Liberal TV commentators tend to practice the same pattern. First they will recite a quote or show a film clip from a conservative, repeat the conservative claim out loud, and only then cite the facts contradicting the claim. Activists do the same. An Occupy Wall Street sign read, “Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free

The War on Women strategy has the advantages of uniting progressive women in a common cause and of raising money from women. But it also has disadvantages. First, it frames women as victims under attack. Second, it posits that conservatives are involved in a conscious movement to attack women, which is hard to sell except to liberals and which is p

What we are trying to achieve with this book is a neural alternative that is open to important truths: the central role of the Public in American life, the overwhelming power of corporations in our public life, the predatory nature of privatization, the disastrous reality of humanly caused global warming, and the powerfully negative effect of extre

The brain is structured in terms of what are called cascades. A cascade is a network of neurons that links many brain circuits. All of the linked circuits must be active at once to produce a given understanding. Simply put, the brain does not handle single ideas as separate entities: a bigger context, a logical construct within which the idea is de

Liberals assume their own values are universal values, and then further assume that all they need to do is present the facts and offer policies that support these universal values. But values are not universal. Conservatives have a very different sense from liberals of what is moral, and a difference in fundamental morality is a deep difference.

As an example of superordinate-level and basic-level wording in public discourse, consider the environmental debate. The word environment is an abstract category. There is no one clear image that comes to mind when hearing it; there is no complex motor planning or visual imagery activated. Contrast this with the words forest, soil, water, air, and

Basic-level words activate imagery in our mind; for example, the basic-level word chair evokes an image of a chair; the more general, or superordinate-level, word furniture does not evoke a specific image. Basic-level words activate motor programs in our brain as part of our speech comprehension; the word cat, for example, evokes motor programs tha

Here is what to say: American democracy is built on the ethic of citizens caring about other citizens. Its moral mission is to protect and empower everyone equally by the provision of public resources. The Public is the foundation for the Private—for decent private lives and for private enterprise that works. No one makes it on his or her own witho

By 2010 Obamacare had become a dirty word, and the most radical Republicans won their elections and took over the House with a promise to repeal it. What the Obama administration missed was the opportunity to argue on the basis of the same moral ideals of freedom and life. Serious illness without health care takes away your liberty and threatens yo