Lakoff: Dissects terms "war on terror" and other conservative phrases.

[madfloridian]

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/08/25_lakoff.shtml
SNIP..."When we last talked to Lakoff, he had just embarked on a one-year sabbatical from UC Berkeley to work on three books, none of them about politics. He got sidetracked. Presidential candidate Howard Dean made "Moral Politics" required reading for his campaign staff, more than 200 advocacy groups called for Lakoff's advice, the Democratic senators invited him twice to their policy retreats, and he began getting calls from progressive groups around the country. The Rockridge Institute, the progressive think tank he cofounded with seven other UC professors to reframe public debate, began buzzing with activity. In response to demand, Lakoff set aside his linguistic research for intense — and in many ways more challenging — study of the application of linguistics and cognitive science to politics."

SNIP..."In the last couple of months he has written a short book, "Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate," which will be marketed at first over the Internet with the help of a host of advocacy groups. Available on Amazon.com around September 8, the $10 paperback is billed as the "essential guide for progressives" and is praised by such members of the liberal pantheon as Dean, former labor secretary Robert Reich, the founders of MoveOn.org, the Sierra Club's Carl Pope, and billionaire political activist George Soros....."

SNIP..." You have to fight strength with strength. That's straight out of "Moral Politics": the strict father has to be strong, but the nurturant parent must also be strong. However, I don't think the Democrats did a good job of defining what the difference is in Kerry's kind of strength, because they refused to use the word "weak" in reference to Bush. They wanted to have a completely positive campaign — which it isn't anyway — but they didn't want to say that Bush has made the country weaker. The issue of weakness awakens the stereotype of liberals, so instead they said, "Look, we just want America to be stronger."

But "stronger" doesn't necessarily imply weak. They could have talked more directly about all the ways Bush has weakened the country."

[madfloridian]

1. Here is a link to his appearance on PBS with Moyer.

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/news_items/lakoffnow