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RHETORIC-DANCING WITH WOLVES
What a fantastic sport it is, watching and listening to the political propaganda wars. It is interesting and illuminating to discover how the "wordsmiths" TOY with our emotions.
At one time, fondling us gently, at another, smashing into and through our barriers, the political strategists have done their homework. They have taken our pulse and studied our wants and desires to find out what words affects us the most.
No surprise here. The words that have the most effect ON us, are ABOUT us -- our bodies, our health and our welfare. Need proof? Tops in popularity are two genre of TV shows: medical and mayhem (wrestling etc.) We seem obsessed, on the one hand, with seeing and hearing someone torn limb from limb and on the other watching people in green cover-alls rushing around, sopping up blood and defying mortality and their sexual hangups.
The propaganda machines have come up with two possibly fatal illnesses to excite us. News programs interview various politicians about these horrible illnesses. Talking heads elaborate on these words at every opportunity, illustrating them with rhetorical body blows.
But it is talk/hate radio where the host and constant callers iterate and reiterate not only the appalling illnesses, but also all of the alleged crimes they can associate with them.
One of these diseases, that we've heard referred to a gazillion times, is CLINTON FATIGUE. We are told that people all over the country are coming down with it, which, of course, means that it is highly contagious. The source of this terrible affliction is not only Hillary and Bill Clinton, but also Al Gore, the Cabinet and anyone who has ever associated with the present administration.
There is only one cure for this malaise, they say. Put our guy in office and kick those guys out.
Another disease making its debut is a revolting illness that has backlash specificity written all over it. It is called THE FEMINIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. To hear them tell it, women have taken over, and this disease threatens to envelop the entire country. Oh horrors!
Horrendous it is! The suggestion that women are in control and are changing men into pantywaists has really put the wind up. Men in this country have a massive aversion to the term, feminization, especially when it is applied to them. It causes most of them to have visions of cowboy hats and boots and guns, or basketballs. Translating these visions through their brainstem (without any cerebral overview), they immediately exhibit a preference for sportsguy, Bradley or Marlboroman, W. -- "Ugh, grunt, guystuff!"
This is exactly the outcome that the GOPpers analysts expected when they unleashed the feminization rhetorical-virus on the land. Creepy, isn't it, how easily our minds can be manipulated when words or phrases are used over and over again?
One word always sure to have a huge impact is BABY. This is how the anti-choice people refer to a fetus. They program women to call in to talk shows who will tearfully say something like this: "I used to be pro-choice and then I got pregnant AND SAW A SONOGRAM OF A BABY -- MY BABY AT 5 WEEKS! How can anyone want to have an abortion and kill a BABY?"
Sounds great, but even most experts cannot tell a sonogram of a fetal pig from that of a human fetus at that age. The "Anties" have successfully turned the country against women's right to choose a late term abortion and continue to work towards the elimination of all birth control rights.
One may feel a certain
safety in the fact that the Supremes in
Roe v. Wade have limited each State's control of abortion to "after
a fetus becomes viable." In other words, if the fetus
can live outside of the womb, the States may then regulate a woman's right
to an abortion. Viable is a "squishy" term, but may be
considered to be around 7 months, although there are exceptions.
So, why are several states, Missouri being the latest, passing laws that state specifically that ALL abortion is a criminal act on any fetus that exhibits life signs such as heart beat? Governor Mel Carnahan vetoed the bill but the legislature has overridden it. Now a federal judge has put a hold on this law until September 27th.
This is much more than a legal tangle that can go on and on while women
are denied proper and "chosen" ob-gyn care in Missouri. When
just ONE Supreme is replaced by a anti-choice Justice, Roe v Wade
can be rescinded. States like Missouri will have laws in place that
make ALL abortions criminal.
In addition, the authors of this bill are masquerading their true purpose under an innocuous explanation that the law is to help women. They tell us that it will prevent men from beating up their pregnant wives or woman friends because if a "baby" is killed, it is murder. Once again, the wording is specifically crafted to impact our emotions.
We must not fall for their ploy. Instead, we must spread the word, that it is WRONG and criminal to beat up a woman whether she is pregnant or not. That it is WRONG to kill a woman whether she is pregnant or not. That it is WRONG to outlaw abortion as long as there is one woman who may need it and whose choice must be honored. How very strange it is that the very people who would allow unregulated gun ownership, who decry all government regulation and who profess to honor their God, find it so easy to kill women's civil rights. This law if implemented would JUSTIFY THE MURDER OF WOMEN'S CLINIC DOCTORS creating the killer's defense that, "s/he was saving the life of a baby."
Stranger still, Missouri already has a law on the books that outlaws that "certain type" of late term abortion. The claim is that this new bill creates a specific felony called infanticide, but that it applies ONLY to a fetus at birth or partial birth. This does NOT jibe with the wording about life signs such as a heartbeat.
Not so strange is the fact that MANY DEMOCRATS VOTED FOR IT, even those claiming to be pro-choice. They have joined in MISREPRESENTING this anti-woman bill for political gain.
Sadly, they can succeed in their rhetorical wolfish dance if WE allow their carefully constructed verbiage to be translated through OUR brainstem (without any cerebral overview.) Emotions are powerful and they count on that, but emotions are also controllable and we can and must control them.
1999-039
Copyright 1999 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@ConnRiver.net.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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