From George Lakoff:

[elleng]

Our democracy is presently being threatened by the politics of obedience to authority, the very thing that democracy was invented to counteract.

The politics of authority is succeeding because conservatives have been activating their ideas in the brains of the public, while finding ways to inhibit the use of progressive modes of thought.

Progressives failed to uphold the spirit of American democracy by activating the ideas of empathy, responsibility, protection, and empowerment in the brains of their fellow Americans, thus allowing the basis of our most sacred principles to fall by the wayside and leaving the field open for conservatives. We must change this.
Democracy is too important to leave the shaping of the brains of Americans to authoritarians.

[erronis]

1. I don't really understand this. Progressives shouldn't have empathy, responsibility, etc.?

Progressives failed to uphold the spirit of American democracy by activating the ideas of empathy, responsibility, protection, and empowerment in the brains of their fellow Americans, thus allowing the basis of our most sacred principles to fall by the wayside and leaving the field open for conservatives. We must change this.

So we should just all be venal greedy eye-for-an-eye type of people?

Was this perhaps sarcastic? If not I'm perplexed.

Maybe a full quote or context would be helpful. Or one of those thinks called "links".

[elleng]

2. 'failed to uphold the spirit of American democracy by activating

the ideas of empathy, responsibility, protection, and empowerment in the brains of their fellow Americans,'

[CousinIT]

3. He's not saying they shouldn't have empathy, etc. He's saying...

...that Democrats are bad or have failed at getting the public/voters to value those things; ie: show why they're important in a Democracy and differentiating themselves from Republicans in these areas. I'm not saying I agree or disagree but I think that's what he's saying

[tblue37]

4. No. He's saying that to get people to have empathy, responsibility, protection, progressives

need to use language that activates and shapes the ideas in the voters' brains, the way right wingers activate their ideas. But progressives have failed to do this. Instead of using--and relentlessly repeating--effective shaping language & staying on message, progressives fail to do that.

[Hekate]

16. Not sarcastic. Lakoff points out what we failed to do. We *should have* emphasized responsibility &

…empathy and protection and empowerment.

George Lakoff is a liberal thinker, an academic, and very wise man who has been writing on the concept of “framing” arguments for many years. We first encountered him here during the BushCheney years.

He is right. In so many ways over the past 40 years we Democrats have ceded public space to the Republicans. We allowed them to frame law and order on their terms, allowed them to paint us as weak on foreign policy and soft on Commies. We allowed them to frame the arguments.

We need to learn, and desperately quickly, how to seize it and hold it. Rick Wilson and The Lincoln Project have been shouting this message from the rooftops — and they should know.

I highly recommend Lakoff’s books, as they are eminently readable for non-academics.

[msongs]

5. gov. newsom "gets it" with his ad in florida nt

[elleng]

6. Yes

[LoisB]

7. No one had to shape my brain to be a liberal. I, like most Democrats, can think for myself. Now

if he is talking about "messaging", I think most liberals can think beyond pithy phrases on a bumper sticker and most Republicans cannot. They WANT someone to tell them how to act, how to vote, who to hate; it absolves them of any personal responsibility.

[elleng]

8. 'The politics of authority is succeeding because conservatives have been activating their ideas

in the brains of the public, while finding ways to inhibit the use of progressive modes of thought.'

[summer_in_TX]

9. Lakoff studied cognitive reactions to framing.

He worked hard to get Dems to understand. I encountered his writings and talks when Howard Dean ran for president. His writings are well worth reading.

Basically, Dems love to talk policies and things they've accomplished or want to accomplish. But listeners don't resonate to those, what they want to understand is the value system behind what Dems believe.

"What do Dems even stand for?" I heard that over and over during working for Dems over the years.

Joe Biden is one of the few Dems who gets that, and ties all his ideas to his value system. He's for democracy that stands up for workers and the little guys against oppressive big business and wealthy oligarchs, and he's for welcoming and including every American from those here the longest to those who got here recently in the American dream in which each person who works hard can get ahead and have a decent life. And he's for taking care of the planet because he's for the well-being of people and it's an existential threat for all life on the planet.

Dems have a great value system, but they don't always see the point of putting that out front and center and then tying every policy back to their values. And they definitely can't say it concisely, in the same wording as other Dems so that it starts activating that understanding of what Dems are every time anyone hears the word Democrat.

Frank Luntz helped make sure that GOP candidates all articulated their values: "traditional family values, small government, and the free market." That all changed with Trump of course but for a long time if you asked what a Republican stood for that's what everyone's brain automatically went to because that was thoroughly engrained in everyone's head. Every member of the party worked those words into every interview starting during the Reagan Administration. Marketing know-how.

We still are not that good at marketing by branding what Dems are because we don't develop consistent messaging. I believe George Lakoff. If we could get our messaging focused first and foremost on our values, establish those first, and then show how a policy is tied to those values, I think we'd be unbeatable in most cases.

[elleng]

10. Thanks

[summer_in_TX]

11. You're welcome.

[JudyM]

12. This. The whole point is messaging, and Dems would be so much more successful in GOTV if we

followed Lakoff’s suggestions and our reps/senators actually developed and cohesively drove home in loud unison this type of emotionally compelling messaging.

Our voice is muddled if it’s not intentionally crafted to drive home our vision.

[elleng]

15. Thanks

[Picaro]

13. Huh?

Meaning of this is woefully unclear.

[elleng]

14. 'The whole point is messaging,

and Dems would be so much more successful in GOTV if we followed Lakoff’s suggestions and our reps/senators actually developed and cohesively drove home in loud unison this type of emotionally compelling messaging.'

'Our democracy is presently being threatened by the politics of obedience to authority, the very thing that democracy was invented to counteract.'