Moral Politics Came to Texas in the Sanchez Campaign

The Texas Observer - December 2001 -- After looking for an underlying metaphor that would unify political positions that seemed contradictory, Lakoff hit on the metaphor of the nation as a family, a metaphor that structures the politics of conservatives and liberals, as he shows in Moral Politics. Conservatives prefer a "Strict Father Family" model, he argues, while liberals prefer a "Nurturing Parent Family." Such generalizations seem dangerous, but the method produces a reliable map of American political discourse. For instance, it suggests why supporting the death penalty but criticizing abortion rights aren’t contradictory conservative viewpoints (a mistake that liberals often make), because the Strict Father punishes moral inferiors and protects moral dependents. And it’s why there are relatively few liberal thinktanks and scholarships for college students–liberals spend their money compassionately, not strategically. In a new afterword to the book’s next paperback version, Lakoff explains that Bill Clinton’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky upset conservatives because, "It was an affront to strict father morality," he wrote. "It was literally a family matter."

Would he ever work for a Republican political campaign? "Not a chance," Lakoff says. Last year he also refused to support or work for Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign. "I was asked by many people," he says. "I was asked by his sister [Laura Nader, an anthropologist at Berkeley], by one of the founders of the California Green Party, by one of their major funders. I just bawled them out. I said, you all shouldn’t be doing this. I might like what he’s saying, but he’s absolutely dead wrong on this and destructive."

Back in August, Lakoff argued that the Republicans had gained exclusive use of "family values," "responsibility," and "care," and he criticized Democrats for letting them do it. Democrats should steal these words back, he said. And steal the American flag back while we’re at it. Back in the 1960s, the Left "screwed up" by letting pro-war patriots appropriate the flag, Lakoff said. "It was their biggest mistake.