Shot in the Dark

Chanting Points Memo

From the Dictionary In The Dark:

Chanting Point:  (Noun)  Similar to a “talking point”, but intended to be recited by rote (often as part of large real or virtual crowds) rather than critically analyzed.

The DFL response to Tom Emmer has largely consisted of what I’ve christened “chanting points”; bits of rhetoric that may or may not contain a grain of “truthiness”, but aren’t designed so much for substantial policy discussions as they are to be chanted by crowds, either in person or online.

The term occurred to me last summer at the Minnesota State Fair.  Ed and I were sitting on our stage, right across from the DFL booth, talking about the ongoing negotations that led to Obamacare, eventually.   A compact fiftysomething woman in a full Frankenware ensemble strutted to the middle of the audience area, folded her arms, and started shaking her head back and forth.

“Would you care to discuss this?” I asked her, getting ready to take the mobile microphone and hike out into the audience.

She took a deep breath as I stood up, and yelled “PUBLIC OPTION NOW!  PUBLIC OPTION NOW! PUBLIC OPTION NOW!”.  She then turned on her heels and scampered away as fast as her busy little legs could carry her.

Ed and I compared notes during the break; that was about as close to a substantive argument that most Minnesota DFLers came then, and now.  Words designed to be bellowed over ones’ competition.

Chanting points.

The political marketplace is getting clogged with the chanting points of the left.

And I’m going to tackle them.  And so can you.

 

Image courtesy Lassie from True North.

Follow along in the “Chanting Points Memo” category.  Pass ’em around.  Learn ’em.  It’s gonna be a long campaign.

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Mitch Berg

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6 responses to “Chanting Points Memo”

  1. Tweets that mention Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » Chanting Points Memo — Topsy.com

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mitchpberg and mitchpberg, DerekBrigham. DerekBrigham said: Chanting Points Memo Begins @MitchpBerg and @TrueNorthMN http://bit.ly/c37hyc #GoDFL #mn2010 #mngop10 #Stribpol […]

  2. Seflores Avatar
    Seflores

    Chanting Points – Excellent term for how the nose-ringed dumbbells will react, respond and re-assure themselves that are ever the most enlightened in the coming campaign. If I could draw, my poster would be of the monks from “Monty Pythons Holy Grail” chanting while wacking themselves upon the head with a board (or the print version of the bonding bill legislation).

  3. Dave Thul Avatar
    Dave Thul

    The chanting points equivalent for blogging has to be the use of caps for more than one or two words consecutively.

    But I would take the knights who say ‘NEE!’ from Monty Python. One of them says it, and then all the others parrot it with conviction. Kind of like the DFL over the last few days. Someone says ‘right winger!’ and then the echo chamber parrots the same thing. Or you hear ‘tea bagger!’ and they all follow suit. Just like the knights who say ‘NEE!’, they take a word or phrase that means nothing to most people but use it like a weapon.

  4. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    Viva la May Day.

    http://www.breitbart.tv/santa-cruz-businesses-try-to-rebound-from-violent-may-day-riot/

  5. Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » Chanting Points Digest: Emmer’s First Six Weeks

    […] then, chanting points aren’t supposed to.   They are responses to Josef Göbbels’ classic Public Relations […]

  6. Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » Chanting Points Memo: The Boy Who Cried Armageddon

    […] paragraph is the consummate chanting point (“Chanting Point:  (Noun)  Similar to a “talking point”, but intended to be recited by […]

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