Progressives: check out this book

Don't Think of an Elephant! by George Lakoff

I just bought it and read it today. I know I'm late in finding out about this newest book of his but I don't care, it's plenty early still. I passed it around the Young Dems meeting, only one other person had heard of it. Everyone should check it out. It's short, and it's remarkable for its balance of insight and clarity. Of course it's not the ultimate word on the challenging subjects of American politics today and how Demcorats can start winning again, but I really do think this book could and should serve as a pamphlet (among a few others) for the Democratic Party, to be distributed to as many serious Democrats as possible.

Both Bill Clinton and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the guy who runs Daily Kos (yay Greek Americans) have cited Lakoff's work as the single political thinker and strategist liberals should read. Howard Dean loves him too; in fact the foreword to Elephant is by Dean.

Anyway, as you can tell, I am pretty enthusiastic about this book. I plan to check out his magnum opus, Moral Politics , asap. And I post here the Amazon.com review I just submitted if you feel like reading more about this:

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Lakoff is a top-notch scientist and thinker. He is among the most important linguists of the past few decades for his incredibly intuitive research on how people think and how languages reflects and shapes their thought. He is one of the people out there able to see the big picture -- how something as complex as politics can be understood in terms of the very brains in which it exists and is played out.

He is also a passionate progressive and brilliant strategist. I hope this book, with its lucid, completely accessible prose style, will serve as a pamphlet for the Democrats for decades to come. I encourage everyone who cares about America, about the way conservatives have run it into the ground during their hold on American government, to read it.

"Framing 101: How to Take Back Public Discourse" is a tour-de-force of analysis and strategy for this very moment. Its message: Conservatives have been taking over political discourse from the top all the way down by creating grand but focused political strategies and manipulating language to their end. "Clear Skies Act," "tax relief," "family values: each is an example of how conservatives have framed their take on American political discourse in concise, value-loaded, and often misleading rhetoric meant to win people over by infiltrating the core of their identities and thought-processes. Democrats must not perpetuate and play into Republicans' neologisms and the Republican arrangement of what is moral, what is good, what is natural, etc. Democrats must be proactive, forming their own clear visions and a simple language to express them in.

"Enter the Terminator!" is an illuminating case study in how political framing is accomplished, with the media as instrument.

"What Unites Progressives" is a great end-note to this short book. Really it just articulates what every progressive feels in his or her heart, that we share a wonderful set of values and principles that are fundamentally American. Lakoff then suggests we settle on some common core policy directions, and he proposes a *ten-word* progressive/Democratic philosophy to get the ball rolling.

Buy this book, read it in a day, and get excited to restore our country to the things it deserves:

A Stronger America with a Better Future, one of Broad Prosperity, Effective Government, and Mutual Responsibility.