Stories by George Lakoff
George Lakoff is the author of Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate' (Chelsea Green). He is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and a Senior Fellow of the Rockridge Institute.
Posted on Dec 6, 2011, Source: AlterNet
Progressives' basic morality needs to be talked about over and over again, in every corner of the country.
Posted on Oct 20, 2011, Source: AlterNet
OWS has a progressive moral vision. They're protesting the disastrous effects that have come from operating with a conservative moral, economic, and political worldview.
Posted on Jul 28, 2011, Source: AlterNet
The Republicans are redefining "democracy"--but it's time to remember what the real dream of democracy meant.
Posted on Apr 18, 2011, Source: AlterNet
The President's budget speech presented a straightforward idea of right and wrong that he correctly attributes to the founding of the country.
Posted on Feb 26, 2011, Source: AlterNet
The Wisconsin protests are about a lot more than budgets and unions -- and the Dems need to get out on front or reap the whirlwind.
Posted on Feb 19, 2011, Source: AlterNet
Budget deficits are a ruse to conservatives. What they really want to do is change the basis of American life.
Posted on Sep 2, 2010, Source: AlterNet
Only moral leadership backed by actions effective communication can excite the Obama base once more. Without it, the Democrats will lose big.
Posted on Jul 9, 2010, Source: AlterNet
When Democrats use conservative language to promote their agenda, it ultimately creates more support for Republicans.
Posted on May 21, 2010, Source: AlterNet
The Obama Administration's move to the right is about to give conservatives a victory they could not have anticipated, even under Bush: the privatization of public housing.
Posted on Jan 25, 2010, Source: AlterNet
President Obama abandoned the movement that started under his campaign. Here is look at what is required, and how a version of it is forming in California.
Posted on Nov 25, 2009, Source: AlterNet
Cost-benefit analysis can kill. Scaling back on mammograms, as a government task force suggested, could result in 47,000 unnecessary deaths.
Posted on Aug 21, 2009, Source: AlterNet
Barack Obama ran the best-framed presidential campaign in history. How is it possible that he and his team are communicating so poorly on health care?
Posted on Jun 1, 2009, Source: AlterNet
Conservatives are trying to redefine empathy as irrational personal feeling. In fact, empathy is the basis of our democracy and must be defended.
Posted on May 20, 2009, Source: AlterNet
The American public's understanding of the environment is crucial -- the future of our earth and every living being depends on it.
Posted on Feb 24, 2009, Source: AlterNet
The president is using his enormous skills as a communicator to express a moral framework.
Posted on Oct 1, 2008, Source: AlterNet
Even with Palin's inexperience and ignorance of world events, she should not be underestimated. Here's how Biden can win.
Posted on Sep 11, 2008, Source: AlterNet
Obama's task is to reveal McCain as an elite DC insider and to convince conservatives to believe in Obama's leadership abilities.
Posted on Sep 8, 2008, Source: AlterNet
A simple redefinition of terms will destroy the Endangered Species Act in less than a week if we don't act now.
Posted on Sep 1, 2008, Source: AlterNet
The initial Democratic response to Palin indicates that many Democrats have not learned the lessons of the Reagan and Bush years.
Posted on Mar 26, 2008, Source: Open Left
The true power of the speech is that it does what it says. It not only talks about empathy, it creates it.
Posted on Feb 28, 2008, Source: The Rockridge Institute
How politicians communicate has more influence than policy details. Why else would the public accept destructive practices like domestic spying?
Posted on Sep 17, 2007, Source: AlterNet
The hubbub over MoveOn's "General Betray Us?" ad in the New York Times revealed that the Bush Administration and its active supporters have betrayed the trust of the troops and the American people.
Posted on Aug 20, 2007, Source: AlterNet
"Centrism" is the creation of an inaccurate self-serving metaphor which marginalizes the progressive cause, and it is time to bury it.
Posted on Apr 16, 2007, Source: AlterNet
Through unfair tax cuts paid by the wealthy and the cost of Iraq, our national wealth is being drained and the American infrastructure allowed to fall apart.
Posted on Feb 15, 2007, Source: AlterNet
The media and progressives' ability to reframe Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq has changed the public's perception of Republicans' Iraq agenda.
Posted on Oct 30, 2006, Source: AlterNet
What the president is discovering is that it's not so easy to make us forget his position on Iraq: The laws of language are hard to defy.
Posted on Sep 26, 2006, Source: AlterNet
Progressives need to start talking about values and avoid the common pitfalls that cause us to lose voters' hearts and minds.
Posted on Sep 11, 2006, Source: AlterNet
The 9/11 attacks were a crime -- a crime against humanity. But Bush called it a war, then used that frame to justify an invasion he had planned since his first days in office.
Posted on Jul 3, 2006, Source: AlterNet
Bush's bumbling folksiness causes progressives to disregard him -- but he has been overwhelmingly competent in advancing his harmful conservative agenda.
Posted on Oct 18, 2005, Source: The American Prospect
With millions of Americans displaced, injured or dead in the disaster's aftermath, America watched modern conservative ideology -- less government, lower taxes, a strong defense -- crumble.
Posted on Sep 6, 2005, Source: AlterNet
Katrina's tragic consequences were not just due to incompetence, natural disaster, or Bush policies (though he is accountable). This is a failure of moral and political philosophy.
Posted on Aug 1, 2005, Source: AlterNet
Though politically useful for Bush and his minions, the 'war frame' never fit the reality of terrorism. It was successful at consolidating power -- but counterproductive in dealing with the real threat.
Posted on Jul 21, 2005, Source: AlterNet
Renowned cognitive scientist George Lakoff expounds on how moral and spiritual beliefs affect political beliefs and actions.
Posted on Jun 16, 2005, Source: AlterNet
Is liberalism dead? What will it take for us to bring about a rebirth of inspiration, hope and optimism for a new American future?
Posted on Jun 7, 2005, Source: AlterNet
Those who dwell in the nation's progressive oases must learn to communicate and connect with a much broader swath of Americans. Our panel of progressive thinkers tackles the problem.
Posted on Jun 2, 2005, Source: AlterNet
Winning the debate over unwanted pregnancies requires Democrats to embrace four powerfully moral ideas -- and none of them have to do with 'choice.'
Posted on Apr 20, 2005, Source: AlterNet
An excerpt from the Start Making Sense section Understanding the Right Wing.
Posted on Nov 24, 2004, Source: The Nation
If progressives communicate their values clearly, most people will recognize them as their own, and more deeply American than those currently put forth by conservatives.
Posted on Sep 8, 2004, Source: AlterNet
In this excerpt from his new book, "Don't Think of an Elephant!" George Lakoff talks about how transforming the language of politics can help win the good fight.
Posted on Sep 3, 2004, Source: AlterNet
George W. Bush yet again used the crutches of "liberty" and "freedom" to frame his candidacy.
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