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Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (and Win Elections)

by Jeffrey Feldman and George Lakoff

ISBN13: 9780977197293
ISBN10: 0977197298
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

"Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world....When you hear a word, its frame is activated in your brain....In politics our frames shape our social policies....Because language activates frames, new language is required for new frames." — George Lakoff

For decades, the powerful communications machine of the conservative movement has controlled our national political discourse. One of the biggest obstacles to progressive victory has been seeing what American political speech looks like when it is not "framed" by the Republican noise machine.

Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (and Win Elections) is about unleashing the power of communication in contemporary progressive politics. The book presents fifteen key speeches by American presidents — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George Bush — in order to define the big ideas and images — the "frames" — that each speech evokes to show how those framing techniques can be applied to today's political debate in order promote a progressive perspective.

An essential book in today's political climate, Framing the Debate will be instrumental in helping to reshape progressive political language and rhetoric.

Review:

"Writing a blog is different from writing a book, and Feldman is best on the kind of smaller-bore observations that might fare well online....Feldman presents himself as a bulwark of democracy, dedicated to promoting 'a healthy American political culture filled with more voices and more points of view.' But his vision of politics is profoundly undemocratic." New York Times

Synopsis:

How Progressives can "frame" language to take control of the political debate.

About the Author

Jeffrey Feldman, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist and the Editor-in-Chief of the influential political blog Frameshop (www.frameshopisopen.com). An expert on speeches and messaging, he has a weekly segment on The Thom Hartmann Show, and travels the country offering seminars on language and progressive politics.

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: Charlie Quimby, May 2, 2007 (view all comments by Charlie Quimby)
I've noted in my blog that the New York Times review seems to be a deliberate misreading of the book's intent. Here's my take:

"Changing the conversation" is a modest, but important goal, as can attest any Minnesotan observing the current tug-of-war over how to talk about taxes and government spending. We don't just need magic words like "investment" to replace "tax-and-spend." We need a better way to hold a meaningful conversation about the future of the state. The Republican frame effectively forecloses that discussion.

To me the most useful part of the book is not Feldman's analysis of individual presidential speeches. (He and I might even disagree on some frames being evoked.) The real meat of the book for progressives is found in the lessons following each analysis, helping politicians, activists and citizens consider how to apply particular techniques. He charges each of us to become active and thoughtful observers of how language paints us into policy corners and suggests ways to conduct dinner table conversations that escape these traps.

The best chapter of all is titled "The Three P's of Progressive Politics," which ? far from proposing new magic words ? invites us to think deeply about what it means to be progressive and how to "develop a set of habits that structures a new experience of politics." An experience that rejects the corporatism, clericalism and conquest the conservatives have used to temporarily gain control of America.

A more extended review is at Across the Great Divide:
http://tinyurl.com/yt9k2v

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Product Details

ISBN:: 9780977197293
Publisher:: Ig Publishing
Subject:: General
Introduction by:: Lakoff, George
Introduction:: Lakoff, George
Author:: Feldman, Jeffrey
Author:: Lakoff, George
Subject:: Presidents
Subject:: United States - 20th Century
Subject:: Political History
Subject:: Politics, practical
Subject:: General Political Science
Subject:: Political Process - Elections
Subject:: Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism
Subject:: Progressivism (united states politics)
Subject:: Communication in politics -- United States.
Subject:: Politics - General
Publication Date:: April 1, 2007
Binding:: TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:: General/trade
Language:: English
Pages:: 201
Dimensions:: 8.24x6.04x.45 in. .56 lbs.

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