I am really annoyed, bordering on infuriated, by a radio ad airing on local radio stations. Not because it’s put out by the state employees’ union, a group whose political stances I’m pretty much guaranteed to oppose, but because it’s full of the dumbest, most overused catchphrases possible. In a mere 30 seconds, whoever wrote it crammed in so many liberal talking points you can hardly decipher its purpose.
Twenty years after starting my career in political communications, the sight or sound of talking points, from either the right or left, makes my skin crawl. I say this as someone who’s done her fair share of writing them and foisting them on the public. But the rhetoric on both sides has become so stale, so boring and so predictable. It’s degenerated into a bunch of political people speaking in poll-tested language they think will resonate with voters, but in fact makes them sound like morons.
Getting back to the ad, it’s from the Washington Federation of State Employees, which is always on the hunt for the biggest pile of taxpayer dollars they can lay their hands on. Apparently they’re mad at the state Senate, which isn’t giving them as much money as they want, so they’re accusing senators of doing the bidding of “special interests” and “add(ing) tax loopholes at the expense of our kids and Middle Class jobs.” The ad urges listeners to “choose kids, care and courage over loopholes.”
Here’s a quick translation guide: Whenever a Democratic Party-affiliated group uses the term “special interests,” it’s to deflect from the fact that they are a special interest themselves. Obsessive repetition of “Middle Class” (capitalized of course) indicates a desperate desire to identify with as large a swath of the voting public as possible. Any mention of “children” or “kids” is done to paint themselves as caring compassionate angels compared to those low-life child-hating SOB Republicans … oh, and it also means they want money. Lots of it.
Not that Republicans and their allies don’t say a lot of stupid stuff, too. The disastrous Mitt Romney campaign almost made my head explode with the idiocy of their “messaging,” if you can call it that, and their inability to really sink their teeth into the incompetence of President Obama’s first term.
I could go on about my party’s shortcomings, but I’ll let a single example suffice for now. Back in either the 2006 or ‘08 campaign cycle, I saw a mail piece from the National Republican Congressional Committee targeting the Democrat in one of Washington’s semi-competitive districts. It said something like, “The Tax Wolf is at the Door!” and featured a creepy photo of a man’s shadow approaching a darkened room. All the usual GOP “tax-and-spend liberal” talking points were there. It was obvious boilerplate, no doubt used against Democratic candidates nationwide, and it was awful. Look, I’m as opposed to gratuitous tax hikes and crazy government spending as the next conservative, but our continued use of 1980s rhetoric isn’t doing much to help us win elections today.
Why do you think someone like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is so popular? Because he says — or at least gives every appearance of saying — exactly what is on his mind (watch him on YouTube verbally taking down a nudnik from the teachers union and be amazed). If more of our state’s politicians would drop the talking points and make an effort to talk the way humans actually talk, they might connect better with the voters they’re trying to influence. And they’d be a lot less annoying.
Mary Strow is a longtime Northwest political-communications guru (although she can’t stand the term “guru.”) Her email is yourfriendlycolumnist@gmail.com
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