Use Neo-Con, the way the Republic Party uses the word Liberal

One of the saddest parts of the current political dialog in the US, is how conservatives have turned the word Liberal into an insult and pejorative in much of the US. If a Democrat scores a good point in a debate or in the Media the Republic party (yes I said Republic Party not Republican) spokesperson will just say, "that is just more liberal ideas". Yes I know on one hand we need to defend and redefine the world liberal in the public square, but that isn’t the goal of this diary. I want us to develop a similar term on the Liberal Progressive side to throw back at the Republic party. I believe that term is Neo-Conservative.

It’s very difficult to gain political traction when every Democratic idea can be partially rebutted with a one word come-backer. That is the problem Democrats now face with the way Republicans have mastered the use of the word liberal. In response every Republic Party member but especial "Moderate" ones like Chris Shays, Olympia Snowe, and other one of their ilk should be called Neo-Cons at every and all opportunities. Yes I know that isn’t accurate, but when the Republic Party calls Mark Pryor and Ben Nelson LIBERALS, they are not striving for accuracy. There is a reason the Republic Party uses the term LIBERAL and not the term LEFT-WING when attacking Democrats. The term left-wing suggests, that the reason a given Democrat is bad, is because they are further left then a liberal, not that being liberal itself is wrong. Simply saying they are wrong, because they are Liberal, indicts liberalism itself! This is why the pejorative term progressives’ use, RIGHT-WING, isn’t very effective. It allows a targeted Republican to say, " I am a main stream conservative". Granted it would be better if we could tar the word CONSERVATIVE the way it was in the 1940’s, but I don’t think we are quite their yet. The term Neo-Conservative has the advantage of containing the word CONSERVATIVE inside of it.

There is now a "silent majority" in America fed up with the Iraq war, and most Americans would associate this with Neo-Cons. I think that it would be easy to tar every conservative trade pack with the Neo-Con label. That is why the Dubai port deal fell through, but not CAFTA, which wasn’t associated with Neo-Conservatism. CAFTA was able to squeak through. Neo-Cons are now associated with middle east policy, diplomatic and economic, and the Dubai port deal was seen as being championed by their supporters.

Remember calling Democratic leaders liberals, or more specifically LIBERAL ELITIST was intended to sever the Democratic leadership from its Blue Collar supporters who were not as socially liberal. Democrats have spoken ad nauseum on how they need to separate conservative leaders from there more economically progressive base, the oft repeated "they are voting against their self interest". But most people who repeat this, are talking in META because they haven’t a clue how to accomplish this! But going on TV and repeating conventional wisdom make a person feel smart and TV reporters won’t call them on the how. I would start with trade deals and work my way through social security privatization and eventually tax cuts. Every Republic party program should be called Neo-Con.

If a reporter "calls out" a Democrat on why a given program is Neo-Conservative (remember reporters challenge all Democratic talking points unlike Republic ones), point out that Bill Cristal and the Weekly Standard the most prominent Neo-Cons support the specified programs. Tell them Paul Wolfowitz or Donald Rumsfeld supports the given Bush Republic program and they are Neo-Cons. At this point Neo-Conservatism is mainly associated with Conservatives foreign policy. Our task should be to make Neo-Conservatism associated with all parts of the Republic party platform. The Republic party turned a critic of a liberal’s foreign policy failure, President Johnson in Vietnam (supported by neo-liberals by the way) into a critic of liberal economic policy (the war on poverty), and finally into an attack on liberal values (equal rights, civil rights). This was a well-coordinated attack and it worked. Our task is to replicate this process on the left.

Geoffrey Nunberg in his book Talking Right, explains that the beauty of the Republican Narrative isn’t that a brilliant public speaker like Reagan can repeat, but that the absolutely uncharismatic Sam Brownback, or a bumbling talker like President Bush can. Yes Democrats need to develop a narrative, but they also need to develop a coordinated attack strategy. Listen to a Republican on TV and at some point they will all use the "it’s just more liberal …" line. I believe that all Democrat should at some point in their dialogue use "that just more neo-con ….". The beauty of this line of attack is that a Democrat in Mississippi as well as Massachusetts could attack a Republic Party plan as being "neo-con", since neo-cons aren’t loved by most of the Republic base I feel are most receptive to the Democratic message. If someone can think of a similar pejorative that could be used by all Dems, I’m all ears.

Democrats also need better message discipline. One of the most frustrating parts of watching Liberal advocates on television is their inability to stick to the message. Why can I watch cable News for a week and never hear their Democratic guest speaking of "culture of corruption" anymore? It didn’t fade, we let it fade by not constantly using the term. Just because the MSM isn’t running as many stories on the issue doesn’t mean we should bring it up. Do Democratic leaders really think repeating a message for 3 months is enough to permanently tar a party? Instead of trying to look smart and innovative while mugging for the camera. Democrats need to stay on message. Hit the main talking points THEN look smart and innovative. We as bloggers have some power here when a prominent liberal or Democrat appears on TV and doesn’t repeat key talking points or stick to the narrative when should email them, call them, and remind them that they should. We can be polite, commend their performance, but tell them we are disappointed they missed the opportunity to repeat catch phrase X. We should press our leaders to perform the same gentle persuasion.

I believe that Democrats should , call every Republican they face off with, a Neo-Conservative, and all ideas Neo-Conservative, at least once an interview, every time without exception! It doesn’t matter if the Republican is Moderate, Conservative, or Left Wing, they are all Neo-Cons!

Once again that's my two cents