Cultural Limits posted: " Now, if we could just figure out how to get
the War on Women people to talk about the economy In the past week, there
has been an interesting back and forth between Rep. Renee Ellmers of North
Carolina and Ashe Schow of the Washington Examiner. It see" Respond to
this post by replying above this line
New post on *Rat Nation*
<http://mikesright.wordpress.com/author/mynewpolitics/> War On Women – GOP
Ladies, Take A Deep Breath And Please Be Adults. Not All Criticism Is Bad
<http://mikesright.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/war-on-women-gop-ladies-take-a-deep-breath-and-please-be-adults-not-all-criticism-is-bad/>
by
Cultural Limits <http://mikesright.wordpress.com/author/mynewpolitics/>
[image: Republican-War-on-Women]
<https://mikesright.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/republican-war-on-women.jpg>
*Now, if we could just figure out how to get the War on Women people to
talk about the economy*
In the past week, there has been an interesting back and forth between Rep.
Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Ashe Schow of the *Washington Examiner*.
It seems that there was a GOP women's discussion last week (which of
course was VERY under-reported) in Washington about why the GOP was/is
"losing the war on women."
The answer the panel came up with - and Ashe Schow agreed - is MESSAGING.
*Gee, where have we heard that before?*
In her critique of the panel discussion
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-republican-plan-to-change-the-war-on-women-narrative-needs-work/article/2550786?custom_click=rss>,
Ms. Schow had this to say:
How are Republicans planning to fight the “war on women
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/section/war-on-women>” narrative so rampant
among Democrats and the left?
In a word, “messaging,” but it appears that’s as far as their strategy
goes....
“The problem here is not necessarily conservative policy, it's our
messaging,” Kim Strassel, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal who was
moderating the panel said.
And the panelists agreed.
“We just don't do a very good job of talking about [GOP policies]
sometimes,” said Rep. Kristi Noem of South Dakota....
"It’s how we are able to articulate ourselves – make sure we get the point
across that we care,” said Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina.
Great, everyone agrees. Go do that.
Except I’ve heard those same words from Republicans since I moved to
Washington three years ago.
And even though the women on the panel all agreed that the GOP’s messaging
needed to be better, it was clear they aren’t doing much to improve it.
Not to sound like a broken record, but uh-huh.
So, how does one of the panelists - the one with whom Schow specifically
agrees, Renee Ellmers - react to Ms. Schow's honest and very valid
observations? Well, attack her, of course
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/rep.-renee-ellmers-full-comments-regarding-the-war-on-women-narrative/article/2550883>.
Just like all good social queen bees do.
On Sunday, I wrote an article about the GOP's poor messaging
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-republican-plan-to-change-the-war-on-women-narrative-needs-work/article/2550786?custom_click=rss>
on
the “war on women” narrative. I posted some comments from Rep. Renee
Ellmers, R-N.C., who said GOP men need to bring their messages “down to a
woman's level.”
Ellmers called me a “liberal woman reporter” and said I had taken her quote
“completely out of context
<http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ellmers-urges-men-bring-policy-down-womans-level>
.”
Really? Schow was kind enough to print Rep. Ellmers' comments in full
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/rep.-renee-ellmers-full-comments-regarding-the-war-on-women-narrative/article/2550883>,
including bolding the sentences she used in her first piece. These are the
statements THIS blogger would like to see big GOP dollars spent to address
in message crafting:
Tone matters. How you speak to people matters.
One of the things that I will say and that I want – especially when we’re
talking about people, so thank you all for being here – is that, we have a
tendency to turn people off right away, depending on what’s being said.
Some of that has nothing to do with what we say, it’s the perception – you
know, perception becomes reality – and if there’s – if someone knows that
you’re a Republican, if someone knows I’m a Republican, I many times don’t
even really talk about that, I just start having the conversation....
Women, by and large, agree with us on all of the issues. If you go through
each issue, they agree. *It’s how we are able to articulate ourselves –
make sure that we’re getting the point across that we care, before we do
anything else.* That we relate to them, understand what every woman in this
country is dealing with....
*Men do tend to talk about things on a much higher level.* You know, one of
the things that has always been one of my frustrations and I speak about
this all the time – *many of my male colleagues, when they go to the House
floor, you know, they’ve got some pie chart or graph behind them and
they’re talking about trillions of dollars and, you know, how the debt is
awful and, you know, we all agree with that*.
But by starting off that discussion that way, we’ve already turned people
away. Because it’s like ‘that doesn’t affect my life, I don’t understand
how that affects my life.’
Exactly. And if one actually pays attention to the messaging of the real
pros at heart-string tugging - that would be the Democrats, especially
James Carville - that's how it's done. Ask the question - how does it
effect me and mine? That's how advertisers sell products. Distill
emotions down to a single word or phrase and use that as the basis
<http://www.amazon.com/The-Culture-Code-Ingenious-Understand/dp/0767920570>.
Like I've said before BILLIONS of dollars have been spent figuring out how
to do this.
So, why would a Republican representative get her panties in a wad over a
pundit saying: Great, we agree! JUST DO IT!
It's a mystery of the universe. Does Ellmers not see that Schow is on the
same side? (Or that people like me are?) Reacting to a critique like that
is just so, so, high school. Because when one reacts like that - flying
off the handle to legitimate points - the risk of turning off allies is
real. Just as the "males" (are we seriously specimens in a zoo?) do with
the pie charts and graphs so many women seem to not like. (Personally, I
prefer them, but....)
That seems to be exactly what happened
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/rep.-renee-ellmers-attack-on-me-shows-why-the-gop-is-losing-the-democrats-war-on-women/article/2550935>
:
In her response
<http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ellmers-urges-men-bring-policy-down-womans-level>,
Ellmers called me a “liberal woman reporter” and accused me of “attacking”
the panel she was speaking on and “taking it to a dark place that does not
exist.” She said I took her remarks "completely out of context."...
Even a rudimentary online search of my name reveals I could not in any
known universe be considered a “liberal” reporter.
And that’s my point. Without doing any research, Ellmers and her staff
assumed that my criticism meant I was liberal.
If that's how they treat someone on their side, imagine what they would do
to someone on the fence.
The Republican women in Congress are the ones who can do the most to combat
the Left’s narrative, yet they’re not doing so to any recognizable extent.
All they say is, "We need to tell more stories."
Now imagine an undecided voter voicing her opinion and being attacked by
Ellmers. Do you think she would ever vote Republican?
In a panel about messaging, counting people out as lost causes before
learning anything about them seems like the wrong approach.
Good questions, and some the GOP women need to spend time reflecting their
answers to get them right.
*Cultural Limits <http://mikesright.wordpress.com/author/mynewpolitics/>*
| July 19, 2014 at 11:21 am | Tags: ashe schow
<http://mikesright.wordpress.com/?tag=ashe-schow>, economy
<http://mikesright.wordpress.com/?tag=economy>, War on Women
<http://mikesright.wordpress.com/?tag=war-on-women>, Washington Examiner
<http://mikesright.wordpress.com/?tag=washington-examiner> | Categories:
Republicans <http://mikesright.wordpress.com/?cat=34997550>, What War on
Women? <http://mikesright.wordpress.com/?cat=120403944> | URL:
http://wp.me/p1bb2w-gmN
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