Surely, Frank Luntz must be joking (via):
1. Don’t say ‘capitalism.’
“I’m trying to get that word removed and we’re replacing it with either ‘economic freedom’ or ‘free market,’ ” Luntz said. “The public . . . still prefers capitalism to soshulism (my edit), but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we’re seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we’ve got a problem.
I’m skeptical that teh public has turned against the word “capitalism”. After all, the word still gets the through the spam filter, right?
EvolutionaryDesign
Frank Luntz is worse than cancer.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
And don’t say “coke” or “free-base”…unless you got some.
Mark S.
You have the better of the argument without engaging in stupid stunts like this, and all it does is damage your credibility. Why bother?
Did I mention I’m a lawyer and I went to Duke?
FormerSwingVoter
He’s not joking. And don’t call me Shirley.
Every conservative I’ve ever spoken with honestly believes that anyone to the left of Reagan is an unapologetic communist hippie.
Jay in Oregon
Doug, you do know that the S-word gets blocked because the middle of the word is also the name of a magic penis pill that is frequently the subject of junk mail and spam comments, right?
EDIT: Dammit, I still managed to fall into the mod queue. KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!!
Chyron HR
Other options include:
Economic Candy Time
Happy Money Fun-Fun
Reaganallia
Mark S.
And don’t call it “patronizing underage male prostitutes.” Call it “mentoring the next generation of conservatives.”
Quincy
So now the country hates socialism and capitalism? This could get interesting.
Mark S.
Such as tax cuts for the 1%.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
You can’t argue against freedom, especially the freedom to shove a gun up Frank’s ass and pull the trigger.
r€nato
gosh, I don’t know where they could have gotten that idea. Tell them to take two hours of Fox Business Channel and call you in the morning!
well, don’t fret, Frank. You’ll always have the gay-bashing and culture wars to distract the useful idiots from your true agenda.
Villago Delenda Est
This is prime example of political marketing…just as “National Soc1al1st German Workers’ Party” was back in the 20’s and 30’s. “Libertarian” isn’t about liberty for all, it’s about liberty for a small class of neo-feudal lords, who seek to enserf the rest of the population (dare I say it? the 99%?).
There are more than enough low-information, low critical thinking people out there who will buy this shit because it “sounds good”. Never mind the reality of the thing. Faux Nooze would not exist without this demographic.
Linnaeus
“but they think capitalism is immoral.”
Probably not, but they’ve noticed there’s been a few small problems with capitalism in this country. Wonder why?
Nicole
Not after they come out with the new drug for sexual dysfunction, “Pitalis.” (It doesn’t help with the problem, but it makes your partner not feel sorry for you.)
Jay in Oregon
@Mark S.:
You owe me a new keyboard…
Suffern ACE
I thought that we already had the “Free Enterprise System” as words when we didn’t want to use “Capitalism”. Did that get chucked out when the cold war ended?
Librarian
I agree that the word “capitalism” has a negative connotation to it, which is why the right has tried to replace it with things like “free market” and “free enterprise”. Wasn’t the word invented by Karl Marx himself?
The Ancient Randonneur
I love the smell of Freedom Fries in the morning.
Joe Bauers
I hate Frank Luntz so much. He makes his living by helping Republicans convince Americans to vote and advocate against their own interests, and in favor of the interests of the people who have already stolen everything for themselves. I wish I believed in Hell, because even though I’d probably end up there myself for not believing in Jeebus, at least I’d know that fucker got what he deserved.
schrodinger's cat
@The Ancient Randonneur: Was that a Luntz creation.
flukebucket
The capitalist manifesto “From each as much as I can get, to each as little as I can give”
Mojotron
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
half fat, half soulless GOP shill, but together he adds up to big laughs!
Jay in Oregon
This is SOP for the Republican Party.
It’s not that their ideas and policies are harmful to this country or the people that are vote for them; it’s seen as a “perception issue”, or a need to “get the message out” or “educate the voter”.
If you have to spin and mislead on the core principles of your ideology, then maybe the problem is your ideology, Frank. You can put the prettiest wrapping paper on a rotting fish and it’ll still stink.
kindness
Yea but I sure wish that BJ would change their spam filter to let the other word through. That’s caught me several times.
60th Street
Who cares if the public is completely against it at this point.
That’s Frank Luntz telling the GOP to void the word “capitalism”
That’s Luntz admitting, with reporters present, that Occupy has frightened him into doing that.
Win.
EconWatcher
I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the term “free enterprise system” was developed in the 1950s as part of our ideological struggle with the Soviet Union. Apparently, the lefties had been too successful in associating “capitalism” with cartoons of bloated plutocrats with big cigars, bowler hats, and dollar signs on their vests.
Linda Featheringill
@flukebucket: #21
:-)
Villago Delenda Est
The problem with “free market” is that corporations loathe a a free market with a hatred beyond any that Marx had for capitalists. Actual free markets are messy, chaotic things that definitely chafe the authoritarian sensibilities of corporate types.
One has to realize that Marx was inspired by The Wealth of Nations, particularly the parts where Smith talks about tradesmen attempting to game the system in their favor and against that of the public at large. Precisely the sort of thing you see with opaque markets in this country, deliberately crafted to profit the insider at the expense of those outside.
Bludger
Frank Luntz is an evil genius, but he is the reason why we can’t have nice things.
Tom Q
@60th Street: Except that recent history shows that, within a very short time, members of the media will be excoriating any Democrats who use the word “capitalism” instead of “free enterprise”.
See: “privatization”/”private accounts”.
jprfrog
Where is Gordon Gekko when you need him?
Anoniminous
Luntz isn’t doing this for the hell of it. The GOP is constantly polling, checking to see how their messages are being received. If the US public is starting to equate the world “capitalism” with Wall Street and the 1% then the tide is – ever so slowly? – turning.
RossinDetroit
Texas tried to replace Capitalism with Free Market System in their textbooks.
(NYT link possibly paywalled)
ETA:
“In economics, the revisions add Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, two champions of free-market economic theory, among the usual list of economists to be studied, like Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. They also replaced the word “capitalism” throughout their texts with the “free-enterprise system.””
TheStone
@Villago Delenda Est: Exactly. The thing is, conservatives only drop Smith’s name in the most offhanded manner these days. They rarely engage seriously with Smith beyond the whole Invisible Hand gobbledygook. After all, Smith (along with Marx, Ricardo, et al) endorsed the labor theory of value, which is problematic for modern-day conservatism to say the least.
kay
He’s so gross. He’s ruining everyone’s lives. He probably has eager proteges, too, so it’s not like there’s just the one and done.
TheStone
@Bludger: He’s no more of an evil genius than a heroin pusher. Figure out how to appeal to people’s basest instincts or needs and – Presto, the modern GOP. He is exceptional because few people are willing to be so cynical, so predatory, or to have such a douchey haircut. Bill Belichick- now there is an evil genius, my friend.
Yutsano
@TheStone:
These are the same people who cherry pick the Bible to get it to conform to their world views. Why shouldn’t that be true for all their sacred texts? I mean, they totally ignore Rand being a flaming atheist all the time.
danimal
Can we just name egregious examples of Republican sophistry “pieces of Luntz?”
EX: That Gingrich speech was a huge piece of Luntz!
Nicole
@Yutsano:
And pro-choice, pro-unrestricted immigration, anti-crony capitalism, anti-Ronald Reagan… hell, atheism is way down the list of things they choose to ignore about the Rights’s favorite pill-popping Cougar for the free markets.
r€nato
@TheStone: that ain’t a haircut! it’s a bad wig.
TheStone
@Yutsano: Well, it sure beats reading the dadgum texts from front to back, don’t it?
TheStone
@r€nato: Now you’re going to make me look closely at the Luntzter? I’ll take your word for it.
Yutsano
@TheStone: They should have John Galt’s speech. Memorized. At all times. And be quizzed on it constantly. Otherwise their purity is in question.
Mino
Crony fits so snugly against capitalism. It’s harder to get the same punch from crony free-market system.
bend
I am going to give the GOP a gift here. Sure, get rid of ‘entrepreneur.’ That one is sort of a late-90s buzzword that has lost its sheen after the multiple bubbles-n’-burst of the last ten years.
BUT, they shouldn’t stop saying ‘innovators.’ In fact, they should say it a lot. They should get other people saying it too. Reporters should ask questions featuring that word. Why? Because President Obama, mon cher ami, uses the nonstandard ‘ɪnəveɪtɪv’ pronunciation many people associate with the brits. From there it’s just a hop across the Channel to ‘European,’ and with education as bad as it is President Obama is basically a Kenyan Colonialist again.
TheStone
@Yutsano: That’s way beyond the talents of the base, or the big money boys for that matter. Isn’t that thing like a billion pages long?
Villago Delenda Est
@bend:
“Do you know what the problem with the French is? They have no word for ‘entrepreneur’.”
Quote attributed to George W. Bush by Tony Blair.
ornery
Bad things happen when you leave criminals at large for too long.
FormerSwingVoter
@TheStone:
This isn’t Smith-specific – this is how they approach every approach to every problem. Here’s an economic debate I’ve had no less than a dozen times over the last year or two:
ME: I can’t believe Milton Friedman is considered a left-wing commie by Republicans these days.
REPUB: He was a conservative! We like him.
ME: Quantitative easing was his idea. TARP lines up pretty well with Monetarism, as well.
REPUB: What’s Monetarism?
(For non-econ dorks: Monetarism is the school of economic thought founded by Friedman, and it used to be the right-most pole of economic thought.)
gnomedad
@FormerSwingVoter:
Even Reagan was to the left of “Reagan”. It’s like the “Christ of history vs. Jesus of faith” thing.
Anoniminous
@TheStone:
I find replacing “Invisible Hand” with “I have no idea what is going on” is helpful when deciphering Conservative economic writings.
Mark S.
@FormerSwingVoter:
Apparently you haven’t heard of the hot new conservative economic theory: Being Against Whatever The Black Guy In The White House Is For.
AA+ Bonds
Check the poll numbers. He’s right. In the United States, “capitalism” as a term is at an all-time low for positives.
The Chinese give higher positive responses than we do to the word, in fact.
AA+ Bonds
Here’s some poll numbers on “free market economy”.
This is a big deal.
AA+ Bonds
And here’s a piece by GlobeScan, the pollsters behind the story, that indicates that “free market” won’t do any favors.
It is what it is: “free market economy” as a concept is now less popular in the United States than it is in Brazil or Red China.
People are beginning to wake up and realize that critiquing capitalism for its many problems does not make one a Communist.
Special One
@Librarian: In it’s modern sense the word “capitalism” was coined by either Louis Blanc (1850) or Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1840 for “capitalist”, 1861 for “capitalism”) depending on how you look at it.
Why am I unsurprised it’s root is the same as “cattle” and “chattel”?
Be champions!
Cris (without an H)
’til it goes CLICK
Bill Arnold
@AA+ Bonds:
Well, it’s called the People’s Republic of Capitalism for a reason.
TheStone
@FormerSwingVoter: Their angle is entirely reactionary and, as a result, the goalposts keep getting moved every time one of their dickheads gets accepted by the media. Thus, the eventual rise of the battiest of the Austrians, etc. Very soon mainstream R economics will line up pretty nicely with those guys that want to start independent nation-states on giant cruise ships. Very soon.
TheStone
@Bill Arnold: Ain’t it swell how smooth Capitalism runs without all the messy democracy?
JoeShabadoo
I noticed this and brought it up in the last Occupy thread.
I should have expected the talking point to come all the way from the top.