'Don't think of an elephant!' political terms

Pregnant political phrases that help to lead people to think in ways desired by the public figure that uses them.

’Don’t Think Of An Elephant!' is a provacative book written by a left-leaning American, George Lakoff.

Mr Lakoff asserts that US conservatives have built their recent electoral dominance on skilful manipulation of language. The liberal-left have not been afraid of using language to set the terms of debate themselves, of course - renaming Margaret Thatcher’s ‘community charge’ as the undemocratic-sounding ‘poll tax’ was one of the left’s greatest rhetorical victories of recent times. Nonetheless, Mr Lakoff’s uncharitable critique of America’s right does remind us of the power of language in public debate.

Are you picturing an elephant?

It is, of course, difficult to not think of a big grey animal with a trunk when you’re told not to think of an elephant. Other kinds of rhetorical devices can be equally manipulative. If a politician names her draft legislation the ‘Patient Protection Act’, it becomes more difficult to oppose than if it had been called the ‘General Medical & Hospital Services Amendment Bill’. A ‘death duty’ appears meaner than ‘inheritance tax’. A ‘tax burden’ needs to be relieved, whereas a ‘tax cut’ can more easily be painted as selfish.

‘Partial-birth abortion’ is a ‘Don’t Think Of An Elephant!’ term but it is also a seed policy. Partial-birth abortion conjures up a mental image of what is probably the abortion’s industry’s most brutal procedure. But it is also a seed policy because it opens up the whole abortion debate by pointing people to the nature of unborn life which every abortion technique terminates.