This election matters because of realities -- the realities of global warming, the economy, the Middle East, nuclear proliferation, civil liberties, species extinction, poverty here and around the world, and on and on. Such realities are what make this election so very crucial, and how to deal with them is the substance of the Democratic platform (PDF).
Election campaigns matter because who gets elected can change reality. But election campaigns are primarily about the realities of voters' minds, which depend on how the candidates and the external realities are cognitively framed. They can be framed honestly or deceptively, effectively or clumsily. And they are always framed from the perspective of a worldview.
The Obama campaign has learned this. The Republicans have long known it, and the choice of Sarah Palin as their vice presidential candidate reflects their expert understanding of the political mind and political marketing. Democrats who simply belittle the Palin choice are courting disaster. It must be taken with the utmost seriousness.
The Democratic responses so far reflect external realities: she is inexperienced, knowing little or nothing about foreign policy or national issues; she is really an anti-feminist, wanting the government to enter women's lives to block abortion, but not wanting the government to guarantee equal pay for equal work, or provide adequate child health coverage, or child care, or early childhood education; she shills for the oil and gas industry on drilling; she denies the scientific truths of global warming and evolution; she misuses her political authority; she opposes sex education and her daughter is pregnant; and, rather than being a maverick, she is on the whole a radical right-wing ideologue.
All true, so far as we can tell.
But such truths may nonetheless be largely irrelevant to this campaign. That is the lesson Democrats must learn. They must learn the reality of the political mind.
The Obama campaign has done this very well so far. The convention events and speeches were orchestrated both to cast light on external realities, traditional political themes, and to focus on values at once classically American and progressive: empathy, responsibility both for oneself and others, and aspiration to make things better both for oneself and the world. Obama did all this masterfully in his nomination speech, while replying to, and undercutting, the main Republican attacks.
But the Palin nomination changes the game. The initial response has been to try to keep the focus on external realities, the "issues," and differences on the issues. But the Palin nomination is not basically about external realities and what Democrats call "issues," but about the symbolic mechanisms of the political mind -- the worldviews, frames, metaphors, cultural narratives, and stereotypes. The Republicans can't win on realities. Her job is to speak the language of conservatism, activate the conservative view of the world, and use the advantages that conservatives have in dominating political discourse.
Our national political dialogue is fundamentally metaphorical, with family values at the center of our discourse. There is a reason why Obama and Biden spoke so much about the family, the nurturant family, with caring fathers and the family values that Obama put front and center in his Father's day speech: empathy, responsibility and aspiration. Obama's reference in the nomination speech to "The American Family" was hardly accidental, nor were the references to the Obama and Biden families as living and fulfilling the American Dream. Real nurturance requires strength and toughness, which Obama displayed in body language and voice in his responses to McCain. The strength of the Obama campaign has been the seamless marriage of reality and symbolic thought.
The Republican strength has been mostly symbolic. The McCain campaign is well aware of how Reagan and W won -- running on character: values, communication, (apparent) authenticity, trust, and identity -- not issues and policies. That is how campaigns work, and symbolism is central.
Conservative family values are strict and apply via metaphorical thought to the nation: good vs. evil, authority, the use of force, toughness and discipline, individual (versus social) responsibility, and tough love. Hence, social programs are immoral because they violate discipline and individual responsibility. Guns and the military show force and discipline. Man is above nature; hence no serious environmentalism. The market is the ultimate financial authority, requiring market discipline. In foreign policy, strength is use of the force. In fundamentalist religion, the Bible is the ultimate authority; hence no gay marriage. Such values are at the heart of radical conservatism. This is how John McCain was raised and how he plans to govern. And it is what he shares with Sarah Palin.
Palin is the mom in the strict father family, upholding conservative values. Palin is tough: she shoots, skins, and eats caribou. She is disciplined: raising five kids with a major career. She lives her values: she has a Downs-syndrome baby that she refused to abort. She has the image of the ideal conservative mom: pretty, perky, feminine, Bible-toting, and fitting into the ideal conservative family. And she fits the stereotype of America as small-town America. It is Reagan's morning-in-America image. Where Obama thought of capturing the West, she is running for Sweetheart of the West.
And Palin, a member of Feminism for Life, is at the heart of the conservative feminist movement, which Ronee Schreiber has written about in her recent book, Righting Feminism. It is a powerful and growing movement that Democrats have barely paid attention to.
At the same time, Palin is masterful at the Republican game of taking the Democrats' language and reframing it -- putting conservative frames to progressive words: Reform, prosperity, peace. She is also masterful at using the progressive narratives: she's from the working class, working her way up from hockey mom and the PTA to mayor, governor, and VP candidate. Her husband is a union member. She can say to the conservative populists that she is one of them -- all the things that Obama and Biden have been saying. Bottom-up, not top-down.
Yes, the McCain-Palin ticket is weak on the major realities. But it is strong on the symbolic dimension of politics that Republicans are so good at marketing. Just arguing the realities, the issues, the hard truths should be enough in times this bad, but the political mind and its response to symbolism cannot be ignored. The initial Democratic response to Palin -- the response based on realities alone -- indicates that many Democrats have not learned the lessons of the Reagan and Bush years.
They have not learned the nature of conservative populism. A great many working-class folks are what I call "bi-conceptual," that is, they are split between conservative and progressive modes of thought. Conservative on patriotism and certain social and family issues, which they have been led to see as "moral," progressive in loving the land, living in communities of care, and practical kitchen table issues like mortgages, health care, wages, retirement, and so on.
Conservative theorists won them over in two ways: inventing and promulgating the idea of "liberal elite" and focusing campaigns on social and family issues. They have been doing this for many years and have changed a lot of brains through repetition. Palin will appeal strongly to conservative populists, attacking Obama and Biden as pointy-headed, tax-and-spend, latte liberals. The tactic is to divert attention from difficult realities to powerful symbolism.
What Democrats have shied away from is a frontal attack on radical conservatism itself as an un-American and harmful ideology. I think Obama is right when he says that America is based on people caring about each other and working together for a better future -- empathy, responsibility (both personal and social), and aspiration. These lead to a concept of government based on protection (environmental, consumer, worker, health care, and retirement protection) and empowerment (through infrastructure, public education, the banking system, the stock market, and the courts). Nobody can achieve the American Dream or live an American lifestyle without protection and empowerment by the government. The alternative, as Obama said in his nomination speech, is being on your own, with no one caring for anybody else, with force as a first resort in foreign affairs, with threatened civil liberties and a right-wing government making your most important decisions for you. That is not what American democracy has ever been about.
What is at stake in this election are our ideals and our view of the future, as well as current realities. The Palin choice brings both front and center. Democrats, being Democrats, will mostly talk about the realities nonstop without paying attention to the dimensions of values and symbolism. Democrats, in addition, need to call an extremist an extremist: to shine a light on the shared anti-democratic ideology of McCain and Palin, the same ideology shared by Bush and Cheney. They share values antithetical to our democracy. That needs to be said loud and clear, if not by the Obama campaign itself, then by the rest of us who share democratic American values.
Our job is to bring external realities together with the reality of the political mind. Don't ignore the cognitive dimension. It is through cultural narratives, metaphors, and frames that we understand and express our ideals.
George Lakoff is the author of The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 20th Century Politics With and 18th Century Brain.
Yes, yes, yes. 10,000 times yes.
But I disagree on one point. This is exactly what the Obama campaign needs to say. It doesn't have to sound angry, defensive, or vindictive. It can be said in such a way as to be a vision of our future, and it can reinstill hope that we as a nation will be better than we've been for the past 8 years.
Thanks for another insightful essay.
See these two sites for some understanding.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/a_feminists_argument_for_mccai.html
http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/discussion/showthread.php?t=26179
This works for Republicans.
It has often been said the Democrats have the issues and the Republicans have the spin, and the spin wins.
This is true, so its not effective for Obama to go too deeply into policy details. However, what he could do in his ads and speeches is address one policy issue that the Republicans always use --Big Government and taxes.
He needs to say that the budget deficit and the balooning chunk of tax dollars going to waste and corruption in the military is COSTING us taxdollars and is in effect taxation on us and future generations.
McCain will just continue to coopt Democratic ideas with lies that HE is the reformer etc., which is absurd. So the Democrats have to hit them with the idea that the deficits and lobbies promoting military waste a la Halliburton cost taxpayers. So far the Dems just haven't turned this idea around on the Republicans - taxation, waste and government expansion.
Big Government and Taxes are what they always effectively use against the Dems, so that argument has to be turned around in concise punchy ads..
Otherwise McCain will just continue to coopt Democratic ideas with lies that HE is the reformer etc., which is absurd.
Show open pit coal mine, oil well exploding, tanker leaking, headlines - dangerous nuclear energy. Voice over: John McCain is for dirty technologies of the past, old approaches, tired policies. He voted against tax credits for alternative energy. To farm of wind turbines, array of solar cells, group scientists talking, writing at white board. Voice over: Barack Obama supports clean technologies, new approaches and will fund extraordinary efforts to make the United States the leader in new sources of energy. Good politics and the moral thing to do.
Second, ad morphing Palin into Agnew. Voice over tells how she is trying to divide us. Obama-Biden want to bring us together as one nation.
Third, Palin brings to mind George Bush. Despite a father who was US Rep UN, envoy to China, Director CIA, GWB had hardly traveled/ not interested in the world. Palin, if elected VP and succeeding McCain is the second coming of George Bush and the American people don't want that.
Finally, for powerful defense of liberalism recommend West Coast debate episode between Matt Santos and Arnie Vinick on West Wing. What is amazing is how prescient it is about 2008 election. If every American voter viewed this episode and had a conversation about the feelings it raises and its relevance to the current election we would probably have a Democratic blowout.
THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN SHOULD HIRE GEORGE LAKOFF AS A SENIOR ADVISOR NOW !
Are you serious!? This is what liberals consider American values? If I recall correctly, this country was founded because we got mad at the government for oppressing us, and declared our independence. The traditional American spirit was one of self-reliance and responsibility, not sucking off the government's teet.
Big business, the kind that float the Republican Party in an age when it should have sunk long ago, do more sucking off the government teet than all the people who need that level playing field.
Amerian values include working hard and supporting ourselves in an equal and fair environment, and because this is impossible to achieve without considerable government interference, we're stuck in a huge mess right now.
This is due to an attitude that prohibits leveling the playing field, refuses to reward those who work hard because only those with connections can flourish, and doesn't provide the simple basic necessities that permit people to advanc and make names for themselves on their own.
If we deny people basic needs like healthcare, education, food, clothing, shelter, love, then we can't even pretend that this nation prides itself on self-reliance and responsibility. A child who is never exposed to language never learns it--in the same way, if we don't provide healthcare, those without it die of easily fixed issues, and if we don't provide education, those without it can never overcome certain hurdle put in place by an increasingly technological society.
Nobody is suggesting anyone suck at the government's teet--we simply understand that refusing to give people the necesities for thriving is reprehensibly equivalent to keeping slaves from learning and from experiencing a world in which they can benefit from their own hard work.
Say it again and again and again and again; say it every time McCain opens his mouth; say it every time Palin opens her mouth:
"Democrat v Republican = Hope v Hype"
"Obama/Biden v McCain/Palin = Hope v Hype"
No one gets to claim heroism until all the votes have been counted.
America’s PROMISE vs America’s PAST
BRINGING People TOGETHER vs……. Bridges to NOWHERE
CHANGE WE CAN believe in vs. CLICHES for CORPORATIONS
DEMOCRACY for All vs. DEALS and DEFICITS
EARTH First ..vs……………….EARMARKS first
FAIRNESS………………………..vs. FAVORITISM
GENEROSITY of SPIRIT vs. GREED, GAY-BASHING
HOPE. ……………………………..vs………………HYPE
ISSUES that MATTER…………….vs. IDEOLOGY
JUSTICE for ALL . vs. JUDGEMENTs that JEOPARDIZE
KINDNESS, KINSHIP…………….vs. ……………KINGDOM
LOVE, LABOR, LAUGHTER,,,,,,,,,,vs…………LOBBYISTS, LINE-ITEMS, LOSSES
MINDFUL of the Many…………….vs………….MINDLESS mouthing of maxims
NURTURING NATURE…………..vs…………..NO NOT NO
OPTIMISM…………………………VS………….OPPORTUNISM
PEACE, PROGRESS, PEOPLE…….VS…………PROFITS, PROFITS, PROFITS
QUALITY of Life……………………………VS…QUANTITY of Dollars
Real, Realistic, Rule of Law VS…………RADICAL RIGHTWING extremism
Substance, Security, Scientific vs. ………..SLOGANS, STYLE, Sensationalism
Truth .vs. …………Trash Talk
Universal Healthcare, Unity…….VS…………Unlimited Warfare, dollars for destruction
Voice of the People……………..VS………….Values of the Corporate State
Wisdom on Wants of the world…VS…………Wasteful, Willy Nilly, WTF approach
X Chromosome friendly………….VS………….X-files friendly
Youthful, energized peoplepowered VS………..Youth fearing, old school power-based
Zeal VS Zilch
Now for some slogans needed to seep into people's psyches. Go for it!
"McCain manager: This election 'not about issues'
…Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning.
"This election is not about issues," said Davis. ..
In reaction to Rick Davis' comments about the election not being about issues, Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe released the following statement: "We appreciate Senator McCain's campaign manager finally admitting that his campaign is not in fact about the issues the American people care about, which is exactly the kind of cynical old politics people are ready to change."..
More at Washington Post"