Talking Back to Perry's Prayer Summit

by: lightseeker

Fri Jul 08, 2011 at 21:33:24 PM CDT

As you know and I have blogged Rick Perry has called for a prayer summit at Reliant Stadium on August 6th. Here is how he tells it:

America is in the midst of a historic crisis. We have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters. The youth of America are in grave peril economically, socially, and, most of all, morally. There are threats emerging within our nation and beyond our borders beyond our power to solve.

Our nation is at a crossroads. More and more Americans are perceiving the critical juncture we find ourselves in - the future of our nation is determined by the courage of its people: first, in recognizing the magnitude of our common trouble; then, by uniting to seize the unique opportunity this moment offers us. Our response can, in part, determine our future and define for our children - and their children - what kind of nation they will govern, serve, and lead.

I have a tactic I have borrowed from something I have read. ( I have forgotten who). In breaking down a frame and the political myth upon which it is built, ask and answer five questions. What is the problem? Who are the villains? Who are the victims? Who are the heroes? What is the common sense solution? Let's answer these for Rick's framing/statement.

The problem: Grave peril (note the debt is the first such peril, but...)  most of all moral because we are a nation that has not honored God in our successes or humbly called on Him in our struggles.
The villain(s): not stated , but can be found in the creed and statements of the sponsoring group, American Family association:
Financial debt
Proponents of  same gender marriage
Supporters of America's anti-Christian bias
the homosexual agenda
The victims: Christians, especially Christian Americans and our children.
The hero(es): Rick Perry and the American Family Association.
The common sense solution: conversion to Christianity , preferably the AFA brand .

Now that beutiful message stands revealed for the political fantasy/nightmare it is. It is a right wing story being pushed by Govenor Perry to sell the idea that he is just one of us Christians who has felt compelled to call this meeting in order to ask God to save us from the Gays, free spenders (read liberals), and that powerful block of  anti-Christians among us. One guess who will get to play this part if this framing goes unchallenged

The historic and immediate first reaction of most liberals and progressive activists is to scream "seperation of church and state." They are of course right and their correctness is largely irrelevant to the audiences/voters who count going forward.

How long as Rick been playing this game? Remember the "Patriot Pastor" seminars?

Rick Perry, Prop 2, Gay Marriage, and Texas
Since the spring, a network of conservative ministers called the Texas Restoration Project has held a series of "pastor policy briefings" across Texas featuring Mr. Perry and members of his administration. The governor has spoken at all six project meetings statewide.

The project aims to enlist 1,000 "patriot pastors" and register 300,000 new voters, and leaders say they're closing in on both targets.

The effort mirrors a strategy that helped President Bush win re-election last year: Identify and register new voters likely to be friendly to the GOP cause, and then rely on churches and religious leaders to get them to the polls.

People have been screaming at Rick about mixing church and state since at least 2001..

Perry defends prayer in school

AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that he sees no problem with ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court ban on organized school prayer "at this very crisis moment in our history."

Mr. Perry defended a decision to have a Protestant minister open an East Texas middle school assembly with prayer last week.

"Any time you have a crisis that faces you either in your personal life or as we have now in our country, reaching out to a supreme being is a very normal act," said the Republican governor, who attended the school assembly in Palestine.

Organized school prayer has been outlawed by the Supreme Court since 1963. Last year, the court ruled in a Texas case that organized prayers before high school football games were unconstitutional.

Mr. Perry told reporters Monday that he is ready to make school prayer a campaign issue as he seeks election next year to a full four-year term as governor.

"Why can't we say a prayer at a football game or a patriotic event like we held at Palestine Middle School?" Mr. Perry asked. "I don't understand the logic of that. I happen to think it was appropriate."

Samantha Smoot of the Texas Freedom Network, which monitors the activities of religious groups in education, said school prayer "is a tempting issue for a politician."

"You get short-term brownie points for appearing religious," she said. "It isn't until later that voters start thinking, What if it isn't my God they're worshipping, or my prayer?"

The governor's likely Democratic challenger, Laredo banker Tony Sanchez, sought Monday through a spokesman to play down any difference between the two on the issue.

"Prayer is an important part of children's lives," said Sanchez campaign manager Glenn Smith. "They shouldn't be excluded from prayer in schools, especially during a time like this."

At the same time, Mr. Smith alluded to "the dangers of one denomination or religion intimidating children that happen to belong to another."

Notice the framing by Perry? Sound familiar? Crisis means the govenor should lead us in prayer. It is a normal reaction, it is just common sense to the average person. The Prayer Summit is the latest installment of this long running tactic.

Notice also the reactions to Perry's tactic. Sanchez, the Democratic candidate says, essentially, me too. Not effective. The Texas Freedom Network, whose efforts I admire, play the whose God is it card, but softly . Perry suffered no damage whatsoever form this blowup.

Here he is doing it again in 2005:

Perry signs parental consent legislation Ceremony at Christian school in Fort Worth draws 250 protesters

FORT WORTH - With a religious institution as his backdrop, Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation Sunday requiring females under the age of 18 to gain parental consent before they can obtain an abortion.

In signing the measure and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages that must still go before voters in November, Mr. Perry assured more than 600 supporters that they were upholding an "American virtue," not a political agenda.

"We may be on the grounds of a Christian school today, but our message speaks to all who believe in standing up for the unborn, all who cherish strong, traditional families, regardless of party, ethnicity or creed," Mr. Perry said. "We're here because a quiet majority decided to have their voices heard. We could be doing this at a parking lot at Wal-Mart."

More than 250 protesters, outside the Calvary Christian Academy, however, decried the ceremony and the legislation.

"It's absolutely unbelievable [that Mr. Perry] would be down here signing something into law," said Cara Burgess, a mother of two from Dallas. She carried a sign calling for the separation of church and state. "It's church property. Pandering to fundamentalists is what we have here."

...

The church audience, murmuring "amen" during the governor's remarks, gave him a standing ovation, many remaining on their feet while more than 20 local pastors and abortion opponents surrounded Mr. Perry as he signed the parental consent bill at the end of the 90-minute ceremony. The measure replaces a law requiring that parents receive notification prior to an abortion.

Now we have the church-state card played against him. It had absolutely no traction in the election.

My point is this : if you simple call Perry out on the seperation of church-state you do him a great favor. He comes off as pro-prayer and you come off as anti-prayer. Do you honestly think that the low information voter, perhaps as much as 30% and concentrated in the independent/swing voter bloc , really understands or cares about constitutional legalities?

The Uninformed Bloc

...uninformed voters might be vulnerable to deceptive framing of policy debates, such that their preferences may be quite malleable, which of course renders polling data problematic as a guide to strategy. The textbook example illustrating both points is the majoritarian belief that Saddam Hussein had a hand in the 9/11 attacks, which greatly facilitated the Administration's goal of invading Iraq and overthrowing Hussein.

So, to put it in provocative terms, how ignorant is the electorate? Bennett found that nearly one-third of adults were unaware that the Republican Party is more conservative than the Democratic Party. And lest the reader think that this is an expression of cynicism rather than a lack of knowledge, Bennett found that whether or not respondents knew there were major differences between the two parties was associated with the amount of knowledge they had of major politicians and the parties but not with their levels of governmental trust.

Only one in ten adults knew who Denny Hastert is. Out of eight similar questions about politicians and the two parties, the average adult got just 4.5 right. One-third of adults said they follow politics "hardly at all" or "only now and then".

...

Bennett's results imply that that bloc would be as large as one-third of the population.

Don't just think Tea Party. You know these people, they are doctors and lawyers , they are professionals who never had time or training in politics or social science. They are your uncles, your aunts, your neighbors and friends. They are not bad people.They are not stupid. They are trying to keep up with their lives and have no time for the fine points of politics or history or even current events. They do , however vote in significant numbers.

All this brings me to my last point: in talking back to Perry's Summit, separation of church and state should NOT be the first thing out of your mouth. It is a loser in peeling off the low information independents and leaners we need to rebuild a Democratic majority in Harris County and the state.  

First our story/myth/framing:
We should remember that throughout our long history as a nation we have worked together to build a common good of all. We must not let ourselves be divided . Most of us are church people , some are not . Church people say they are building up the Kingdom of God by caring for his little ones. Our allies, those others of good will,  can speak for themselves, but we believe that their actions speak for them. When they aid the needy, care for the children, they are doing what all men and women of good will should be doing - serving the common good, providing a better future for all our children.

It takes all of us to build tomorrow. We are the one we have been waiting for.

You can use this framing statement to create your own personal response when asked or when dicussing the Perry event. That is the beauty of it. It contains many ideas , but all part of a bigger picture which the listener will tend to fill in as you speak. This is based on brain science, trust me.

Broken down:

The problem: We have forgotten how we build the common good - together.
The villains: those who would divide us, Rick Perry and the AFA.
The victims: The people  of Texas and the US, our children
The hero(es): We the people , activists who live and honor inclusion, compassion and tolerance and the separation of church and state.
The common sense solution: Work together within our communities to build bridges to each other , to solve our common problems, and restore the American Dream for all.

The key is that we don't simply use his words, his terms as he defines them to simply try negating his myth. It doesn't work. We re-frame the story using our ideas, our words, our definitions. We also do something else, especially aimed at the low information voter. We create emotional empathy with them first and then hit'em with analysis and proposals. Who will not connect to the American tradition of co-operation? Remember barn risings and co-operative harvesting that are our heritage. Co-operation and inclusion is in our bones.

Of course so are xenophobia and "getting mine". The key is to turn on the co-operative values and beliefs and mute out the others. Framing and consistent follow through and repetition does this. Appeals to legalism and cold logic fail. People first connect emotionally, then engage intellectually, if ever!! It's not an assertion it is brain science!

Westen, Drew (2008). The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (pp. 15-16)
Republicans understand what the philosopher David Hume recognized three centuries ago: that reason is a slave to emotion, not the other way around. With the exception of the Clinton era, Democratic strategists for the last three decades have instead clung tenaciously to the dispassionate [that is, the purely rational ] view of the mind and to the campaign strategy that logically follows from it, namely one that focuses on facts, figures, policy statements, costs and benefits, and appeals to intellect and expertise...
If you think about voters as calculating machines who add up the utility [usefulness]  of your positions on "the issues," you will invariably find yourself scouring the polls for your principles. And as soon as voters perceive you as turning to opinion polls instead of your internal polls-your emotions, and particularly your moral emotions-they will see you as weak, waffling, pandering, and unprincipled. And they will be right.

So, the bottom line, when you talk about the Perry event, talk smart, talk about inclusion and working together as in the framing message above . Then hit'em with the facts if you think they are ready. At least get them thinking that is it possible to question Perry, without being simply anti-prayer.