Great book.

This is really true, people do vote on their values and identity not on money issues. Liberal values used to be about a real passion for freedom, standing up to traditional religious values (which are more often hiding a message of power, conformity and domination, than love) minority rights, protecting the environment, men and women's equal rights, values of compasssion, freedom and equality. Conservatives successfully made our values seem "weak" in the nineties, they made all people, and especially men, who cared about compassionate issues feel like less than men, and not part of their fake cult of masculinity which is about power and domination. In traditional liberal values, power is shared and is used for protection of the disadvantaged, not some lust for power and vanity at the expense of hurting anyone - but they have a seductive message, it appeals to a lot of people. Unless liberals fight back with some emotion and commitment we will continue to lose the propaganda war. While we were basking in the comfort of our victories they were mobilizing with aggressive propaganda, now we need to do the same to them. It is a value war. This book is great because reminds us that instead of letting them frame the debate we can look deep within ourselves, find our own values and fight for them. We don't need to conform to theirs no matter how popular they are right now. It's a trend that can be reversed with hard work, passion and commitment. A book like this gives hope, I highly reccommend it.

Framing helps one speak spontaneaouly

There's no question that for the past 25 years, Democrats have had a hard and harder time getting their positions straight with us voters. Sure, they may appear to speak without hesitation but are often times figety about their positions on issues. The problem as Lakoff points out is that Democrats, especially in the last 4 years, have voted lockstep with Bush on tax cuts, war in iraq, class action laws, free trade, bankruptcy laws, partial birth abortion ban even when no such thing ever existed for the most part, most of Bush's nominees, Patriot Act of 2001, ... you name it falling into conservative framing in the process. Democrats, upon campaigning for election or reelection, later end up worried about how they will be able to explain to their voters why they voted for what they were supposed to be voting against and in the process exagerate their positions leaving voters confused. In other cases, such as John Kerry's, the Democrat may say silly things like "I voted for ... before I voted against it" thereby giving conservatives the ammunition to paint Democrats as flip-floppers leaving voters the impression that this party does not take a stand and stick to it and is therefore unsuitable for national security. At other times, Democrats will fall into the trap of trying to say "Me too" if they don't look great in the polls even before actual voting takes place but in the process helping the conservatives not only defend their ideology but further turning out the conservative base while at the same time turning more of the progressive base off. For example, close to election day, Kerry said "I'll double the number of troops to send to Iraq" on the Iraq war issue or for that matter on tax issues "I'll give more tax cuts to the middle class" even when it was obvious that the middle class is already wiped out. No wonder Bush won over Kerry ! Framing the issues and ultimately the debates is no doubt important. However, the Democrats are going to have to get their actions straight. Sure, Kerry performed great during the presidential debates but even though he finally learned to frame them well, he never capitalized on it. It's possible that maybe good progressives in the Democratic Party could sit down and take the time to frame the issues themselves and frame them for their moderate counterparts and newer Democrats to learn for there to be true unity rather than always getting themselves stuck on the defensive while moderates just go along with the Republicans which Lakoff is right to point out is self-defeating. Frame first then take a stand or vice versa? It remains to be seen whether the Democrats will learn to frame or as Lakoff puts it "ignoring framing at their own peril."

The Real John Connor

Remember in the movie, The Terminator, where John Connor leads an enslaved humanity threatened with extinction to victory over the machines? Well, to all you progressives who feel like those cowering humans, you can relax because we have our own real life John Connor in the person of George "John Connor" Lakoff. Read this book and thrill to the attack on the soft underbelly of the Right Wing and their abusive, er, strict father morality.
Yes, the republican machine is indeed vulnerable. It's all a matter of getting inside people's heads and whispering the right words framed in the correct way. Their synapses do the rest. Armed with the brilliant ideas in this book there is no way that Joe Biden won't be our next president.