Stories by George Lakoff

George Lakoff is Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of The California Democracy Act, a grassroots California ballot initiative now organizing public support at camajorityrule.com. He is also the co-author (with Elisabeth Wehling) of The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic.

Global Warming Systemically Caused Hurricane Sandy

Posted on: Oct 30, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Global warming is real, and it is here. It is causing -- yes, causing -- death, destruction, and vast economic loss.

Lakoff: What Obama Needs to Do in Tomorrow's Debate

Posted on: Oct 15, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Like it or not, debates are about performance, not wonky policy details.

Lakoff: What Obama Did Wrong in the First Debate

Posted on: Oct 4, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Tips for round two.

George Lakoff: What to Watch for in the Presidential Debates

Posted on: Oct 2, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Ways to look for what the candidates are really doing.

George Lakoff: How Romney-Ryan's Budget Would Destroy America's Soul

Posted on: Aug 22, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Budgets are moral documents. And a Devil's Budget, like Romney's and Ryan's, uses numbers for an evil purpose: to rob us of our basic everyday freedom.

Obama v. Romney: Two Radically Different Visions Of America's Future

Posted on: Aug 1, 2012, Source: AlterNet

We've got a stark choice: do we improve the systems that have made us rich and powerful in the past? Or do we tear them down in the name of "freedom," and hope for the best?

Immigrants Will Be Important in Election 2012: What Kind of a Discussion Will We Have?

Posted on: Jul 8, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Immigration is an important issue for Obama, and it will be discussed throughout this election campaign. The question is how it will be discussed.

Lakoff: Why Conservatives Sell Their Wildly Destructive Ideology Better Than Democrats

Posted on: Jun 18, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Framing is (or should be) about moral values, deep truths, and the policies that flow from them. Why are conservatives better at articulating these?

Lakoff: Why the Conservative Worldview Exalts Selfishness

Posted on: Jun 14, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Conservatives and liberals have profoundly different moral views about what constitutes a just economy and society.

Why the GOP Campaign for the Presidency Is About Guaranteeing a Radical Conservative Future for America

Posted on: Mar 12, 2012, Source: AlterNet

The Republican presidential campaign is not just about the presidential race. It is about using conservative language to strengthen conservative values in the brains of voters.

Conservative Frank Luntz Has Set a Trap for Progressives -- Here's How to Outsmart Him and Boost the Occupy Movement

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.

Lakoff: How Occupy Wall Street's Moral Vision Can Beat the Disastrous Conservative Worldview

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.

How To Frame Yourself: A Framing Memo For Occupy Wall Street

Posted on: Oct 19, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Lakoff: How to Rescue the American Dream from the GOP's Nightmare

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.

Obama Returns to his Moral Vision: Democrats Read Carefully!

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.

The Dems' Tepid Approach to What's at Stake in Wisc. Is Helping Conservatives Destroy Unions, Defund the Democratic Party and Take over 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.

What the Right-wing Assault on Women, Unions, the Environment, Health Care and PBS Is All About

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.

The Dems Need to Speak to Progressive Values, or Else Lose Badly Come November

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.

Lakoff: Why Conservative Lies Spread and What Progressives Can Do to Fight Them

Posted on: Jul 8, 2010, Source: AlterNet

When Democrats use conservative language to promote their agenda, it ultimately creates more support for Republicans.

Obama Administration on the Verge of Giant Sell-Out to Conservatives -- How to Stop Them

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.

It's Not Enough to Criticize Obama: Citizens Need to Take Action

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.

47,000 Women Could Die As a Result of the New Mammogram Guidelines

Posted on: Nov 24, 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.

Obama and the Dems Just Sound Too Wonky on Health Care

Posted on: Aug 20, 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?

Conservatives Are Waging a War on Empathy -- We Can't Let Them Win

Posted on: May 31, 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.

How We Talk About the Environment Has Everything to Do with Whether We'll Save It

Posted on: May 19, 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.

7 Reasons Why Obama's Speeches Are So Powerful

Posted on: Feb 24, 2009, Source: AlterNet

The president is using his enormous skills as a communicator to express a moral framework.

What Biden Needs to Do to Nail the Debate

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.

Don't Think of a Maverick! Could the Obama Campaign Be Improved?

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.

We've Got One Week Left to Stop One of Bush's Worst Environmental Attacks

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.

Lakoff: Palin Appeals to Voter Emotions -- Dems Beware

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.

What Made Obama's Speech Great

Posted on: Mar 25, 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.

Why Voters Aren't Motivated by a Laundry List of Positions on Issues

Posted on: Feb 27, 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?

MoveOn Ad Exposes the True Betrayers

Posted on: Sep 17, 2007, Source: AlterNet

The hubbub over MoveOn's "General Betray Us?" ad in the <i>New York Times</i> revealed that the Bush Administration and its active supporters have betrayed the trust of the troops and the American people.

There Is No Political Center, There Are No Centrists

Posted on: Aug 19, 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.

Progressive Taxation: Some Hidden Truths

Posted on: Apr 15, 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.

Bush: It's Escalation, Stupid.

Posted on: Feb 14, 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.

Bush 'Staying the Course' Right Over a Cliff

Posted on: Oct 29, 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.

12 Traps That Keep Progressives From Winning

Posted on: Sep 25, 2006, Source: AlterNet

Progressives need to start talking about values and avoid the common pitfalls that cause us to lose voters' hearts and minds.

How Bush's Metaphorical War Became Real

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.

Bush Is Not Incompetent

Posted on: Jul 2, 2006, Source: AlterNet

Bush's bumbling folksiness causes progressives to disregard him -- but he has been overwhelmingly competent in advancing his harmful conservative agenda.

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