|
politics are most effectively argued within an emotional context and not an logical one (listen to any number of speaches by George Lakoff on "frames"). The republican party understands this very well. For examples of this looks at these handles for political topics:
- war on terror (actually in the case of Iraq not true there was no WMD or major terrorist support)
- partial birth abortion (technically not correct as in these cases the fetus is already dead)
- embryonic stem cell research (technically the stem cells come from a blastiocyst)
- pro life (so much better than pro choice)
It is much easier to fire people up and get them to vote your way when you contend that national security is being destroyed. Even if it isn't true if you can get the label out there just hearing it and speaking it forms neural pathways that support the emotional "frame." As evidenced by the labels above which were adopted and picked up by the national media the Republican party is good at framing the debate this way.
|