Winning debates is all about framing the issues. My rhetoric students know this, and it's vital the Democrats learn it too.
One of my favorite things about primary debate season is hearing from former students who took my Presidential Campaign Rhetoric course. Often it's an email, a text, a tweet."Holy rhetoric! Hope you're watching!" one wrote this week, as the Democratic presidential candidates took the stage for the second time this summer.
This is a classic"fear frame," and it was rampant in the discussion of health care on both nights. Using loaded language, Tapper put Sanders on the defensive by positioning the plan as"taking" something—and arguably impeded what could have been a substantive debate.
Yang capitalized on what we call in my class"foot-in-the-door" comments, pushing the health care door wide open."Democrats are talking about health care in the wrong way," he said."As someone who's run a business, I can tell you flat-out our current health care system makes it harder to hire, it makes it harder to treat people well and give them benefits and treat them as full-time employees. It makes it harder to switch jobs, as Senator Harris just said.
Bash's question is particularly problematic because it is circular—the last word describes the action, so anyone agreeing to decriminalize something that is illegal would be violating the law. And the framing, once again, put candidates on the defensive, preventing a substantive discussion and instead requiring them to address the underlying fear invoked by"weak" or"open" borders.
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