A political debate is usually won by the side with the better frame. So, it is frustrating when progressives accept an opponent’s message frame without challenge—but it happens all the time.
Far-right and MAGA groups spend millions of dollars on polls and focus groups testing words and phrases to frame policy debates, then systematically distribute that language to candidates, interest groups, and activists who amplify it across broadcast and social media. In recent years, this machinery has produced broad attack frames—woke, cancel culture, deep state, culture wars—that blame people of color and progressives for the country’s problems. But the far right also deploys narrower frames where the words themselves do the arguing, slipping in a conclusion before any case has been made: pro-life, remigration, border security, parental rights, gender ideology, America First, energy independence, death tax, tax relief.
A key pattern worth noting is that many of these frames work by inverting victim and aggressor (minorities are threats, majorities are victims), laundering extremist ideas through bureaucratic or neutral-sounding language (“remigration,” “election integrity”), or appropriating progressive values like free speech and parental rights to attack inclusive policies.
Don’t repeat their language. When you repeat a frame, you confirm it. Instead, you must reject their frame and replace it with your own.
Today’s far-right and MAGA movements are defined less by a consistent governing philosophy than by political strategies aimed at gaining and maintaining power. That explains the bigotry, the xenophobia, and the contempt for democratic norms—not as accidents, but as tools. Most right-wing “dog whistles” work as shortcuts that let people engage in prejudice while maintaining deniability. “CRT” and “BLM” function as socially acceptable substitutes for older slurs. “Globalist” and “Soros” are acceptable expressions of antisemitism. And QAnon recycles antisemitic conspiracy frameworks that powered their historical predecessors.
Rebutting these one by one is a trap—it accepts their terms. Reframe instead.
Say… Americans want their government to make things better. Real goals, like freedom, opportunity, and security for all of us—a fair economy, affordable healthcare, world-class schools, a better infrastructure, a better quality of life. Let’s talk about how we get real things done for our community.
In short, change the subject to issues your listeners really care about. If you’re talking to people who really care about what’s “woke,” then they are not persuadable. Don’t waste your time.
Don’t say cancel culture or culture wars. These phrases simply reframe bigotry. The far right uses cancel culture to condemn people who fight against racism, sexism, antisemitism, and other antisocial acts. And culture war is mostly used as a cover for anti-LGBTQ+ policies or a defense of Confederate leaders, the Confederate flag, or even slavery itself. Don’t repeat that frame. Move to issues where you can show you’re on their side.
Don’t say conspiracy theory or deep state. MAGA operates as a cult of white victimhood—and since white Americans are not actually an oppressed group, the movement depends on fabricated fears of racial, religious, and gender minorities to sustain itself. Those fabrications include “stolen” elections, COVID/vaccine denial, and “false flags” whenever right-wing violence becomes undeniable.
Resist using the term conspiracy theory. For scientists, a theory is a well-substantiated explanation built on repeatedly confirmed facts—theories of relativity, germ theory, and evolution. Using the word lends these fabrications a credibility they haven’t earned. Call them what they are: lies, fabrications, or hoaxes. When one surfaces, briefly correct the record and return to real issues—because engaging them at length is itself a victory for the people spreading them.
Don’t say nationalist, populist, or authoritarian. These labels flatter by obscuring their real intent. MAGA leaders are glad to be labeled as nationalists because it sounds like patriotism. But nationalism as a political movement grew from ethnic and cultural homogeneity—the idea that a nation belongs to one people. That has never described the United States, where 98 percent of residents are immigrants or their descendants. When someone claims to be an American nationalist, what they mean is that the country belongs to white people. Call it what it is: white supremacy, or simply racism.
The use of populism spiraled out of control in 2016 following Trump’s election and the approval of Brexit. (The Cambridge Dictionary chose it as their 2017 “Word of the Year.”) MAGA cannot be populist because it is funded and guided by billionaires. Real populists would tax these billionaires and regulate wealthy corporations just as the 1890’s People’s Party supported William Jennings Bryan and his economic program against the rich. Today’s use of populism is just a euphemism for bigotry.
Academics and the media call MAGA authoritarian. It’s accurate—but “authoritarian” is a technical term like “sternum” or “cloture.” Most people don’t know exactly what it means, so it loses its power to condemn. Use language persuadable Americans actually feel: MAGA is against democracy, against the rule of law, against checks and balances, against the Constitution, and against the basic freedoms every American is guaranteed. This is not a new fight. What MAGA represents is what the founding generation defeated in the Revolutionary War, and what the Greatest Generation defeated in the Second World War. MAGA isn’t patriotism. It’s what Americans have always fought against.
Move away from the terms liberal and conservative. Our opponents want us to be called liberals because that term doesn’t poll very well. In fact, hardly any left-of-center political organizations or leaders call themselves liberal. They mostly call themselves progressive and have done so now for decades.
Political leaders in the far-right and MAGA movements call themselves conservative because that term polls well. But there are hardly any authentic conservatives in public office anymore because the MAGA movement has overrun them. Call them MAGA, far right, hard-right, or the radical right.