The New! Improved! Democratic Party
Maggie's has already covered Frank's What's the Matter with Those Moron Idiot Rednecks in Kansas, and now we address Lakoff's Don't Think of An Elephant. I swear to God - Please, Dems, study these profound, history-changing books deeply!...I mean these condescending, simplistic, elitist, self-congratulating books.
Lakoff actually presents old ideas. His advice is for Dems to change the words they use - change nothing of substance. It's standard marketing advice. But the Clintons and Tony Blair wrote the book on that subject years ago. It's about faking out the voter while you press your agenda....well, more so for Clinton than for Blair, who doesn't make us vomit. And the agenda, as I see it, is to make so many folks dependent on the govt. that they'll be re-elected forever, thus getting themselves on the dole too so they don't have to contend with a real demanding job. And can strut around DC picking up underage chicks while the wife sits home in the boonies. Pathetic.
Of course, the problem is that only about 48% max of the voters want to buy the soft socialist soap the Dems are selling. And those voters are essentially all in major urban areas, when you look at that county Red/Blue map. Not many of them in real America unless they're on the dole, which includes the govt. payroll. So it is true that if you want to sell more people this soap, changing the packaging is the place to start - assuming voters are the morons they think they are. From Cooper's interesting review in The Atlantic:
"In his best-selling manual of progressive political advice, Don't Think of an Elephant!, Lakoff asserts that political consciousness, and therefore voter choice, is determined by deeply wired mental structures -- "frames" -- that reflect more-general views and values. "The frames," Lakoff writes, "are in the synapses of our brains, physically present in the form of neural circuitry." Notwithstanding this neuroscientific hooey, Lakoff suggests that reframing American politics according to liberal values -- in essence rewiring our collective circuitry -- is but a matter of simple wordplay. When conservatives invoke "strong defense," liberals, Lakoff says, must reframe the concept by referring to a "stronger America." Instead of "free markets," liberals should speak of "broad prosperity." Likewise, "smaller government" must be recast as "effective government," and "family values" as "mutual responsibility." Those greedy "trial lawyers" excoriated by the right should be reframed and praised as brave and selfless "public-protection attorneys." And perhaps most important, when conservatives start promoting more Bushian "tax relief," liberals should respond by defending taxes as "membership fees" or "investments" in America."
Read entire: Click here: Powell's Books - Review-a-Day - Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate (A Progressive G
