Some conservatives have tried to make a story out of a top Michigan health official sending lockdown-loving Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer a report by establishment GOP pollster Frank Luntz. The report laid out a strategy to convince supporters of former President Donald Trump to embrace the coronavirus vaccine.
That’s rather lackluster as ammunition against Whitmer. Luntz’s report itself, however, is quite interesting, especially for what it reveals about an out-of-touch establishment’s continuing desire to cling to its ideas on what makes Trump backers tick.
“Changing the COVID Conversation” is a series of polls and Luntz’s widely derided “focus groups” first taken in November and running through May 5 (as of this writing). It was commissioned by a medical grant organization/think tank called the de Beaumont Foundation.
Politicized P’s
“Reflecting on the session later, Luntz concluded, ‘Trump Republicans remain the last significant holdout in embracing the COVID-19 vaccine — but we now have hope,’” a summary of the report on de Beaumont’s website reads. The target has been identified.
Judicial Watch brought renewed attention to the Luntz vaccine report with its June 1 release of records from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. It turns out Department Director Robert Gordon forwarded the Luntz report to Whitmer’s office. Gordon highlighted this Luntz comment on how to reach Trump Republicans in the December email he sent to Whitmer’s chief of staff JoAnne Huls:
“The ‘P’s’ are particularly powerful and impactful: pandemic (rather than coronavirus), protocols (rather than edicts, rules, mandates, etc.), protection (rather than safety), personal responsibility (rather than government control), and peace of mind (rather than security).”
While the Whitmer angle is of passing interest, key takeaways here are that establishment forces believe mass vaccination can be achieved through politically adept word manipulation, and that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) roommate Frank Luntz is a hired gun in this effort. Moreover, that the same people who did not understand the Trump phenomenon still insist on seeing it not as a genuine movement representing strong and clearly defined ideals, but as a superficial, emotional happening that can be safely defused given the proper psychological approach.
“It’s never been more important in public health to understand the perceptions of Americans and modify language accordingly,” de Beaumont says of its Luntz series. Tips are offered on how to “promote vaccine acceptance.” Remember, Luntz asserted that Trump backers are the “last significant holdouts” that need to be reached.
“If you are to shift personal behavior among all Americans, you have to change your communication to all Americans,” the report states. “You need to show that doing the right thing now means a faster economic recovery.”
Further, the missive advises: “[A]lways refer to agencies as ‘public health’ rather than ‘government health.’ It’s the best way to overcome skepticism with anything related to government.” At one point, the report bizarrely proclaims: “Nothing scares GOPers more than an IRS audit.”
Hooked On a Feeling
If critics of his methodology are correct, Frank Luntz is cooking his results to give his employers the data they hope to see. In other words, de Beaumont wants to think Trump supporters can be convinced to get the jab via economic appeals, buzz talk about local control and downplaying the role of big government in the vaccine push. It wants to believe they can be won over with cheap and empty political messaging.
“We worked with Frank Luntz to figure out what are the words that work,” Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, told Modern Healthcare in a May 31 interview. “We believe that the right messages from the right messengers can save lives. And so we started working with folks in all different kinds of populations. Then as the pandemic wore on [we] really honed in on Republican voters, because they were a group that had the most concern about the vaccine.”
[bookpromo align=”right”] Castrucci and Luntz appeared together on the PBS program “Amanpour & Co.” on May 4. Referring to Luntz’s “focus group” of Republicans, Hari Sreenivasan, a PBS NewsHour Weekend anchor who was conducting the interview, displayed a sublime lack of self-awareness when he said: “I want to play another clip now showing how these people have internalized all of the messaging they’ve received through a political lens.”
These people?
That, right there, is ultimately what this is all about. “Changing the COVID Conversation” is aimed more at refortifying comforting Swamp opinions about Trump supporters than serving as an honest attempt at genuine outreach across the partisan divide. “These people” are blinded by political bombast, don’t you see? They can’t think for themselves. They are easily duped.
Such being the case, with the proper conditioning and packaging, we can steer them straight to the vaccination needle. And if we can do that, we can peel them away from their entire unseemly America First attitude as well.
Reinforcing the daydreams of a manifestly unpopular ruling establishment is how Frank Luntz appears to earn his keep.
~
Read more from Joe Schaeffer.
