Framing: 'he caved' & 'we were screwed' v. 'they held the poor hostage' & 'they blackmailed us'

[muriel_volestrangler]

Yeah, nearly everyone on DU is pissed off at the deal about taxes and unemployment benefits. But is it really a good idea to make the message "Obama caved", "Democratic politicians can't stand up for anything" and so on? Or how about reminding people, relentlessly, that this has all happened because the Republicans held the tax system hostage to obtain cuts for their super-rich supporters?

Blame the Republicans. Call them 'blackmailers', 'hostage-takers'. Say they threatened to leave those made unemployed by the greed of the banks penniless unless millionaires got tax cuts. Say they wanted to see the middle class lose out if the bankers didn't get tax cuts on their record bonuses.

Why make the left look weak and useless? That's just going to hurt future election prospects. No-one wants to elect people their own 'supporters' call victims. Emphasise the greed of Republicans. Remind the Tea Partiers they just elected the Friends of the Banksters, whose first act afte the election was to give money to the richest 2% in the country. Call the Republicans 'economic terrorists', who threatened to blow up the plane if it didn't divert to where they wanted it to go.