Friday, November 26, 2004

The Progressive Morality

Here is a great article by George Lakoff. Mostly it is a plug for his book, but I think he has some great ideas nonetheless.

Here is a quote:

"Swing voters have both models – in different parts of their lives – and are unsure about which to apply to politics in a particular election. The job of a candidate is to activate his model in the swing voters. Conservatives know this: By talking to their base, they are activating their base model in swing voters. When liberals move to the right, they are shooting themselves in both feet: They alienate their base and they activate the other side's models in the swing voters, thus helping the other side.
Democrats in Congress need to understand this. They must hold their ground, be positive and be aware that moving to the right is a double disaster. It will only help the radical right's agenda, break with values that unify us and make it harder to awaken our values in swing voters.
The only way to trump their moral values is with our own more traditional and more patriotic moral values. Proclaim them and live them, and we will find that there are many more than 55 million of us. "

Everything I have been saying, basically. I think he states clearly what we need to do. I think its imperative that we clearly distinguish our values from the republicans' values. The more we move towards the right to try and swing the middle ground in our direction, the more we give credence to right's message. We need to distinguish our values from the right's, state them clearly and loudly over and over again and stand by those values.

I plan on reading this book, I will write more about what I think of Lakoff's ideas when I've finished.

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