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Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives

Don?t Think of An Elephant! is the antidote to the last forty years of conservative strategizing and the right wing?s stranglehold on political dialogue in the United States.

Author George Lakoff explains how conservatives think, and how to counter their arguments. He outlines in detail the traditional American values that progressives hold, but are often unable to articulate. Lakoff also breaks down the ways in which conservatives have framed the issues, and provides examples of how progressives can reframe the debate.

Lakoff?s years of research and work with environmental and political leaders have been distilled into this essential guide, which shows progressives how to think in terms of values instead of programs, and why people vote their values and identities, often against their best interests.

Don?t Think of an Elephant! is the definitive handbook for understanding and communicating effectively about key issues in the 2004 election, and beyond.

Read it, take action?and help take America back.

About the Author George Lakoff is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a founding senior fellow at the Rockridge Institute. He is one of the world?s best-known linguists.

Since the mid-1980s he has been applying cognitive linguistics to the study of politics, especially the framing of public political debate. He is the author of the influential book, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, (2nd edition, 2002). His other books include Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About The Mind (1987), Metaphors We Live By (1980; 2003) [with Mark Johnson], More Than Cool Reason (1989) [with Mark Turner], Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge To The Western Tradition (1999) [with Mark Johnson], and Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics Into Being (2000) [with Rafael Núñez].  more

  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: Sep-29-2008

Good framework for framing

This is a book by one of the world's pre-eminent linguists about the way current political issues are framed by the parties. Republicans, Lakoff asserts, are much better at framing the issues, thanks to years of well-funded think tank work, skillful planning and organization. The model he uses to...

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: Sep-13-2008

A must read for the prograssives (or Liberal crowd) especially volunteers for the DNC!

I didn't understand why John Kerry win 3 out of 3 debates and lose the election till I read this....It's all about the languages used in the debate......and Framing is one of them....the other is use of fallacies....(not in this book) a good book for any debater or law school students.

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: Aug-03-2008

Concept: four stars / Execution: two stars

This is essentially just a poorly-written, watered-down version of Lakoff's "Moral Politics". If you're seriously interested in Lakoff's theory of politics, skip this and read "Moral Politics" instead. But, if you want just a brief summary of the highlights of Lakoff's theory, without having to...

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: Jul-31-2008

Thinking Outside THE Box

I was one of millions of people who watched Faux News only-just 'for fun'.Now I understand why 9 million dollar salary of Bill O'reilly worth every penny.

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: May-17-2008

is george lakoff stupid?

progressives can't frame a debate? they don't use emotionally charged language to circumvent the facts? what about terms such as "tax cuts for the rich", "a woman's right to choose", or "he lied about sex"?only conservatives use orwellian speech? "neocon"? "radcon"? sounds alot like newspeak to...

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: May-08-2008

Understanding Political Preferences

_Don't Think of an Elephant_ by George Lakoff is likely to give you new insight on politics in the United States.Lakoff, a linguist, says that each of us has "frames," mental structures that, unbeknownst to us, shape the way we view the world. A common metaphor giving rise to some of these frames...

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: Mar-15-2008

Great Book

A unique perspective on U.S. politics. This book helped me to understand why people vote the way they do, and how we as progressives can help change the direction this country is headed.

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: Sep-09-2007

Absolutely love this Book

I've read this book twice now, and each time I read it I gain a better understanding of my surroundings. Lakoff does a great job of first describing what he means by "framing" and how it applies to nearly every aspect of life. He then applies his idea of framing and cognitive dissonance to...

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: Jun-27-2007

Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

Lakoff's book is truly a guide for progressive values in the United States. His diligent work as a linguist really informed me of the concerted and deliberate efforts of the ultra conservative politic right to control the debate, messaging, and election outcomes. I am a moderate and was shocked...

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  • From: Amazon
  • Posted: May-30-2007

A concise primer on what really makes political messaging work.

This is a great primer on cognitive science as it relates to political messaging. Lakoff has done a lot of ground breaking work in illuminating how verbal metaphor dictates cognition. And here he presents this idea in simple, concrete language, with plenty of sharp examples, to explain how these...

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