Spin

In the early 70s when we were still trying to get out of the Vietnam war the Nixon campaign started talking about the silent majority.

Sure the people who stay home, are patriotic, go to work every day and believe in American values aren't on your TV screen rioting, protesting or looting but they really represented the great number of Americans as opposed to those getting all the coverage.

Nixon was elected twice, to a large extent by these very people because similar to out current president he promised to restore the America these people cherished.

Of course he was forced to resign once the true level of his paranoia and illegal behavior became evident, but its likely true that he lost the election in 1960 because of some dirty politics in Chicago and while in retrospect Watergate was totally unnecessary, he didn't want to leave it to chance.

The point is that at all times in this country we have a significant majority of people who want things to be "normal".

They would like America to be the way they remember it, safe, prosperous, and a bit boring.

They aren't opposed to progress as long as the progress isn't actually disruptive.

Take the problems with the Affordable Care Act.

First the media and republicans were able to rebrand it as Obamacare and present it as an expensive give away that was going to cost these folks more money for less benefits with uncertain results.

The democrats lost the public affairs contest almost immediately and did little to overcome the bad press.  As it turns out, there were a lot of things about it these people liked, but the incessant bad press cost a lot of elections and grief.

Similarly, we see the issue of immigration clearly being presented in negative ways which are generally untrue or at least not representative of the real situation.

A theme has been established about how the liberal elite are trying to socialize this country and take away the America these people love.

Its not true, but its the story that is out there, and it needs to be countered.

The things hurting their way of life are corporate decisions to reduce the cost of production and automation.  They think its immigration and gay marriage.

Talk about spin.