Many have obviously read, and many others have commented on, the perspicacious piece penned by Mr. Lakoff and living on the rec list. If you haven't, check it out. Truly a voice crying in the wilderness, who puts his analytical finger on the problem. Let's hope he's more John the Baptist preceding a real Change than a Cassandra telling the truth to deaf ears....Watching today's forum with the Lakoff model in mind, it struck me as glaringly obvious how essential his points were--both in critiquing current practice and in outlining necessary adjustments. Having heard him speak before, on this and related topics about the Right's success in winning "hearts and minds" (hello, "pro-life" as terminology), it seems to me he's scored again.
At any rate, in conjunction with his insightful diary/article, and the comments it has elicited, I'd like to share on behalf of a friend and colleague the following open letter he wrote to the President after another recent Town Hall appearance. I think it frames in similar ways but slightly different language a passionate and eloquent call for new tactics and a new strategy.
In some ways, you could say this letter pulls a Lakoff on Lakoff, translating his cogent and reasoned point-by-point analysis into emotional terms. Read on if you will.
(I am posting this letter on the writer's behalf with permission and by request, in part because the writer has limited vision as well as because I think it deserves to get out there; just know that its author is unlikely to see comments posted here in response, but there's a website link with the signature.)
My open letter to President Obama:
Dear President Obama,
Thank you for your clear and concise answers at your New Hampshire town-hall on healthcare, Tuesday. It was reassuring to witness you calmly laying waste to the lies generated by the opponents of healthcare reform.
Unfortunately, I can't help feeling that all the logic in the world won't pacify the misguided souls disrupting town-hall meetings across the country. It strikes me to be as fruitless as attempting to teach evolution theory to staunch creationist. Please don't believe that they represent the majority of us out here. We get it. We understand the need for systemic change. It's what we enthusiastically went to the polls last November to set in motion. The people who voted you and the Democratic majority into power have not suddenly disappeared. It's just that we can't break through the wall of noise generated by the dominant right wing media talk machine and the boisterous automatons it has set in motion. We're still here, and we still want the "progressive" change we voted for.
We also recognize that all of the Birther bombast and "death panel" disinformation is intended to foment fear and confusion among the most vulnerable among us. Rest assured that the majority of the American people have never questioned your citizenship or your altruistic motives for aspiring to the highest office in the land. we know that you are not a fascist, or a socialist, or a crypto-Muslim bent upon the destruction of our nation. The people who spout such beliefs are either bigots seeking justification for their racial hatred, disingenuous rabble-rousers subverting truth for corporate interests, or sad, gullible innocents deserving our protection from the other two groups.
We also recognize that the right wing's current swift-boat campaign of disinformation against meaningful healthcare reform has a more sinister objective. It seeks to permanently cripple your administration and sabotage your entire agenda for change. As you know, some on the right have admitted as much. Fear and confusion are the clubs with which they mean to decimate legitimate discussion of the real issues confronting our nation. When a Republican leader like Sarah Palin speciously intimates her fear that your "evil" healthcare program will require her disabled child and elderly grandparents be judged fit for life by a governmental "death panel," her supporters believe it. When a Republican pundit as perspicacious as Newt Gingrich feigns to be too confused to deny that mandatory euthanasia is contained in a proposed bill, it's obvious that confusion itself is a strategy. They keep the lies flying like clay pigeons. When one falsehood is shot down, they toss up two more, and confusion rains down like shrapnel.
Unfortunately, the tactic appears to be working. As was the case with John Kerry during the '04 presidential campaign, the proponents of reform are so busy debunking blatant lies, that the truth can no longer be heard. A confused and frightened public now stands on the verge of throwing its hands in the air. If that happens, you and the Democratic majority may as well throw in the towel.
Mr. President, I humbly suggest that it's time for you to stop teaching and start preaching. Hold some rallies in support of healthcare reform. Once again, tell America why we so desperately need this change. Don't let the swift-boaters 'rope-a-dope' you into punching yourself out debunking their lies. Don't let the Republican legislators and Blue Dog Democrats turn you into Ross Perot, tediously explaining the minutia and legalese of one bill versus another. It's all designed to keep you from doing what they fear most: inspiring the American people. Their absurd analogies to Hitler and Nazi campaigns are flimsy preemptive attempts to discourage you from using your most powerful weapon, the bully pulpit. don't let them disarm you.
Counter their fear mongering by rallying the American people around hope.
Once again, it's time to tell America why we need the change and why we need it now. Reassure those of us who put you in office that the change we seek is here. Please, Mr. President, for the sake of the America we can become, it's time to preach like you've never preached before.
Sincerely,
Lynn Manning, Co-founder
Watts Village Theater Company
www.wattsvillagetheater.org
"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking, and the most inhumane."
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - 1965