Politics’ Three Act Structure
By Steve Finefrock

Even the best can blow it – having failed to understand very old, established lessons. The interface between politics and entertainment is most entertainingly entered by Jay Leno’s famed phrase – and oft-stolen by Fred Thompson – that politics is show-business for ugly people.

Frank Luntz reveals a classic error quite forthrightly in “Words That Work” regarding a wee tiny mistake in his focus-group groundwork for the ’92 Perot campaign. Somewhere in his early education, he’d not absorbed the dramatic concept of the Three-Act Structure. And politics is about drama as much as about policy. As a friend driving along Wilshire Boulevard in LA once observed, erroneously – We’re her to make movies, Finefrock, not make policy – so the ugly people in the capitol don’t sufficiently know that drama offers a lot to learn for politicos. Always has, always will – including before Luntz lunged ahead with a Perot preparation of focus-group members.

“The essential importance of the order in which information is presented first hit home for me early in my career” he reveals in his chapter “Preventing Message Mistakes”: he’d prepped his groups in many earlier occasions with two videos before showing The Candidate Himself: first, a brief biography of Perot, then testimonials praising his virtues. This “first act” established the group’s receptiveness before exposure to the little handgrenade himself.

“In every previous focus group, the participants had fallen in love with Perot by the time they’d seen all three tapes in their particular order.” [emphasis mine] Luntz adds, “No matter what negative information I threw at them, they could not be moved off their support.” Lesson?

“Unless and until you knew something about the man and his background, you would get the impression that his mental tray was not in the full and upright locked position” he borrows from Norm Ornstein’s characterization of Perot. “The language lesson: A+B+C does not necessarily equal C+B+A. The right order equals the right context.”

And so in politics, as the first-act of the coming drama called President ’08 unfolds. Many have come to thoroughly know Hillary, some are learning a bit more about Thompson, and all the other candidates are somewhere in between. For Hillary, her first-act is done, closed, kaput. But what about Conservatives? And Conservatism?

The articulation between politics and drama for conservatism must be arduously pursued with a vengeance, for the past 77 years has been a war without our taking up arms on our own behalf. There are a few books here and there, Dr. Lee Edwards’ history of the conservative movement an excellent choice among many. But what do the general public – e.g., non-political-mutts – know about Our Ideas?

Military marching with a rifle includes the command while standing at attention, Order Arms: to briskly lower the rifle to one’s side, its butt on the ground, its barrel held in a vertical, harmless position. Commanding “Present Arms” means to bring the rifle before one’s chest, held vertically by both hands, ready to position for shouldering to march, or even loading for action. Conservatives were intimidated by 1930 and 1932 electoral landslides for FDR, and most elections since, as the infrastructure of opinion-formation went harder left than their prior history had proven to be. We became disarmed, and also quite frequently diss-armed, harmed by the dissing of Our Message in these 77 years. Rising in rare appearance are such 90’s bright lights as Luntz – though recently he’s seemed a bit girly in his desires to “get beyond partisanship” as he frequented Arianna Huffington’s Brentwood home to grip-&-grin with such Hollywood honchos as Rob Reiner and Norman Lear.

Luntz was giving up secrets which they should have known – they know drama, the use of film and TV, to get their message across. What we need is for their Luntz to reveal secrets to the Right, to help the fight for conservative values and traditional principles. The right needs a platoon of Drill Instructors, Senior Master Sergeants and Master Chief Petty Officers to slap conservatives up side of da head. Learn to fight, and use the arms of harms the left has mastered and applied in this battle, harming the strengths that make the nation great – and give the opportunity to the left in Hollywood to even speak in such rancid tones.

And the good news is: THEY’RE INSIDE TINSELTOWN. A rightwing political “handshake” between the left and right coast of America – Pacific Palisades and the Potomac – is highly possible, maybe even probable. The stakes this time around are already being tagged as the most vital in several generations. Indeed, the left is both encouraged and frustrated by their midterm conquests – especially since so many new seats are held by the kind of ‘democrat’ as was Zell Miller, himself condemned by his own kind, ultimately taking his swan song at the 2004 GOP convention.

The right is a bit down in the mouth, but beginning to stir. There’s yet anyone who can be seen stirring them into specific action. Time is frittering away, as the focus is understandably on intraparty battles for getting their nominations. Somewhere there needs to be an effort to manage an OVERALL STRATEGERY to give the public mind a 2008 “First Act of Conservatism” before the political concrete begins to set. Can we give the kind of warm-up so effective for Perot? If Perot could do it, why not the Movement overall? Move from passive order-arms position to a present-arms aggression that is long overdue.

Those lessons will be hard – thus the forthcoming ‘primer’ for conservatives, “Right Turn on Sunset: Checking Out Hotel Whiskey” which will outline in detail the many talents already working and earning and learning their craft inside the walls and moats of Hollywood, who are CONSERVATIVE. Just itching to put their trigger finger to use, to make harm on the left, in the right order, to prepare a dazzling First Act with top-grade production values. To begin an erosion of that 77 year war against our values, give as good as we’ve taken, to take ‘em down. To lock-&-load and put them in harm’s way for once.

Won’t be easy – ya think they’ll just watch and wonder at our excellence? The push-back will be nasty, and so vile it will make Hillary blush. Maybe even Howard Dean. Ole Joe Kennedy’s schemin’ and plottin’ would pale compared to what Hollywood will launch into this battle, to promote and defend their team of turkeys. And to counter-attack a rightwing Hollywood team of political drill instructors, and their recruits’ resulting initiatives.

The conservative film and TV production and artistic talent is there, for the Palisades to ally and aid its ideological cousins on the Potomac. But the first lesson? Ya gotta have a Good First Act – ask Luntz and Perot. Wrong order can harm ya – like poorly sequenced bomb defusing instruction book, reading “Cut the blue wire” and you turn the page to next read “But first, cut the yellow wire before you cut the blue one”!

BOOM!