Robert Reich interviews George Lakoff

Robert Reich in this interview features the linguist George Lakoff about Lakoff's famous advice to Democrats about political framing. This really is an interview, not a debate or even a discussion, though it's partly the latter. And Reich does a very good job in asking probing questions that wind up highlighting both the strengths and weaknesses of Lakoff's argument. In Conversation: Robert Reich and George Lakoff, Language and Politics 02/14/2018:

I thinking a lot of what Lakoff has to say is very useful. I often talk about the importance of "framing" in the sense Lakoff means it.

My main criticism of his position is what I would describe as a kind of linguistic reduction. It's a little reminiscent of the 1960s cliche, "What we have here is a problem of communication." It became a punchline mocking people who tried to reduce real material problems to a matter of insufficient polite conversation with one another. I suppose that's a professional hazard for linguists.

I was impressed with this interview.