Wednesday, February 02, 2005
"Birth tax"—or "birth debt"?
That's what Reid called the debt Bush has run up, that our children will have to pay, in the Democratic response to Bush's laundry list of winger nostrums.
I like zapping the "death tax" the Winger Torque Machine replaced "estate tax" with.
But Lakoff suggests that reframing means putting one frame within a larger frame. Semantically, it's like Microsoft's embrace and extend strategy.
So, maybe "birth debt" would be better than "birth tax" as a Democratic frame for the Republican's fiscal irresponsibility. Did I say irresponsibility? I mean fecklessness. First, it is a debt. Second, I bet that on examination, American's fear of gonig too deeply into debt is even worse than their fear of taxes. The story "birth debt" would tell is that the Republicans are subjecting every American child to harassing calls from debt collection agencies. Which, on a macro scale, is exactly what's happening.
I like zapping the "death tax" the Winger Torque Machine replaced "estate tax" with.
But Lakoff suggests that reframing means putting one frame within a larger frame. Semantically, it's like Microsoft's embrace and extend strategy.
So, maybe "birth debt" would be better than "birth tax" as a Democratic frame for the Republican's fiscal irresponsibility. Did I say irresponsibility? I mean fecklessness. First, it is a debt. Second, I bet that on examination, American's fear of gonig too deeply into debt is even worse than their fear of taxes. The story "birth debt" would tell is that the Republicans are subjecting every American child to harassing calls from debt collection agencies. Which, on a macro scale, is exactly what's happening.
