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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGeorge Lakoff: A Minority President: Why the Polls Failed, And What the Majority Can Do
November 22, 2016
By George Lakoff
The American Majority
Hillary Clinton won the majority of votes in this years presidential election.
The loser, for the majority of voters, will now be a minority president-elect. Dont let anyone forget it. Keep referring to Trump as the minority president, Mr. Minority and the overall Loser. Constant repetition, with discussion in the media and over social media, questions the legitimacy of the minority president to ignore the values of the majority. The majority, at the very least, needs to keep its values in the public eye and view the minority presidents action through majority American values.
The polls failed and the nation needs to know why. The pollsters and pundits have not given a satisfactory answer.
I will argue that the nature of mind is not a mere technical issue for the cognitive and brain sciences, but that it had everything to do with the outcome of the 2016 election and the failure of the pollsters, the media, and Democrats to predict it. They were not alone. The public needs to understand better how the human mind works in general but especially in politics. There is a lot to know. Let us go step by step.
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xlnt read:
https://georgelakoff.com/2016/11/22/a-minority-president-why-the-polls-failed-and-what-the-majority-can-do/#more-5389
elleng
(131,292 posts)Nay
(12,051 posts)a mystery to me why the DNC has never paid much attention to him. He's been right all along.
elleng
(131,292 posts)but as you suggest, Dems have largely ignored his approach.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,031 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)A moderate has a major worldview and an opposite minor worldview.
A moderate conservative has mostly conservative views, but some progressive views.
A moderate progressive has mostly progressive views, but some conservative views.
There is no political ideology shared by all moderates.
There is no consistent political middle.
Bi-conceptuals
In order to be a moderate, you have to hold two opposing worldviews at once, but apply them to different issues. How can you have two opposing worldviews in the same brain, when each is a fixed neural circuit? Easy. They inhibit each other: turning one on turns the other off. This is called mutual inhibition. It is common in the brain.
Political change has worked through bi-conceptualism through moving minor worldviews in a more major direction, by strengthening minor worldviews until they become major.
https://georgelakoff.com/2016/11/22/a-minority-president-why-the-polls-failed-and-what-the-majority-can-do/
This is why some voters could "swing" between Trump and Bernie, but not between Trump and Hillary.
Bernie built that "minor worldview" in a more major direction.
Also, people respected that he wasn't pandering to them. He was standing for the same things he always did. They just happened to resonate with more people this election than in the past.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)What Lakoff is missing is that a lot of Trump's supporters equate minority with victim. That it is true that we will there will be no majority is a source of white anxiety that Trump tapped into. It's nothing new.
"They say we hate minorities. Understand the term "minorities." Should I tell you who are the minorities? We are the minorities!!"