Frames, Words and Lies

The art of politics always has been about framing issues: Stressing the parts that benefit your political position, while minimizing those aspects that run counter to your aims. Framing is utilized by every elected representative as well as children suspected of knocking over the antique vase in the living room!

But, as many commentators have pointed out in recent years, the new political battle concerns the definition of words that can be used in the framing process. Whichever group, business or political party can make the most noise and change definitions of key words is the same group, business or political party that drives almost all political discussions.

David Sirota underscores this point in a post at Truthdig. He illustrates how two common words are being turned upside down in an effort to further a political agenda.

For most of history, we had undebatable definitions of words such as bailout and bankruptcy. We understood the former as an undeserved public grant, and the latter as an inability to pay existing bills. Whatever your particular beliefs about these concepts, their meanings were at least agreed upon.

Sadly, that’s not the case during a deficit crisis that is seeing language redefined in ideological terms.

Bailout was the first word thrown into the Orwellian fire. As some lawmakers recently proposed replenishing depleted state coffers with federal dollars, the American Conservative Union urged Congress to oppose states “seek[ing] a bailout” from the feds...

That's right, boys and girls, money that we pay in federal taxes should not be returned to us in the form of funds sent to the states we live in because...I don't know...we're undeserving? It's okay to give our tax dollars to Wall Street, but NOT to our elected officials in our local communities.

But if you think the word bailout has been perverted, Sirota shows that it is much worse with the word bankruptcy, particularly with the novel idea being floated by some conservatives to allow states to declare it.

Whereas sick or laid-off individuals occasionally claim a genuine inability to repay debts and thus a need for bankruptcy protections, states can never legitimately claim such a need because they are never actually “bankrupt.” Why? Because they always posses the power to raise revenue. The power is called taxation — and destroying that authority is what the new bankruptcy idea is really about. It would let states avoid tax increases on the wealthy, renege on contractual promises to public employees and destroy the country’s creditworthiness...

Almost every word in every language contains a degree of nuance. Many words can have multiple meanings. But, when you take a word with a generally agreed upon definition and you change the definition solely to further a political objective, there does exist a common word that describes your actions. That word is LYING.