...one of the things that Bush has been doing is betraying the trust that Americans have placed in him. He's lying to them. He's saying one thing and doing another. That harms people. There's a great deal of betrayal of trust there, and the liberals have to come out and get that message across. It's a hard message to get across because people don't want to think that the head of their family or the head of their nation is betraying their trust.

... When other countries see that we have a foreign policy that is only about our national interest, or our national interest is defined only in terms of money and power and nothing else, then they say: "The U.S. doesn’t get it. The U.S. is really an enemy of world peace. The U.S. is trying to dominate everybody else for its own interests." That is not a way to build trust. It’s not a way to get cooperation. And it’s definitely a way to have lots of people thinking that the U.S. is an enemy.

...People vote on their morality and their identity. Occasionally they vote on their self-interest when it’s important, but mostly they vote for what they believe in and who they are. That’s something that Democrats don’t understand. And they haven’t been attentive enough to ideas and to understanding how the mind works. They focus instead on self-interest and issues, issue by issue. As long as they go issue by issue, they’re going to lose.
[more from the Buzzflash interview with George Lakoff ]

posted by Cyndy | link | | |