Whenever Democrats use Republican frames, they lose votes

[eridani]

Obama and Clinton both do it. Obama has used Repub framing on Social Security and health care, but Clinton takes the cake with her constant repetition of the "commander in chief" frame. FDR led us through WW II, and was rarely designated that way. It would have been utterly pretentious for Eisenhower, having been an actual general, to refer to himself that way. It is beyond stupid to use the meme now, since none of our real security threats can be dealt with by the military.

Any time a Dem candidate uses the term, s/he costs us hundreds of thousands of votes.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032008G.shtml

That frame is not what America is about. It does not embody fundamental American values. Nor does it portray what the role of the government is in our democracy. The dual roles of government are protection and empowerment, as we have written elsewhere. Protection is not just military or police protection, but a wide range: consumer protection, worker protection, environmental protection, social security, protection from natural disasters and disease and protection from economic devastation.

That is the major protective mission of the government. The protective job of the president is leadership, primarily in these areas, and also in military matters when our country is in serious danger of attack by a military force. Leadership in all of these areas places different requirements on a president:

---The ability to articulate those needs for protection so that the nation will comprehend them as overriding needs.

---The ability to get the country united behind plans for protecting Americans in all of those ways.

---The ability to inspire a generation of Americans to devote their lives and careers to these tasks.

Protection and leadership are vital issues in a presidential campaign. But the commander-in-chief frame hides them, and replaces them with a right-wing model of government and of the presidency. Conservatives have a long history of dominating the landscape of ideas by trumpeting security issues. So long as the public generally thinks about military affairs as overwhelming, they will be susceptible to conservative frames. Associations between the presidency and commander in chief will tend to promote a conservative view of the world where use of force is not merely encouraged but made mandatory.

[Jawja]

1. Agree about the "Commander in Chief" thing.

I CRINGE when I hear George W. Bush refer to himself has "Commander in Chief." It has a military dictator ring to it.

[eridani]

2. Every time Clinton uses the term, she subtracts Dem voted in November--

--whether or not she is the nominee.