A friend sent me the following email. I agree with it."What's most interesting about Howard Dean's recent flurry of ugly stereotypes about Republicans is that they are completely staged. The media, Republicans, and even fellow elected Democrats are all huffing and puffing about Howard Dean and his uncontrollable mouth.
"Dean and many
elected Democrats (not just back room handlers) have been hosting soirees and
workshops led by George Lakoff, and his new book about metaphor tactics in
national politics is required reading for Democrat leaders.
"Lakoff's analysis
is that Republicans win because they have a unified black and white story with
simple metaphors that they use to put down Democrats (via the White House
administration, the senate, fox news, talk radio, etc). Howard Dean's job is to
lead the charge to create a competing black and white story -- complete with
villians and bile -- to put down Republicans. Because he's not an elected
official, he can do this without accountability to a base. It's interesting --
when I listen to Democratic members of the House or Senate distance themselves
from Dean's comments, I'm not convinced. The whole thing just seems too staged.
Even more interesting is that the media naively plays the story as though Dean
just has a mouth problem. He's the chairman of the party. He DOES NOT have the
freedom to privately script speeches for himself."Why is it that
Democrats are so obsessed with failed linguistics professors (Chomsky &
Lakoff)."