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When President Barack Obama took to the road in support of his Stimulus Bill his task was made more difficult by a run-up that had conveyed no sense of what the mega-millions in the bill were being spent on, for whom or why. Into the vacuum sprang the Republicans, masters of the Name Game, and soon the airways filled with easily digestible soundbites like "shovel-ready" and "a spending bill not a stimulus bill". By the time the House voted on the "American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009" the damage was done, perceptions were set, and the President and Democratic Majority had to work overtime to counter their poor first impression.
Democrats are pathologically incapable of breaking big ideas down into simple declarative sentences. While we on the Liberal side of things may mock the upside-downism of "No Child Left Behind" or "Clear Skies Act" or "The Patriot Act", I bet most all of us remember the titles themselves. Simple, descriptive, appealing to our better selves. That the reality inside the bill is 180 degrees counter to the bill’s title is a feature not a bug for the Republicans. The challenge now is for the Democrats to take the Republican messaging mastery and use it for the power of good by crafting short easily remembered titles that are united in their scope and meaning with the actual bills themselves. (That no actual lockstep unity is needed behind the scenes of the united front is the Democrats’ own feature not a bug.)
The next great calling ahead for President Obama and the Democratic Majority leadership is to take what is right with our medical care and create a delivery system that ensures that no citizen is left behind. What’s needed now is The Title to start the conversation in the Country and drive the narrative forward in the direction we want, letting the Republicans chase after in our tracks.
For today’s exercise we’re going to "Name That Medical Health Care Act of 2009 in 3 Words or Less". The trick for using fewer words is loading them up with acronyms. (How many know the full title for The Patriot Act is "Uniting & Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept & Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001"?)
My offering: "Keep America Strong" aka "Amending Medical Enterprise Responsibly to Implement Coverage for All".
Who’s got one?
17 Comments
WELL
Wellness Enhancement for Life and Longevity
alright, thanks for playing!
I like “Medicare”! We’re enhancing an existing program, not reinventing the wheel. It has name familiarity, the inherent understanding that it is an American social program – why spend time and money renaming when we need to spend time and money improving and expanding?
loywoky and rosalind aren’t playing by the three words or less rule..’g’.
Well, I tried.
just teasing..’g’.
Um, the only healthcare act worth a goddamn already has a three-word name: Medicare for All. It’s HR 676, introduced by John Conyers, co-sponsored by umpteen progressive Democrats (including my Congresswoman, Yvette Clarke; thanks, Yvette!) and endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America, Physicians for a National Health Insurance, California Nurses Association, and other organizations.
Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has nonetheless declared single-payer “off the table,” and to the extent that he and Obama ignore single-payer, they’re sending a fuck-you to John Conyers, all progressives, and indeed at least a plurality of Americans, who hate health insurance companies at least as much as they do bin Laden.
Just because we probably won’t get single payer on this round doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight for it. Otherwise, we’re playing the same depressing Democratic game of preemptive capitulation that just resulted in all those pointless tax cuts in the stimulus bill.
I don’t quite get the point of this blog post. If the wheel ain’t broke, don’t reinvent or rename it.
exactly right. thank you.
just one small correction (that might be helpful for pups who want to google)…. it’s PNHP (physicians for a national health program – not insurance). and it’s my go-to site for the best info.
what he said.
what we’ll get is some kind of mandate to force us to buy Private Insurance only, with no public option at all, and tiny subsidies for the poor — and no restrictions on HMOs, or requirements they accept and cover everyone no matter what, etc. They’ve already written in Congress (Baucus and Kennedy, etc). Maybe they’ll allow older people who are not retired to join Medicare, but not the rest of us — and they’re gonna cut that even more too.
I bet they call it AmericaCare or something like that.
Thanks, selise, I had a feeling I was slightly off. Don’t mean to pound on rosalind here, but I’m in no mood to consider snappy names for anything short of HR 676 until the fight for that bill is well and truly lost.
my frustration is that the people who’ve you know actually been working on health care reform (like pnhp) for years and really know their stuff aren’t being used as a resource. it’s insane
selise, could you provide a name or two? do they live in a major tv market (ny, dc, la) and could be available for evening cable shows?
to drive the narrative we need to pierce the DC bubble, which means getting our message onto the shows that DC pays attention to.
if we compile a list of experts willing & able to explain “Medicare for All”, then we can target specific cable shows through an e-mail / fax blast keeping the spotlight on their availability and expertise.
to get specific voices heard NOW we need to make sure their contact info is in the producer’s rolodex NOW.
that’s a great idea. most of the people i’m aware of are in the boston area. will track down some names for you later today (can’t do it right now but wanted you to know i’d seen your comment and will be back with more later).
No One Left Out
Boy, what a bunch of grouchies. Also, seems almost everyone here has missed the whole point of rosalind’s post – that the Dems cannot seem to ‘market’ their ideas effectively.
Medicare for All. Great idea. Other than Selise and a few other firepups, who has heard of it?
All we hear is ’socialized medicine’, usual screams from big pharma and big health insurance cos and the like.
Where’s the hook?
Come on pups, we can do better than this.
thanks, lokywoky. i had a work emergency yesterday that prevented me from responding to selise & ralphbon in real time, but you expressed my sentiment exactly.