Frank Luntz--A Malevolent Sleaze Merchant We Can Learn From

by rayman

The only thing worse than a sleazy Republican operative is a sleazy Republican operative who feels compelled to write a self-lauding opinion piece deigning to share some of his "secrets" with all you Little Leaguers out there. Alas, Frank Luntz is just that person, in his LA Times op-ed. For sheer megalomaniacal chutzpah, you simply cannot outdo something like this:

That's why I wrote a "A New American Lexicon" for my business and political clients. But it soon made its way to the Internet, where it raised a storm among Democrats in Washington and in the blogosphere, who accused me of the worst kind of spin. They say I'm manipulating the debate in an attempt to obscure the true effect of the policies I advocate. Yet this lexicon genuinely seeks to establish a common language for a pro-business, pro-freedom agenda.

[...]

Let me be specific. "The death tax," "energy exploration," "opportunity scholarships" and "personalizing" Social Security — I didn't coin those phrases, but they are now in the public lexicon and I can rightfully be "blamed" for popularizing them. They are not, as some say, Orwellian. I seek clarity in our nation's great debates, and all too often the words we have used until now hinder real discourse.

Oh. My. God.

But here's the thing--instead of ranting 'n' raving against Luntz's totalitarian language manipulation (not to mention his masturbatory hubris), it's high time we actually fight fire with fire.

I know many left-liberals are infatuated with George Lakoff's "framing" principle. But as Jesse Taylor astutely pointed out a few weeks ago, Lakoff's strategy, and its application by his starry-eyed disciples, contains a fundamental flaw:

Reading "this is the way in which Democrats need to frame X", or a link to George Lakoff, or any variant thereof...is a lot like reading a book by an author who's writing about writing the book.It's deconstructionism without the construct; you're going to let people behind the scenes to see how the movie was made...and that's the movie.

Exactly. A key aspect of Luntz's evil genius is that he doesn't just sit around talking about how he intends to frame issues, he just does it. I know that liberals are mere amateurs at this game, but this is something they're going to have to learn.

Damn you, Frank Luntz...but thanks for the tips.