Comments on: Truly, the lesser of two evils http://punkassblog.com/2007/11/26/truly-the-lesser-of-two-evils/ Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:05:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: 2007 December 03 PunkAssBlog.com http://punkassblog.com/2007/11/26/truly-the-lesser-of-two-evils/#comment-55497 2007 December 03 PunkAssBlog.com Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:58:51 +0000 http://punkassblog.com/2007/11/26/truly-the-lesser-of-two-evils/#comment-55497 [...] Truly, the lesser of two evils [...] [...] Truly, the lesser of two evils [...]

]]> By: Chris http://punkassblog.com/2007/11/26/truly-the-lesser-of-two-evils/#comment-55103 Chris Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:13:32 +0000 http://punkassblog.com/2007/11/26/truly-the-lesser-of-two-evils/#comment-55103 Interesting long post on Lakoff. It suggests some good reasons why Obama is not following his advice on "framing" issues. I think Obama is smart enough to understand that it will take real substance to move the political debate, especially on an issue as large and important as health care. http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/open_university/archive/2006/11/04/60751.aspx "Lakoff's direct influence on the language of the Democrats has been negligible. He may have had the ear of some prominent Democrats, but you couldn't tell it by what comes out of their mouths. And no wonder...Lakoff's own framing suggestions are pretty lame. Democratic politicians don't need to know anything about cognitive science to realize that referring to taxes as "membership fees" or to trial lawyers as "public protection attorneys" would make them easy targets of Republican ridicule. And as for his proposal that Democrats should reframe "activist judges" as "freedom judges," a Google search turns up no instances of the phrase apart from remarks that make fun of the suggestion. True, linguists coin slogans about as well as physicists ride bicycles." Interesting long post on Lakoff. It suggests some good reasons why Obama is not following his advice on “framing” issues. I think Obama is smart enough to understand that it will take real substance to move the political debate, especially on an issue as large and important as health care.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/open_university/archive/2006/11/04/60751.aspx

“Lakoff’s direct influence on the language of the Democrats has been negligible. He may have had the ear of some prominent Democrats, but you couldn’t tell it by what comes out of their mouths. And no wonder…Lakoff’s own framing suggestions are pretty lame. Democratic politicians don’t need to know anything about cognitive science to realize that referring to taxes as “membership fees” or to trial lawyers as “public protection attorneys” would make them easy targets of Republican ridicule. And as for his proposal that Democrats should reframe “activist judges” as “freedom judges,” a Google search turns up no instances of the phrase apart from remarks that make fun of the suggestion. True, linguists coin slogans about as well as physicists ride bicycles.”

]]> By: Amanda Marcotte http://punkassblog.com/2007/11/26/truly-the-lesser-of-two-evils/#comment-55101 Amanda Marcotte Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:29:37 +0000 http://punkassblog.com/2007/11/26/truly-the-lesser-of-two-evils/#comment-55101 It's frustrating to see how the Democrats ate up George Lakoff's books and then didn't get the fundamental message: Argue with your frames, not theirs. John Edwards gets it, to be fair. He fucks up a lot, but he's going around the country talking about poverty as a scourge, abandoning the conservative frame that Bill Clinton bought into that presupposed it was just a nifty way to motivate the underclass to work harder. It’s frustrating to see how the Democrats ate up George Lakoff’s books and then didn’t get the fundamental message: Argue with your frames, not theirs. John Edwards gets it, to be fair. He fucks up a lot, but he’s going around the country talking about poverty as a scourge, abandoning the conservative frame that Bill Clinton bought into that presupposed it was just a nifty way to motivate the underclass to work harder.

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