry shamefully bragged that he would do nothing to reform Social Security and even attacked President Bush for taking the politically risky step of trying to prevent the system's looming insolvency. Now a Democrat congressman is enraging the party's anti-choice establishment by supporting Bush's call for partial private accounts....

Oh, OK, I get it.

It's obvious that the Bush plan for Social Security is a budget-busting, social-contract-trashing disaster. But Bush and the Republicans might get away with it by winning the language war, as they so often do. And the word "choice" could their battlefield nuclear weapon.

"Choice" -- it's so simple. Republicans will say they're "pro-choice" on Social Security (how positive!) and say Democrats are "anti-choice" (how negative!). And, as with "tax relief" (for tax cuts) and "death tax" (for the estate tax), they'll all use the same language until everyone's using the same language -- Democrats, reporters, your aunt Edna.

Hey, George Lakoff -- any thoughts about how to defend against this ploy?


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