I. Introduction
Do the size and electoral power of a state, the interest group rating, or the date of re-election influence the rhetoric of a U.S. Senator? This paper will seek to discover factors that indicate how often a senator falls in line with their specified party’s position. The party position involves the code words or frames used to sell or ‘spin’ a particular position. Both the Republicans and the Democrats have indirectly established sets of words used to structure their particular position on the issue of Social Security reform. These words act as frames to shape or a particular position. George Lakoff’s theory on framing acts as the bases for this Social Security study. His theory about the creation and repetition of frames by political parties is a major factor in the overall model. The repeated use of a party frames establishes a senator’s policy position to his fellow politicians as well as the public, the use of the opposition frames however supports the opposition (Lakoff, 23). Press releases and floor statements are one way in which a senator can communicate their position to the public and their constituents, as well as a means by which they can circumvent the warping lens or pen of the media. The rhetoric of Social Security reform reveals several challenges to party and message cohesiveness. The push for reform of Social Security comes down from The White House domestic agenda, which can lead to inter-party conflict, and second, the media’s holds the power to manipulate the tone and attitude of the debate.
This study of senatorial rhetoric and Social Security reform will progress through a background look into public conceptions associated with Social Security to the look at the role the and power struggle between the media and politicians. Ultimately, I will make projections about the relationships of a series of independent variables on U.S. Senators’ use of an established set of party frames. The second part of this paper looks at the relationship of a senator’s public statements and the frequency of those same frames in the print media the following day. Similar to a study by Pat Sellers on congressional media coverage, The Washington Post and Washington Times will serve as the liberal and conservative newspapers. Finally I will present the predicted values and regression analysis.
Created by Katie Parsley
Created on May 1, 2005