George Lakoff

In What's the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank pointed out that many people actually vote against their own interests. Here, linguist Lakoff explains why. Human beings are not rational creatures. Ideas, morals, and values do not exist somewhere outside--they exist literally inside the brain, and they take physical shape there. We form particular kinds of narratives in our minds just like we form specific muscle memories such as typing or dancing,...

Freedom is one of the most contested words in our deeply polarized nation. This eye-opening work reveals how this has happened and how it will continue on all fronts, economic, education, healthcare, religion, science, civil justice, and security, unless we reframe the debate with traditional progressive ideas of empathy, integrity, and responsibility.Engaged citizens can regain their power. Our government can function honestly. In this critical time...

This New York Times best-seller is the authoritative guide to comprehending what happened in the 2004 elections-and understanding how progressive thinkers can wrest control of America's political dialogue away from the conservatives who have it now. Author George Lakoff, who has become a key advisor to the Democratic Party, asserts that the Republican Party has enjoyed recent success because of the way it expertly "frames" the issues. Using carefully...

Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by" -- metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them. --from publisher description.

Provides guidelines for United States Democrats to connect moral values to important policies, using practical tactics to guide political discourse away from extreme positions.

A filmmaker explores the radical change of her once Democratic father to an angry right-wing fanatic after his immersion in talk radio and Fox News. She discovers this to be a powerful phenomenon that has divided families across the nation.