The All New Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, by George Lakoff. This excellent book presages the rise of Trump and MAGA, as well as the recent general collapse of the Democratic leadership, even though it was published more than 10 years ago, as an update to a book published 10 years before that. The Democrats don’t understand how to communicate. Lakoff points out that the Republicans invested heavily in understanding the psychology of communication, so they know how to put together winning messages, while the Democrats tend to spend their money helping the needy and thus don’t have the same type of think tanks. He hopes his book can help make up the difference, although obviously it didn’t have the impact one might have hoped, since here we are. It’s a quick read, and useful information – I only wish he cited the academic papers on which many of his points are based.
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