To some, acting to push Democrats at ALL when we are under a fucking COUP is highjacking democracy

[PatrickforO]

100. Hmm. With all due respect, it sounds like you're the one doing the dividing.

Words do matter, you know, and we have to begin using them more effectively against the right. For instance, Senator Warren has said she backs 'single payer.'

Which is GREAT! So do I.

However, poll after poll after poll after poll shows that when you say 'single payer,' fewer people support you than if you said 'Medicare for all.' This is just a plain fact, yet Sen. Warren and others are still clinging to the words 'single payer.'

Here's a link to prove what I just said. Comes from a 2016 Kaiser study: News Release, Kaiser Family Foundation, February 25, 2016

The survey also finds that the words to describe such a [health care reform] plan clearly affect how people view it. For instance, nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans say they have a positive reaction to the term “Medicare-for-all,” and most (57%) say the same about “guaranteed universal health coverage.” Fewer have a positive reaction to “single payer health insurance system” (44%).

http://kff.org/global-health-policy/press-release/public-split-on-what-to-do-about-the-health-care-system-though-more-support-building-on-aca-than-repealing-it-replacing-with-a-gop-alternative-or-creating-a-single-payer-plan/

Yet, when I point THIS out, why am I one of the people trying to waste time while the right wing coup happens, etc, etc, etc? I'm on your side. All I'm saying is that what we have BEEN doing isn't working. We can see the evidence of that in 33 GOP controlled state legislatures, 32 GOP governorships, and GOP control of the entire federal government. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing you've always done, but expecting different results.

Republicans tore us a new one in 2016. Sure, Clinton won the popular vote, but Trump is still in the WH. Plus GOP majorities in both Houses of Congress.

This is why I keep reminding everyone that words matter - a lesson Lee Atwater taught Karl Rove, and that he learned very well. Words matter.

So, instead of saying:

Single payer,

We should say:

Medicare for all. People understand and like Medicare.

When a Republican says:

'Job-killing regulations,'

We should say:

No, those are life-saving guidelines (and then have a story to back that up, like the explosion of the Martinez family's dream home in Firestone, Colorado due to methane gas leaked from an uncapped pipe.

When a Republican says:

Obama-care is a disaster and we have to save the victims,

We should say,

The only disasters that have happened as a result of Obama-care are related to Republicans sabotaging it. For example (have an anecdote - my favorite is the failure of GOP controlled states to expand Medicaid actually made it worse for people because insurance companies raised rates - so the GOP victimized their own rank and file to sabotage the law instead of trying to make it work).

I'm sorry, and again with all due respect, it is threads like this that divide us.