MORE ON MORAL POLITICS: Andrew Cline of Rhetorica offers his take on Tuesday's topic: why liberals and conservatives have trouble getting along.
George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics, demonstrates that liberals and conservatives understand politics in terms of two different metaphors of the family. He is co-author with Mark Johnson of the landmark work on metaphor entitled Metaphors We Live By, in which they state:"Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature."
What this means is: We understand non-literal concepts, such as "politics," in terms of metaphor. The predominant metaphor of politics and government in our culture is: Government is a family. Liberals and conservatives have two different views of family and what is moral in terms of family dynamics, i.e. generally speaking, liberals operate with a nurturing parent metaphor and conservatives operate with a strict-father metaphor. This means that liberals and conservatives quite naturally see each other as failing morally.
And this difference in metaphor explains apparent political contradictions. For example, how can a conservative be pro-life and pro-death penalty? To the conservative, operating with a strict-father metaphor, this is no contradiction at all. The convict, having failed as a citizen, deserves punishment, even death, to protect the moral values of society. The unborn are totally innocent of any moral failing (until birth) and deserve protection.
It's a commonplace of the Enlightenment that civic men should be able to discuss the issues of the day with mutual respect for honest differences of opinion. But, liberals and conservatives have two distinctly different moral systems. Each sees its own as naturally moral. This makes reaching such an ideal quite difficult--but not impossible. In our era, however, it is made all the more difficult by people such as Ann Coulter (right and left) who profit at the expense of civil, civic debate.
| Author/ Affiliation |
Title/ Date |
words | PI | Partisan References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Molly Ivins Creators Syndicate |
Texas Democrats in the doghouse 31 July 2003 |
1092 | 81 | 8D+: John F. Kennedy, Democratic, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Senate Democrats, Democrats, Democratic, Democrats 2R+: Republican, Republican president 19R-: Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, Republican, Goodhair, Rove, DeLay, Goodhair, Republicans, David Dewhurst, Goodhair, Tom DeLay, Republican, Goodhair, Republicans, Republicans, Republicans, Republican, Goodhair, Perry 2D= |
| Ann Coulter Universal Press Syndicate |
Closure on nuance 31 July 2003 |
876 | 64 | 3D-: Democrats, Janet Reno, Clinton 5R+: Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush 1R-: Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta 2R= |
| William Safire New York Times |
Do Fence Me In 31 July 2003 |
809 | 33 | 3R+: Ronald Reagan, Bush, President Bush 1R-: President Bush 2R= |
| Cal Thomas Tribune Media Services |
Democrats are losing the center 31 July 2003 |
977 | 2 | 19D+: Democratic Leadership Council, DLC, Bill Clinton, Democrats, DLC, Mark Penn, Penn, Penn, Clinton, Democrats, Clinton, Democratic, Walter Mondale, Bob Beckel, Beckel, Jesse Jackson, DLC, Clinton, DLC 14D-: Democrats, Democrats, Democrats, Democrats, Democrats, Democrats, Clinton, Democrats, Howard Dean, Dean, Democrats, Democrats, Democratic, Democrats 6R+: Republicans, President Bush, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, President Bush, Bush 8D=, 4R= |
| John Fund Inactive |
Gov. Toast 31 July 2003 |
1253 | 0 | 34D=, 4R= |
| Kimberley A. Strassel Inactive |
Vroom, Vroom! 31 July 2003 |
775 | 0 | |
| Bob Herbert Inactive |
Dying in Iraq 31 July 2003 |
869 | 0 | 1D=, 10R= |
| Thomas Sowell Creators Syndicate |
Are cops racist? 31 July 2003 |
774 | 0 | |
| George F. Will Washington Post |
Scripture And Sexual Behavior 31 July 2003 |
898 | 0 |