Should Schools Reopen to Save the Economy? Conservative Pundits Quote Chuck Schumer Out of Context. Typical.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, Senate Portrait

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer recently said during a press briefing that the United States economy will suffer unless we reopen schools. Conservative media, deceptive as usual, jumped all over this, charging Schumer with hypocrisy for challenging President Trump’s demands to reopen schools, while ignoring what he had said not one second earlier.

Sigh. We must once again talk about context.

Background first. Coronavirus rages across the country. Schools that reopen without meeting safety guidelines have quickly encountered widespread infections.

Arguing that schools are essential to the economy, Trump announced, wrongly, that children are “virtually immune” to the novel coronavirus and said that schools need to reopen to boost the economy. He said nothing about the safety of teachers and other staff members, not to mention families who might be infected. Trump complained that Democrats want to keep schools closed for “political purposes,” presumably to make him look bad.

What did Schumer say?

At an August 7 “media availability," Schumer said that schools needed to reopen if it could be done safely:

"What is one of the biggest problems facing us in the next month as the Speaker mentioned? Schools, opening up schools safely. If you don't open up the schools, you’re going to hurt the economy significantly because lots of people can't go to work. Executive Orders leave out schools altogether."

Note the nuance: "Schools, opening up safely."  

How did conservatives respond?

Always on the alert for liberal hypocrisy, whether real or imagined, conservative media jumped all over Schumer for, they implied, supporting Trump’s position. For example, RT News, a Russian-government-funded news outlet that consistently favors Trump’s policies, said this:

“One comment from Schumer went viral as it didn’t seem to match the outrage shown to President Donald Trump when he mentioned the same thing.

"'If you don’t open up the schools, you’re going to hurt the economy significantly,' Schumer said, 'because lots of people can’t go to work.'

"The president has floated the idea of fully reopening most schools in the fall despite the coronavirus pandemic, but he has found pushback with liberal critics each and every time.

"Schumer’s admission that not reopening schools will hurt the economy, which the president has argued, was seen as a surprising 'moment of clarity' by critics on social media who latched onto the comment."

RT didn't see Schumer's comment as nuanced. They called it an "admission," as if Schumer accidentally blurted out that he agrees with Trump. They called it a "moment of clarity" in which Schumer's words accidentally unveiled his secret opinion. Similarly, the Twitter account @ForAmerica commented this:

"So... it's okay when it comes out of Chuck Schumer's mouth?"

But that takes Schumer's comment out of context. 

Earlier Post: Context, Proof-Texting, and the Magic Power of Words

The problem is, conservatives like to imply that Democrats want to shut the schools down for political reasons. It never occurs to them that everyone wants schools to be open; it’s just that we need basic public health measures to reopen them safely. Schumer said – quite clearly – that keeping schools closed hurts the economy, which I think everyone agrees with, but insisted that schools need to reopen safely. The Democrats’ position on this issue, with which I completely agree, is that the coronavirus is raging out of control and schools can’t yet reopen safely. Control the virus first, then reopen schools. 

The rhetorical problem arises because the two sides framed the issue differently. If you believe, as most Republicans apparently do, that the virus is either a hoax or under control, there is no reason to keep schools closed. If you believe, as Schumer apparently does, that the virus should be controlled by public health measures like testing, contact tracing, and mask-wearing, then you implement those measures before you send children, teachers, and school staff into danger.

But I suspect, quite frankly, that the conservative pundits know this deep inside. That’s why they strategically omitted Schumer’s preparatory phrase: “Schools, opening up schools safely.” The key word is safely. The pundits omitted the word safely so they could pursue their own agenda, thus easily fooling anyone who didn’t bother to check the original source. That omission could be no accident. 

So, what are the two frames?

Liberals, like me, frame the controversy as a battle between ignorance and expertise. Scientists tell us how the coronavirus spreads, offering well-known public health measures to help control it. Trump is wrong because he ignores the experts. Of course that is how I think. I spent years earning my PhD, and I would like to think that people who have studied a subject know more about that subject than people who have not. What else would you expect me to believe?

Conservatives, however, often frame the conflict as a fight between light and darkness. The forces of good, they say, support Trump. Liberals, they say, want to close schools because liberals are malicious and closing schools will crush the economy and make Trump look bad. The idea that experts actually know something means nothing to them. For many Trump supporters, Trump's supposed goodness is their primary framework.

Nevertheless, I started this blog post by talking about context. What many people don’t understand – and I’ve never been able to get my fellow rhetorical scholars to understand this point – is that context doesn’t mean much to conservatives. That's not how most conservatives think. Conservatives believe in words, as if words have magical powers. They can snap Schumer’s comments out of context, and his words, out of context, now support the conservative perspective. If the words are right, context means little to Schumer's critics. 

So, conservatives heard Schumer say: “If you don't open up the schools, you’re going to hurt the economy significantly because lots of people can't go to work.” They felt no need to include his comment about opening the school safely. They think that’s entirely fair, because, when you think like a conservative, it is the power of the words themselves that reveal what Schumer believes deep inside. They could then conclude that Schumer was merely hypocritically opposing Trump for crass political reasons. They don’t care about the verbal context. They don't care that he said to open schools safely.  Goodness, not factual accuracy, is primary, and the ultimate measure of goodness is Trump himself.

Of course, if you think the virus is a hoax, the question of whether that you can open the schools safely loses all meaning. 

Lessons:

First, context matters. Leaving out even one or two critical words can completely change a sentence’s meaning. Honest people, which obviously does not include the conservative pundits who I quoted above, always check context. 

Earlier Post: The Nunes Memo, Why Does Context Matter?

Second, responsible citizens will check the original source before they believe accusations. You cannot trust the conservative media to tell us anything accurate about what Democrats believe. You need to check the original source. (And, yes, I look at the original source before I believe what liberals say about conservatives.)

Third, framing theory says that people view frames as primary. Liberals framed the dispute in a slogan: “listen to the experts.” Conservatives framed the dispute in their own slogan: “make America great again.” The conservative slogan implies that America was once great and fell apart when Democrats ran the country. That is why they become suspicious when they hear “listen to the experts.". As fate has it, however, people are unlikely to change their frames. People understand truth and goodness from within the context of their own frames, and often find the other sides' frames incomprehensible

And, of course, let's remember that the novel coronavirus infects people with no regard to their frames, assumptions, or contexts. Oops. 

PS: for more information about framing theory, here’s a good link. 

Image: US Senate photo