From Pine View Farm

Down Is Up 0

Dick Polman analyzes the Republican Wall Street spin cycle:

In his ’07 book, entitled Words That Work, Luntz warns Republicans that Wall Street “is seen as global and cold, with sterile glass structures and office cubicles filled with numbers crunchers concerned more with profits than people.” The problem, of course, is that Republicans have traditionally been close to Wall Street, vacuuming up more of its donations than the other party. (According to a massive ’08 study by the nonpartisan wallstreetwatch.org, the GOP collected 55 percent of the financial sector’s political donations in the 10 years between 1998 and 2008.) But (Frank–ed.) Luntz had a solution: Republicans, in their messaging, should take care to identify themselves with Main Street. In Luntz’s words, “Wall Street is about profit. Main Street is about people…Wall Street is about buyouts and takeovers. Main Street is about family.”

Which brings us to the current efforts on Capitol Hill – led by Democrats, with a few participating Republicans – to crack down on Wall Street abuses. Earlier this year, when Republican leaders realized that they would have to serve their Wall Street friends by opposing reform, without somehow appearing to side with Wall Street against the little guy, Luntz went to work on the thorny problem. He came up with a solution. He suggested some talking points that made it sound as if the Republicans, by opposing reform, were actually sticking up for the little guy – and that the Democrats, by pushing reform, were sticking up for Wall Street and screwing the little guy.

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