Lakoff and Lakoff and Lakoff Again

The nice thing about political debate is that it unfolds simultaneously in fruit-fly time, and in geologic time.  What with all my personal upheavals, I've missed a couple of chances to comment on George Lakoff coverage.  No problem -- here he is again.  Worth a look.  Advantages: more depth.  Disadvantages: it's still the same old story, a fight for...  sorry, a focus challenge there.  Basically, there's nothing in play in the new coverage that changes my viewpoint, which is, as you know, that the policies need to lead the framing, not the other way around.  And I'll add an emerging thought: by the time these theories are really in play (read six months from now, as the midyear campaigns hit full stride), conditions will have changed so much that we won't be debating frames, we'll be debating pictures.  In other words -- the framing debate assumes stability.  Throw in a severe event -- an attack or an economic downturn or both -- and we won't be debating communications strategies.  We'll be grappling with consequences, at the policy level.  Communications strategies will follow naturally, which is what they ought to do. 

Maybe I'm premature in calling the major impact for '06.  But by the time the next Presidential campaign gets rolling, the odds are that we're in a different world, and that all the talk about framing will seem quaint.

Of course, I've just been reading this (for subscribers only, but still available on the newsstand), which may account for my mood.  But I don't think so.  I can manage to feel like this all on my own.  More soon about my state of mind, and my life as a focus group of one.

Comments

[Al B.]

Don't know if I agree that we are on the brink of economic armageddon. Most "end of days" scenarios are not worth the paper or electrons expended in offering them up, and when calamities (physical, metaphysical, economic etc.) are predicted, even when they occur, it is ususally of a differnet type and source than predicted.

That said, the sharks have returned to eating swimmers and the Plame affair reminds one of Condit. Its already been a long, hot summer in Hot Town. More in the offing, no doubt, by likely not what or where expected.