We were lucky to have a special visitor at the Oakland DFA meetup last Wednesday night.
Like thousands of DFA'ers across the country we got together on January 5th to watch a short video featuring George Lakoff explaining the basic concepts of his enormous project reframing the debate in American politics. Now, at the beginning of the meeting we'd been told there was a special guest. And, since I was sitting on the left side of the room...and could see a man who looked a heck of alot like the guy on the video screen....ie. George Lakoff....
I had a clue exactly who that special guest was.
George Lakoff is impressive in person, and not just because he is smart and personable and conveys his ideas well...
He was also impressive to me because of some things he did with his participation at the meet up.
You see Professor Lakoff showed up for the dinner, sat down and participated like every single other DFA'er. He blended in. Further, when it became clear to everyone that he actually was there and was going to do a q & a session, he still insisted that people form small groups after the video as planned and come up with their own ideas...which he then listened to for half an hour in large group, oftentimes smiling in appreciation.
Only then did Dr. Lakoff do the q & a, and even there he always sought to understand the point of the questioner, repeating it and rephrasing it so everyone could hear...and expanding on it, sometimes disagreeing with it, but always incorporating those ideas into his own analysis. In some ways, it was funny that some of the debate revolved around being a "nurturing parent," one of his core concepts, because, in essence, Dr. Lakoff was showing us in person exactly what his definition meant. And that's my point.
You see, while I fully endorse the project of the Rockridge Institute...and see "reframing" as an important and valuable tool in changing the discourse...I also firmly believe in the fundamental primacy of people, of individuals in our politics. Nothing makes a political point more succinctly and cogently than the witness, the testimony, the example of another human being. There is power in people. Dr. Lakoff, in his methodology, his pedagogical praxis, embodied that.
When I wrote one of my early diaries here, the fabric of my vote I laid out the concept that my vote does not belong to me alone...but to the complex web of people who have shaped my life and my political commitments. On a similar theme, last night, a 21 year old poster in an open thread asked for advice on getting started in politics and I responded by writing this, (slight edit):
If I were you and interested in leadership, I would pick an issue and become its champion. If you are truly interested in local politics, make it a local issue. If you have broader concerns, make it a bigger one. Either way, become that issue. Know everything there is to know about it. Know who the "players" are...and the history of why things are the way they are...
If you truly become that issue, and become that issue's expert, it's most tireless advocate...such that you are even willing to cultivate new leaders who can help you...leaders who might even step forward and take up the leadership mantle if they are more appropriate to spearhead and be the public face of your cause...because you truly desire victory...
well, you may not get elected Congressperson before you are thirty. But you will have learned a lesson that will empower you to understand the very core of what politics is all about:
People, what they care about....and winning.
In essence, I don't think that Dr. Lakoff and I disagree on much...but I would say this, the reframing project is a systemic, Aristotelean engagement with our Republican opponents in an attempt to win the public over and make a Platonic light bulb go off..."healthy forests" is actually bad..."compassionate conservative" is a ruse...etc. etc. In effect Dr. Lakoff's effort is directed at turning folks, like the citizen's trapped looking at shadows on the wall in Plato's cave, to the light of our ideas.
But, in my opinion, nothing turns people from shadows and lies like the power of the testimony and example of another person. You see, the power in people and their lives is our greatest strength and yet we keep running away from it. Nothing embodies what's wrong with GOP policies better than the authentic testimony of real Americans. In a word, for every issue, in my opinion, we need to put a face on it. We need to bring it to a human level, even if that means breaking through on points Dr. Lakoff seems to advocate a kind of euphemistic holding back on, like abortion and gay families. We need to make a human connection and be real. We need to stay focused on the idea that all politics comes down to what it always has: people, their issues and winning.
Let me give an example of reframing using this technique that I would like to see. If there was any justice in the world, the Super Bowl would feature a commercial sponsered by organized labor featuring the faces and voices of actual workers, and using a kind of chorus effect in the timing of the voices that went like this:
When your house was burning, I pulled you out
When you were sick in bed, I cared for you
When you needed directions, I pointed the way
I built your car and made sure it was safe
I stock the food you eat and ring you up when you check out
I build the buildings you work in
I clean the floors and maintain the halls of those buildings
I process your claims and file your records
I teach your children science and math
I haul your garbage and recycle your waste
I make the movies you watch...I write them
I keep your government running on budget and on time
We are organized labor, when America needs us, we're there for her...
We're your neighbors, your uncles, your sisters, your friends, your colleagues, your fellow citizens.
We're 16 million strong and growing. We're proud to be American and we love this country.
For each of those phrases, I would have a face. For each of those faces I would make sure folks heard a real voice and saw a real name on the screen. It's not enough to allude to generic people...it's not enough to push tired buttons that don't mean anything anymore. To break the GOP frame and turn people away from the shadows on the wall of the cave we have to understand that this process is one that only gets done personally.
We're all humans, we connect to people. That is the single most powerful political tool in my view whether here on dKos, at a meetup, or in our politics, and we Democrats have simply not used it well or often enough. There is simply no substitute for the authentic testimony of a real person. Be it a thinker like George Lakoff, or the simple and humble presence of a woman whose life has been affected by George Bush's policies, like Lila Lipscomb in Michael Moore's F9/11. You simply cannot forget her and her grief and testimony.
Let me say something here that is true and will bring my point home: until we see a major Democratic politician introduce a gay family on national television, stand with them and say, in effect..."These are my people, they are American citizens with equal rights, an American family like any other, and they deserve all of our respect"...everything else we do on gay issues, while valid and real, won't have much chance of truly breaking through.
There is power in people. You and I know it. There is also a power in making a commitment to people and not backing down. When a politician makes that kind of commitment, in an authentic and public manner, with real people...many things become much easier. That was something that was wrong with the Kerry Edwards campaign in my view...it made too many arguments of the head and didn't show enough commitment to the heart.
There is power in people. What is our party afraid of?