Don't Think of an Elephant! - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

[Note: this edition includes post-2004 election updates.]

In the first of his three debates with George W. Bush, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry argued against the war in Iraq not by directly condemning it, but by citing the various ways in which airport and commercial shipping security had been jeopardized due to the war's sizable price tag. In so doing, he re-framed the war issue to his advantage while avoiding discussing it in the global terrorism terms favored by President Bush.

One possible reason for this tactic could have been that Kerry's team familiarized itself with the work of influential linguist and cognitive scientist George Lakoff, who argues in Don't Think of an Elephant! that much of the success the Republican Party has had can be attributed to a persistent ability to control the language of key issues and thus position themselves in favorable terms to voters.

Lakoff points out that, while Democrats may have valid arguments, they are destined to lose when they and the news media silently accept such right-wing nomenclature as 'pro-life', 'tax relief', and 'family values', since to argue against such inherently positive terminology necessarily casts the arguer in a negative light. Lakoff offers recommendations for how the progressive movement can regain semantic equity by repositioning their arguments, such as countering the conservative call for "Strong Defense" with a call for "A Stronger America".

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