{"id":8187,"date":"2025-10-16T09:49:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=8187"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:50:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:50:01","slug":"just-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2025\/10\/16\/just-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Kids??"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Framing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Words often determine the \u201cstructure\u201d of debate.  In the argument over abortion; the anti-abortion crowd won the framing battle with \u201cpro-life\u201d.  Those that favor allowing abortions are \u201cpro-choice\u201d, but that doesn\u2019t have the same power.  What\u2019s the obvious opposite of \u201cpro-life\u201d, well, \u201cpro-death\u201d of course.  Winning the label battle is a huge step towards winning the political debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same is true with our current debate over migrants.\u00a0\u00a0One side speaks of \u201cundocumented\u201d, migrants in the United States, or to use the old ethnic insult, those \u201cwithout papers\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The other side uses the term \u201cillegals\u201d, describing those that violated border policies to enter the country.\u00a0\u00a0Both of those are loaded terms.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cUndocumented\u201d are folks who failed to file paperwork, something most Americans can understand.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIllegals\u201d, as Stephen Miller would be the first to say, are criminals.\u00a0\u00a0And that\u2019s how they choose to frame the debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparatchiks <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are in an unprecedented time of \u201ctransparency\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0So much of what we say, publicly and privately, is now \u201ccodified\u201d on digital memory.\u00a0\u00a0What used to be an actual conversation, my mouth to your ears, is now an email, or a text, or a video recorded for posterity.\u00a0\u00a0We used to know what was \u201cin public\u201d, and what could be whispered quietly for only the few to hear.\u00a0\u00a0Now, those whispers tend to be texts in the dark of night.\u00a0\u00a0While your phone screen may be on \u201cnighttime\u201d mode, those texts remain in a record.\u00a0\u00a0The fact that you were\u00a0in bed in pajamas, makes no difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what the Young Republicans just discovered.\u00a0\u00a0To step back for just a second, both the Republican and Democratic Parties have a \u201cyouth division\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Young has a little different meaning in the political world, since the minimum age to vote is eighteen.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYouth\u201d politicians, are described as those from eighteen to forty years old (which doesn\u2019t sound that \u201cyoung\u201d to me, even at my advanced age).\u00a0\u00a0In both political parties, these \u201cyoung up-and-comers\u201d represent the future leadership.\u00a0\u00a0They may not be the candidates out in front of the electorate, but often are the future precinct or county chairmen, or the staffers who work for elected officials.\u00a0\u00a0In the old Soviet world there was a great word for them:\u00a0\u00a0\u201capparatchiks\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Real<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even forty is young enough to \u201clive\u201d in the text and social media world.  And since everyone does it, it\u2019s easy to fall into a false sense of privacy.  Telegram, supposedly a more secure texting app, still has it weaknesses.  But the Young Republican leaders of New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont didn\u2019t realize the risk until it was too late.  The web-based journal Politico, <\/em>got their entire text chain.  Here are some samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n