This book is an unsettlingly convincing analysis of a frame that unifies the Republican's political platform: the government as a strict father. He explains a decades-long strategy to train bright minds and coach leaders to use coherent language and dominate the media. Consequently, the argument goes, the Republicans define our concepts of most important issues, while the Democrats are left to argue against them, still using their language. He advocates that the Democrats evolve their own language under the frame of a nuturant parent. Doing so would allow them to communicate their goals more effectively to the public. Such communication is important because voters vote their values rather than their best interests.

It is fascinating how deeply embedded in our cultural subconscious - and yet how evocative - the symbolic language he analyses are. For example, he discusses Bush's use of "permission slip" when he was arguing for us to enter the war with Iraq despite lack of collaboration from the UN. It is true that anyone who understands the strict father model will swallow this whole without needing to consider all its implications. It screams, "Of course we're the ones in control. We're not the schoolkids. In fact, the positions are reversed - we've got to show all those underdeveloped UN countries who don't know how to be as good as we are."

I probably need to spend some time on the Rockridge Institute website.