... how you think we liberals can provide "a simple, unambiguous, easy to understand story that makes them feel like they understand the world again." I mean, I agree that we need to be much more aggressive in defining terms and framing the debate, but I just don't really see how we can present our message -- which is, almost by definition, one that deals in complexities -- in the same kind of sound-byte sized morsels that have the kind of visceral appeal that the right's talking points typically have and still be honest about what we are proposing.
Here's an example of what I mean...
Try explaining to one of these fearful, confused types, who has probably never even had a college level economics course, why austerity is the wrong course of action to take in the current downturn. These folks experience is with household budgeting or in some instances, business budgeting, both of which are fairly easy to understand. Intuitively for them, based on their experience, when money is tight, one tightens the belt and cuts back on spending. Indeed, that homespun economic "sense" approaches the status of being almost a law in the economic universe they know. They know it on a really basic, gut level (notwithstanding the fact that, as has been said, "the gut is a moron"
. They understand there is a major economic downturn, and they understand that tax revenues have fallen as a result. They hear about deficits and the only basis for comparison they have (and which the right drives home every chance it gets) is to their credit card. The problem you run into is that before you can even begin to get them to understand how a government stimulus might help, you first have to get them to understand why a national economy is not at all the same thing as a household or business budget. Then, of course, they'll hear the right wing using Greece as an object lesson, and you have to try to explain the difference between a country that borrows in its own currency versus a country that borrows in an international currency not its own. There's nothing simple about all this, yet it is critical to the kind of preliminary understanding macro-economics necessary to overcome the moronic gut. I just don't see how you get around that.
The GOP can do it because they are willing to reduce every issue to a kind of moralistic dualism, regardless of (and in order to further) the intellectual violence on whatever the issue may be. My point is that understanding the liberal/progressive position on much of anything absolutely demands a sophisticated, complex understanding of whatever that issue happens to be.
But again, maybe you're seeing something I'm not.
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