Better Governance Through Language

Now we have the political equivalent of fad diets - all Dems need to do is re-label their ideas, and it will be smooth sailing.  The Financial Times presents the same new guru.

It seems that everything old is new again - have we forgotten that Bill Clinton never talked about new "spending" programs - he was always "investing in America", whether it was midnight basketball or anything else.

Those waxing nostalgic for Wild Bill are encouraged to remind me of  his other locutions.

We are getting this from Mickey and Glenn, although I should note that Rush Limbaugh read this related Financial Times article today (and it mentions Kevin Drum).

Comments

[Karl]

IIRC, Lackoff's book is the follow-up to "How to Put Lipstick on A Pig."

[Jim C.]

So this guy is a professor of Newspeak, right?

What is wrong with these people? They can't really believe just changing the name of something changes the thing itself, can they? They can't really be that arrogant and contemptuous, can they?

Heaven help us.

As Lincoln said, "How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Calling the tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

[Lynxx Pherrett]

Lakoff has been peddling the same wares for a decade. I think he mistakes the symptom for the disease.

[slarrow]

Hey, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. That the Democrats are trying this tack suggests they still don't realize that they've got an idea shortage instead of a communication problem. (For what it's worth, I wrote more on this guy here.)

[Brian Carnell]

But it's much worse than is let on here. Lakoff also says that conserative view of the nuclear family was responsible for the Oklahoma City Bombing.

So he's not just saying that Democrats need to use different language, he's also saying that the language conservatives use is an incitement to terrorism -- and he's not talking about extremist nutcase conservatives. He's saying that things like this were responsible for OKC,

"In addition to support and protection, the father's primary duty is tell his children what is right and wrong, punish them when they do wrong, and to bring them up to be self-disciplined and self-reliant. Through self-denial, the children can build strength against internal evils. In this way, he teaches his children to be self-disciplined, industrious, polite, trustworthy, and respectful of authority."