Obama's Pragmatism

Barack Obama claims to be a pragmatist, not an ideologue. He's made that point, in his interview on 60 Minutes for instance. His advisors and some of those who are closest to him have made the same claim. However, there is no such thing as ideology-free pragmatism. We all start from a point of view, a way of seeing the world, of which are usually unaware of. The linguist George Lakoff calls it a frame. Hence, even when we are acting pragmatically, we are acting under the influence of an ideology. The article to which I link below makes this point at length much better than I could. It originally appeared in The Nation and, it's well worth a read, whether you're an Obama fan or not.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/12-3