Wednesday October 31, 2018; 1:10 PM EDT
George Lakoff was on MSNBC last night, along with an affable Republican pundit, to talk about his ideas of how politics works. Lakoff's view is as far as I'm concerned exactly right. Republicans represent the strict father, and Democrats the nuturing mother. When you vote Republican it's probably because in the house you grew up in the father was a strong figure and the mother not. If you vote Democratic, you're seeking the mother, because that's what you trust. #- The Repubs know about this, and play into it, and the Dems think we make voting decisions based on policy. That isn't the observed behavior. If you ever doubted it, Trump is the proof. He says whatever he wants. People don't care. It's who he is and how confident he is that makes them feel comfortable.#
- Lakoff also talks about framing. It matters how you present an idea more than what the idea actually is. Partial birth abortion, for example, sounds horrible. But if you or a family member needed an abortion to save their life, you'd see it differently. Framing. Lakoff says "Don't think about an elephant" as Trump might say "Don't kill Jews." When Trump says it, he's putting the idea of You -> Killing -> Jews in your head. He can say he said not to do it. But it's just as effective at planting the idea when negated.#
- An example from my own life. Talking with an Apple exec at a tradeshow in the 1990s he said "We're not trying to crush you," from which I concluded they are trying to crush me. It's the way the mind works. Lakoff sees that clearly, but TV pundits and Democrats don't know this. They really don't. They think facts are how people make up their minds. #
- Even though he's so brilliant, when Lakoff goes on MSNBC it's a disaster. None of his very important ideas are communicated. He says "Don't think about the elephant," and leaves it to the listener to figure it out. The other panelist and perhaps the moderator have no idea what he's talking about, and unless you had read his book, or attended a lecture, or listened to a podcast, you couldn't. No discussion happens, it's a wasted opportunity. I've seen this happen twice now. Frustrating as hell. Because it's hard to explain how fucked up a system is within the system itself. #
- I think these ideas are as powerful as Moneyball was to baseball when they were discovered by Billy Beane of the Oakland As. Since then it's been practiced by football, basketball, and other baseball teams with much success. Moneyball says you should look at what factors make a difference in winning, and do that. An inexpensive hitter who reliably gets on base, even by walking, is more central to winning than an expensive high percentage hitter. You look at the numbers and do what they say to do. The As, a poor team, couldn't afford to buy the great players, so instead they bought players that made them win. 💥#
- Lakoff is the equivalent of Moneyball, but applied to politics. Lakoff's laws are observable. Hillary didn't lose because she had bad ideas, quite the opposite, she had smart ones, based on decades of experience in government, and a genius mind. She just didn't know if she was a nurturing mother or a strict father. #
- I don't think we're going to dig out of this until the leadership and the marketing people in the Democratic Party learn about Lakoff's family and framing. A book by Michael Lewis would be hugely impactful.#
- PS: We will eventually sort it out, I think, if we survive Trump. The next generation of leaders in the Democratic Party are really something. I'm thinking of Stacey Abrams, Andrew Gillum, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Beto O'Rourke. Any combination of them could be the 2020 ticket. Or maybe something really smart from a marketing standpoint, Stacey Abrams as VP and Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. That would be a Moneyball ticket imho.#