Framing, Death, and Democracy - by George Lakoff

[radfringe]

Framing, Death, and Democracy
by George Lakoff
January 15, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0115-23.htm

We live in a time when comedians outdo pundits. Here's Jay Leno:

"President Bush is expected to announce that he is now sending more troops to Iraq, despite the fact that his generals, his military analysts, members of Congress, and most of the American people are against the idea. The reason he is doing it? To give Iraq a government that responds to the will of the people."

The first duty of Congress is to be Congress, to provide a check on the executive through the power to hold hearings, write legislation, and tighten the purse strings. The central issue raised by the President's speech last Wednesday is not whether Iraq will have a democracy, but whether we will.

---snip---

It is interesting that the President has pretty much stopped talking about "victory" in the usual sense and has attempted to redefine it. "Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship." "Victory" is not a military win by us over an opposing army. It is the Iraqi people being able to govern themselves. In place of "victory," Bush substitutes "success" — the achievement of American goals for American interests.

---snip---

One of the most telling sentences in Bush's speech is, "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me." He does not say who made the mistakes or what they were. The disastrous past holds no lessons for the future, as the slogan "the way forward" indicates. And though he "takes responsibility," there are no consequences for him. He does not resign, does not admit his own mistakes, he does not even change his policy. "Responsibility" without consequences is not responsibility.