I believe a strong tactic to flip right-wing messaging is to reframe the conversation using values that resonate across the political spectrum like fairness, accountability, and smart investments. Here are some ways to do that:
- Reclaim and reframe Entitlements as Earned Benefits
Flip the Script: Instead of allowing entitlements to be framed as handouts, emphasize that programs like Social Security and Medicare are earned benefits that people have paid into their entire working lives.
Example Response: You paid into Social Security and Medicare for decades. Thats not an entitlement, thats a contract. If the government mismanages those funds, thats not your fault. That’s the government’s fault and we must recognize that to vote people in that will manage OUR money better.
- Expose Tax Mismanagement with Progressive and Populist Messaging
Flip the Script: Instead of focusing on taxes are too high, shift the conversation to how taxes are spent.
Example Response: Your hard-earned tax dollars aren’t making your life better. They’re going to corporate subsidies, bank bailouts, and wasteful military spending. Shouldn’t our money be funding better healthcare, schools, and infrastructure for us and our children?
- Turn Big Government Criticism into Corporate Accountability
Flip the Script: Many conservatives distrust big government, but they also distrust elites and corporate greed. Use that to redirect the blame toward corruption.
Example Response: The problem isn’t that government helps people; the problem is that it helps billionaires and giant corporations while we get stuck with the bill. Why are we paying for tax breaks for Amazon instead of roads, hospitals, and schools?
- Use Local & Personal Examples
Flip the Script: Abstract policy debates don’t connect as well as real-world examples. Show how tax mismanagement affects them personally.
Example Response: You’re re paying taxes, but why are your roads still full of potholes? Why is your hospital understaffed? Where’s your money going? It’s not too much government, it’s that the government is working for the wrong people.
- Tie It Back to Liberty Justice Freedom & Choice
Flip the Script: Right-wing messaging often emphasizes freedom. Reclaim it by arguing that corporate tax cuts and government mismanagement limit people’s liberty/ freedom.
Example Response: How free are you when you’re stuck with medical debt? When your wages are stagnant while billionaires get richer? Real freedom means having a fair shot not just surviving while the wealthy get handouts in government subsidies which come from the taxes we pay.
By shifting the narrative this way, you’re not just reacting you’re taking control of the conversation and making the issue about who really benefits from the system as it is.
I believe a digital campaign should be launched, pamphlets should be drawn up and whomever our candidates are should be talking this way.
Good schools
Crumbling infrastructure
Universal healthcare
