An excellent piece by the brilliant cognitive linguist, George Lakoff at truthout.org, which argues (from a Democrat perspective) that framing debates in terms that appeal to readers’ deepest values, rather than to narrowly defined self-interest, has been the reason why Republicans have been more successful in the public debate, recently. In fact, the notion that there is a narrowly-defined “economic man” out there, ceaselessly calculating his narrowly-defined economic self-interest, is one of the many reasons that academic economics has been so little accurate in either describing what is going on in the economic world, predicting the future, or offering any prescriptions that are not simply band-aids or downright counterproductive.

“It is morality, not just the right policy, that excites voters, that moves them to action, that creates movements. Legislative action must come from a moral center, with moral language repeated over and over.

What should be avoided, besides policy-wonk and pure-policy discourse? Again, the answer comes from Neuroscience 101. Offense not defense. Argue for your values. Frame all issues in terms of your values. Avoid their language, even in arguing against them. There is a reason that I wrote a book called, “Don’t Think of an Elephant!” Don’t list their arguments and argue against them using their language. It just activates their arguments in the brains of listeners.

Don’t move to the right (Lila: that would be left, for Republicans) in your discourse or action. That will just strengthen the conservative moral system in the brains of swing thinkers. Frame your arguments from your moral position.”