‘Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
Sun Tzu
Voter discrimination
Rigged and unfair elections
Abolition of democracy
Democrats conducted widespread voter discrimination
Democrats fought for rigged and unfair elections
Democrats lobby for the abolition of democracy
Voting rights
Free and fair elections
Democracy
Lies
Violence
Republicans want to take away your voting rights
Republicans want to suppress free and fair elections
We are fighting to save democracy from the Republicans
Stolen election lies
Violence over voting
I just provided two sets of words: first, concise words or phrases, and second, concise statements, to illustrate the rhetorical divide between conservatives and Progressives. Some, I label according to the party affiliation presently using the words. If I had not provided a context for present or future usage of some of the words and phrases, you wouldn’t be able to tell who is using them and toward what end.
Seeing those words in isolation, of course you’d claim them and use them in their historical context if you’re a conservative. If you don’t watch much news, you could be shocked to learn that those words are being used to signify and facilitate the opposite connotation against Republicans. The second set of statements describes a full press campaign launched daily into Big Media, followed by their own faithful but also by tens of millions of susceptible others who are vulnerable to the propagandizing for which the Democrats regularly engage.
I placed the first set of words and phrases in that order for a specific reason. This is how conservatives should be getting in front of Progressive messaging. That is rarely the case currently, even in conservative media speaking to their own audience. If the sample phrases I put forth are used at all, it’s always in a defensive mode, after some new bastardization of a common word has been volleyed. Most simply read the erroneous statements, consider them with some disgust, and hardly bother to speak the alternatives to any audience.
There are two tactical components to this dynamic; first, the choice of the most concise words to express a thought. You may notice that Progressions have hijacked the very most basic or neutral word structures commonly and traditionally owned by all Americans, stripped them of their commonly understood meanings and weaponized them by creating a new partisan context for their usage. The ultimate weapon is a single word and the fewest syllables possible, otherwise, a short phrase works almost as well.
The second dynamic is timing. I detailed some scenarios for this in my article, The First Battle is Always Language – Understanding the Roots of Subjugation, I propose: ”Within the larger culture war there are battles and within the larger battle, the first hill to be taken is always about language.” Whoever uses a word first has a great advantage; not that it can’t be used in another context to defend the original connotation, but once a word becomes the corrupted centerpiece of your opponent’s demagoguery, attempting to rescue or reuse the word in public persuasion falls flat. It’s already lost some of its power. How do we get ahead of all this? Timing is critical here. It’s rare where conservatives purposely chose a simplified rhetorical device to preempt progressive demagoguery. It’s not just what you say, it’s when you say it.
It’ll certainly take many heads put together to come up with the most effective messaging. In a prior post where I introduced this theme, I made the case in the context of finding and hiring young talent. I’ll add to that, training as well. I suspect that even in this phase, conservatives are largely reactive.
In a broader scope, conservative communicators seem to be taken first with personal status in their own communication/digital industry, and only after with strategic understanding. They go out to fight wars waged against them, hardly if ever taking the battle to the opponent’s lairs first. Only when we can do that can we hope to master rhetorical wars.