UPDATE Nov. 10, 2005:
Williams alum Ethan Zuckerman, who lives in Lanesborough but works at Harvard University, posted a length blog report on George Lakoff's speech (noted below). You can link to it here.
UPDATED: Nov. 5, 2005
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- With three talks in North Berkshire in a little over a month, you can get a pretty good picture of the issues with which Howard Dean and the Democratic Party leadership are wrestling. First Joe Trippi, the veteran Democratic political operative who ran Dean’s Internet fund-raising operation, spoke Oct. 5 at Williams College. He says it’s actually Democrats, not Republicans, who are hooked on million-dollar campaign fundraising checks and they need to use the Internet to raise much more money in smaller amounts from many more people. Then former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis appeared at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on Oct. 27. His message to Democrats – get back to organizing the grassroots. Go door to door, and do it many months, not weeks, before an election. Use the Internet to organize the party faithful because it is so fantastic – and so cheap – at conveying information about events, plans, schedules and ideas. Finally, also on Oct. 27, University of California linguist and political strategist George Lakoff spoke at Williams. He says the key for Democrats is to learn how to “frame” political issues in terms of value statements. That’s what the Republicans have done so well, he says, and that’s what sways voters. Audio of Dukakis’ talk is at: http://newshare.typepad.com/greylocknews/files/dukakis-why_democrats-fail-10-27-05.mp3 and you can find Trippi at: http://newshare.typepad.com/mediagiraffe/files/trippi_williamstown-10-05-05.mp3 . . . For a general look at Lakoff’s thinking, play audio of his panel appearance at a media conference in St. Louis in July at this address: http://www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/sat-200-framing.mp3
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