Barack Obama understands what Ronald Reagan learned, which is that people vote not on the basis of issues and policy details, but on the basis of something deeper, namely, what are your values? Are you authentic? Do you say what you believe? Do you communicate with us? And do we identify with you? You don't know what particular issues are going to come up in the future, so you have to depend on someone's values, and whether they are telling you the truth, and whether you can trust them in office. Obama's been running a campaign on that basis.
George LakoffWe categorize as we do because we have the brains and bodies we have and because we interact in the world as we do.
George LakoffMoreover, metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. For this reason, most people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor. We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.
George LakoffIf we are to know ourselves, philosophy needs to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the sciences of mind.
George LakoffYou see Bill Clinton, and you say: Oh, this guy cares about me. Hillary Clinton isn't the same way. You see her, and you don't necessarily have that view. She's trying to achieve the same thing without the voice and the body language, and she's having a harder time doing it. But when she's effective, that's what she's effective at.
George LakoffLiberals have a set of folk theories that are fallacious. One of them comes from the Enlightenment, and the assumption is that you are supposed to be logical. They assume all you have to do is tell people the facts and they will reason to the right conclusion. This is utterly ridiculous. Thought is mainly metaphorical. The frames trump all the facts.
George Lakoff