Linguistics professor George Lakoff dissects the "war on terror"

The author of the seminal book "Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think," Lakoff's specialty is dissecting "framing," or the ways in which conservatives and liberals position issues to fit their respective moral worldviews. He grasps how Republicans use language more effectively than Democrats, and what Democrats can do about it. "I wrote a chapter on what unites progressives -- a moral   system, certain political principles, and what I call policy directions as   opposed to policies. A policy direction is something like "Let's have a sustainable   environment" and "Working people shouldn't be living in poverty" and "Everybody   should have health care." The problem is that the Democrats have wanted to   talk about programs rather than policy directions, and programs call up distinctions,   which tend to separate people. For example, Kerry should be talking about health   care for everyone, and just put a white paper with the details of the program   on his website. The values, principles, and general directions are what people   care about and what brings them together. It's pointless to argue about the   policy-wonk details, because they're going to change anyway. [more ]