March 24, 2023: In response to today’s legislative action, I updated the recommendations from my previous post into this message strategy brief.
Contact me at antonia@antoniascatton.com for more information.
Using the term “Parent’s Bill of Rights” or related phrases like “curriculum transparency” causes people to view the situation from the Republican perspective, which makes them judge it as (morally) right, even if you use the term while making the rational case that it is (morally) wrong. This impact of exposure to “trigger” terms is automatic and subconscious.
The way to deal with this situation is to use, and only use, key terms (see below) that cause people to see and judge the situation from our perspective, and to associate the efforts of Republicans with things people already feel to be morally wrong.
Republican Messaging
Republican trigger words and phrases activate conservative moral narratives.
Republican key terms and phrases:
“Parent’s Bill of Rights” “parent’s rights” “parental rights bill” “curriculum transparency”
Republican moral narratives:
Positive: “Parents have the right to know and have control over what their children are being taught.”
Negative: “Public schools are indoctrinating children with radical left-wing ideas, exposing children to inappropriate sexual content and making children feel bad for being white.”
Democratic Messaging
We replace their moral narratives with our own moral narratives by only using words and phrases like these that subconsciously trigger our moral narratives.
Democratic moral narratives:
Positive: “Public schools are critical to helping every child grow up to be a free and capable adult with a common set of American values.”
Negative: “Republicans stoke division in their campaign to sabotage public schools on behalf of financial elites seeking to privatize public schools for corporate profit.”
Democratic key terms and phrases:
(Campaign of) teacher harassment / teacher surveillance
(Campaign to) sabotage public schools
Politicize public education
Right-wing censorship
(Invitation to) vigilante parents/parenting
Listen to all parents
(Parents with) extremist or minority views
(Circumvent/disrupt the) organized and democratic process
Privatize public schools, private profits
(Bankrolling by) global corporations / financial elites
(Hand out permission slips to) school privatization activists / agitators
Drive teachers out of the profession
(Public schools teach) common American values
(We teach the) truth about our history
Stoke hate and division
Fake/Astroturf movement
Using parents as puppets
SAY THIS:
Feel free to use or adapt this sample phrasing:
“We strongly object to this teacher surveillance bill. These bills are part of a coordinated attack by people who want to privatize public education for corporate profit and to politicize public education to further divide our society.”
“This teacher surveillance bill is right-wing censorship and an open invitation to harassment by vigilante parents with extremist views.”
“This is the latest attack in a campaign to sabotage public schools on behalf of financial elites seeking to privatize public schools for corporate profit.”
“This bill is the last straw in a campaign of teacher harassment that will drive teachers out of the profession in droves and gut our entire system of public education, which is, of course, exactly what they want.”
“Parents already have plenty of legitimate ways to learn about what is being taught to their children. This bill is an invitation to vigilante parents with radical minority views to harass teachers with complaints and even nuisance lawsuits.”
“Republicans want to hand out permission slips to right-wing school-privatization activists to skirt the democratic process that guarantees that ALL parents’ views are considered equally, not just those who shout the loudest.”
“Financial elites seeking to privatize public education are bankrolling vigilante parents / using parents as puppets to demonize public schools and drive teachers out of the profession.”
“Republicans are doing what they always do, stoking hate and division in the service of global corporate interests.”
“It is an attempt to censor teachers by radical right-wing parent groups bankrolled by Republican/corporate SuperPACs as part of their political strategy to destroy trust in our public schools.”
You get the idea…but we also have to UNDO the damage that Republican messaging has done. Here’s how we do that.
Positive Framing
Everybody knows that Democrats are for public education. But to reset the agenda, we must talk about WHY we’re for public education.
SAY THIS:
Here is one option for a Democratic “pro-public schools” narrative:
Short Version
Democrats always support our public schools and our teachers because we believe that every child deserves a great education. We believe that public schools are what unite us and make us all Americans. They are where our children learn core American values like equality, fairness, respect and responsibility for each other.
Longer Version
We believe in education, because, in order to become free and happy adults, our children have to learn about all the options available to them in life, and they have to develop the skills they need to succeed in whichever path they choose.
We believe in public education, because we believe that every child deserves a great education. Not just the rich kids. Not just the A students. Every child.
We owe it to each other, as fellow Americans, to use government to pool our resources so that, together, we can provide this critical public service for our own and each other’s children.
We believe that public education is where people from different cultures and walks of life come together to become Americans, not by submerging our differences, but by sharing and celebrating them.
Public school where we learn common American values like equality, cooperation, responsibility and fairness. It’s where we learn that everyone deserves care and respect, no matter who they are.
That is why Democrats believe in public education.
Defense Strategy
If we absolutely must address specific attacks, avoid repeating Republican trigger phrases.
DON’T SAY THIS:
“These people are completely nuts. Teachers shouldn’t have to show everybody what they are doing. We have no so-called “woke” agenda. We don’t even teach critical race theory in our schools! The idea that we would be “grooming” children for sexual predators or teaching racism against white kids is patently absurd.”
Here are the types of statements we can use instead:
SAY THIS:
“Public school is where we learn the truth about our history, the bad and the good.”
“No child should ever be told that there is something wrong with them because of who they or their parents are.”
“We trust teachers. We hire and trust people to teach (and to develop curriculum) who have spent a lifetime studying how best to help kids learn.”
In general, if we successfully take over the conversation and put them on the defensive, we’ll never need to do this!
Notes
Democrats, You Can’t Ignore the Culture Wars Any Longer
Jamelle Bouie, New York Times
Christopher Rufo, a right-wing provocateur who helped instigate both the panics against “critical race theory” and against L.G.B.T.Q. educators in schools, has openly said that he hopes to destroy public education in the United States. “We are right now preparing a strategy of laying siege to the institutions,” he said last November in an interview with my colleague Michelle Goldberg. In a recent speech, delivered to an audience at the conservative Hillsdale College, Rufo declared that “to get universal school choice you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust.”
we support public education because we see value in an educated public
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Once again, you've hit a progressive home run. What your post reminded me of Lakoff's PRIORITY of "uniting ideas" he laid out in Don't Think of an Elephant, Chapter 14, What Unites Progressives, section Ideas That Make Us Progressive, on page 137. The "priority" take away for me from that section was what to say in 30 seconds on an elevator.
"First, values coming out of a basic progressive vision"
"Second, principles that realize progressive values"
"Third, policy directions that fit the values and principles"
Here's my lead paragraph to an three organization collaboration group creating a survey for mid-western mayors about what resources they have to teach youth civic engagement and human rights education.
Empathy is the soul of our republic and its democratic institutions, nurturing families caring for each other, and teaching one another about human rights, leading to “life, liberty, and security of (all) persons.” Cruelty is the soul of autocracy, strict father families competing with each other, ignoring human rights, leading to “disregard and contempt for human rights (that) have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.”
As Dr. Lakoff says quite often empathy or lack there of must become the center of debate.
One of your bullet points that I would push back on is the word "politicize." Since empathy is the soul of democracy, which IS political, conservatism must dismantle all things empathic and political. I would argue that "autocracizing public education" is what autocrats do versus "politicizing public education." Public education by its nature of being public IS political. What we want in public education is a politics of care, which is what strong, diverse communities of nurturing families do. We care for each other. And public education is meant to teach us how to care for one another publicly.
You and your readers are always welcome at our weekly forums. Our 2nd trimester 10-week forum will explore Dr. Lakoff's THE LITTLE BLUE BOOK and begins on April 19th. The schedule and enrollment information is at https://proempathy.us/schedule.