Moral Politics Quotes

“1. Why should poor conservatives vote against their financial interests? Because they are voting their moral identities, not their pocketbooks. They are voting for people who believe in what they believe, and they want to see a world in which their moral principles are upheld 2. Why do Tea Party members of Congress obstruct even the workings of an overwhelmingly conservative Congress? Because they believe that compromising with progressive positions is immoral on the grounds that it weakens and undermines the authority of conservatism. It would be like a strict father giving in and compromising his authority in the family. ·”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Patriotism is about improving the lives of one’s fellow citizens and improving one’s country’s contribution to the world. In the conservative moral hierarchy, our country is taken as simply better than other countries. This is jingoism, not true patriotism, which rests on progressive values.”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Deeply embedded in conservative and liberal politics are different models of the family. Conservatism, as we shall see, is based on a Strict Father model, while liberalism is centered around a Nurturant Parent model. These two models of the family give rise to different moral systems and different discourse forms, that is, different choices of words and different modes of reasoning. Once”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“As a consequence, it should be true that if you just get the facts out to people, they will reason to the right conclusion. And so year after year, decade after decade, liberals keep telling facts to conservative audiences without changing many minds. This behavior by liberals is itself a form of science denial—the denial of the cognitive and brain sciences. It is simply irrational behavior by many people proud of their rationality. It”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Again, as with creating a nurturant family life, it would be unreasonable to expect that creating a nurturant society should be easy or quick. One must be patient and ready to deal with frustration. And one must bear in mind the morality of happiness and self-nurturance. In the midst of frustration, you must find a way to be basically happy and to take care of yourself. If you don’t, you will become less nurturant. Women have known throughout history that nurturance is a way of life. Many men have instinctively learned it from their mothers and their nurturant fathers. But the challenge in contemporary America is to create a nurturant society when a significant portion of that society has been raised either by authoritarian or neglectful parents. America is between moral worlds and there is only one way to turn.”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“There is still another reason for conservatives to be against what they see as a “negative” history. If conservative politics rests on Strict Father morality, the national family must be seen as a moral family and the rules by which the national family operates must be seen as moral. Otherwise, the legitimacy of all forms of governmental authority is called into question. The very foundation of Strict Father morality is the legitimacy of parental authority. To someone raised with Strict Father morality, a “negative” history might call into question that authority. Strict Father morality cannot tolerate the questioning of legitimate authority by children. Children are supposed to venerate and idolize legitimate authorities, so that they can develop character by following the rules laid down by that authority. “Negative” history, conservatives believe, would lead to questioning authority and would threaten that process. Of”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Instead, the mission of the agency is moral, and its success must be judged in significant part on moral grounds, not cost-benefit grounds. It is the moral mission of the EPA that offends conservatives. The same is true of the moral missions of the arts and humanities endowments. One”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“But compare this with the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has not just a practical mission but a moral mission—safeguarding the environment, which includes choosing a moral view of the environment. There is no neutral view of the environment; there are only moral views of the sort we discussed in Chapter 12. The EPA’s job is not merely to carry out morally neutral functions like measuring air pollution. Its very function is a moral one. Its regulations, its forms of testing, its research projects, and its sanctions all come out of a moral vision. Parts of its job could be farmed out to the private sector, but its overall job could not, because the market does not incorporate inherent values, such as the inherent value of nature that emerges from the Nurturant Parent model. It is at points like this that family-based morality enters crucially into government. Many”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Conservatives have, at least since the 60s, seen their system of values under attack—from feminism, the gay rights movement, the ecological movement, the sexual revolution, multiculturalism, and many more manifestations of Nurturant Parent morality. Conservatives have seen the values of these movements taught in the schools. They are appalled that what they see as the only system of real morality is being undermined. Conservatives believe that all of the major ills of our present society come from a failure to abide by their moral system. Moreover, they believe that their moral system is the only true American moral system, as well as the only moral system behind Western civilization. They see both of these beliefs challenged in contemporary historical research, which is being taught in our universities. This gives them a sense of moral outrage. They are fighting back. Why”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“We can now suggest an answer to the questions asked above. If conservatism is based on Strict Father morality, conservatives have the general metaphors of the Moral Order in their conceptual systems, with at least a couple of clauses, namely, God above human beings; human beings above animals and the natural world; adults above children; men above women. The Moral Order hierarchy used to have all the bigoted clauses in it; now it has many open slots available for such clauses. Let”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“How can conservatives love their country, love their system of government, love the founders of their government, but resent and often hate the government itself?”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Opponents of abortion use the word baby to refer to the cluster of cells, the embryo, and the fetus alike. The very choice of the word baby imposes the idea of an independently existing human being. Whereas cluster of cells, embryo, and fetus keep discussion in the medical domain, baby moves the discussion to the moral domain. The issue of the morality of abortion is settled once the words are chosen. The purposeful removal of a cell group from the mother that does not constitute an independently existing, viable, or even a recognizable human being cannot be “murder.” The word “murder” is not defined as such a medical procedure. The purposeful killing of a “baby”—an independently existing human being—can be “murder.” Is”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“In the Strict Father model, it is the duty of the strict father to protect his family above all else. By the Nation As Family metaphor, this implies that the major function of the government is, above all else, to protect the nation. That is why conservatives see the funding of the military as moral, while the funding of social programs is seen as immoral. There”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“The government is commonly conceptualized as a business. If it is seen as a service industry, taxes can be seen as payment for services provided to the public. Those services can include protection (by the military, the criminal justice system, and regulatory agencies), adjudication of disputes (by the judiciary and other agencies), social insurance (as in Social Security and Medicare and various “safety nets”), and so on. Under”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“The self-righteous person’s superfluity of moral credit is the basis of his discourse. He presupposes his own moral values and his own righteousness as a condition of conversation. The effect of this is that anyone talking to a self-righteous person must either agree with his moral values and act equally self-righteous, or face being put in a morally inferior position in the discourse. This is what makes self-righteous people particularly infuriating to talk to. F”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“If the facts don’t fit one’s worldview, one of several things can happen: • The fact may be changed to fit your worldview. • The fact may be ignored. • The fact may be rejected and possibly ridiculed. • Or the facts, if threatening to your worldview, may be attacked. All”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“There are two different common metaphors for work, each of which uses moral accounting. We will call them the Work Exchange metaphor and the Work Reward metaphor. In the Work Reward metaphor, the employer is conceptualized as having legitimate authority over the employee, and pay is a reward for work. The metaphor can be stated as follows: • The employer is a legitimate authority. • The employee is subject to that authority. • Work is obedience to the employer’s commands. • Pay is the reward the employee receives for obedience to the employer. This metaphor makes work a part of the moral order—a hierarchical chain of legitimate authority. This conception of work implies the following: • The employer has a right to give orders to the employee, and to punish the employee for not obeying those orders. • Obedience is the condition of employment. • The social relationship of employer to employee is • one of superior to inferior. • The employer knows best. • The employee is moral if he obeys the employer. • The employer is moral if he appropriately rewards the employee for obeying his orders. In the Work Exchange metaphor, work is seen as an object of value. The worker voluntarily exchanges his work for money. The metaphor can be stated as follows: • Work is an object of value. • The worker is the possessor of his work. • The employer is the possessor of his money. • Employment is the voluntary exchange of the worker’s work for the employer’s money. In the context of labor unions and contracts, the nature and value of the work are mutually agreed on in the contract. Payment is a matter of agreed upon exchange, not reward. Work is a matter of trade, not obedience. The nature and limits of authority are spelled out in the contract. Both of these conceptualizations of work depend upon the metaphor of Moral Accounting—in the first case to define appropriate reward, in the second case to determine the value of the work. Both conceptions are metaphorical, though they may seem literal if everyone involved agrees to abide by one metaphor or the other. What these metaphors show is that the concept of work is not absolute; it varies with the metaphors used to conceptualize it. They also show that work is part of a network of moral concepts, including moral accounting. Some”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“As we pointed out, the common principles of conservative thought make up a list crying out for an explanation of how they fit together: smaller government; strong defense; lower taxes; traditional family values; personal responsibility; and free markets. As we have seen, these all flow from a strict father morality. Finally,”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“The “war on women” framing by liberal feminists reflects their experience that women are being harmed via purposeful acts by conservatives. But conservatives don’t see themselves as conducting such a war. Instead they see themselves as simply acting morally according to the conservative moral worldview. In the strict father family, it is the father who determines what the women in the family should and should not do, sexually, reproductively, and with their bodies. Accordingly, men are above women in the conservative moral hierarchy.”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Conservatives tend not to want to fund early childhood education. First, they see it as a government program to be destroyed. Second, they are concerned about what would be taught—perhaps not the subject matter of what would be taught in a strict father household. They want to be sure that children are taught a conservative way of looking at the world. Children”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Conservatives are also against unions and want to legislate them out of existence via what are called “right to work” laws. Such laws see employment through a Strict Father lens: as simply a matter of individual responsibility by the employee. Conservative enmity against unions follows from the moral hierarchy: Rich Over Poor; Employer Over Employee. Unions are actually agents of freedom—freedom from corporate servitude and wage slavery. Without unions, employees have to individually take what is offered, usually far less than they would get with a union: not just pay but worker safety, health care benefits, pensions, reasonable working conditions and hours, reasonable vacation time. What is “reasonable”? What the union members can negotiate. Unions create freedom. Austerity”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Conservatives have proposed cutting pension plans and benefits like contributions to health care. Think for a moment what pensions are: Pensions are delayed payments for work already done. If employees’ pensions are cut, the company is stealing their money—money they have already earned. If the corporation says it can no longer pay “generous” benefits, then the company is cutting employees’ salaries. “Benefits” are not gifts; “generosity” is not at issue. Benefits are part of pay for work. Corporations”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Another argument: The rich are job creators. They are helping the poor. If their taxes are cut, they can create more jobs. Ah, facts again. The rich actually tend to keep their money by buying prime real estate, yachts, art, and the like—things that will appreciate in value without giving back much to the economy as a whole. Moreover, the rich don’t just give jobs out of the goodness of their hearts. Look at economics from the perspective of work: Working people are profit-creators. The rich only create jobs when they can get employees who can create profit for them. The poor create profit for the rich. Conservatives”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Conservatives have consistently voted to cut taxes on the rich. Current proposals for a “flat tax” would mean cutting taxes on the rich. The arguments are often versions of the Moral Hierarchy principle, that the rich are just better people than the poor: they have earned their money through hard work; the poor just haven’t worked hard enough and so deserve to be poor. Hmmm . . . Corporate CEOs tend to make about two hundred times as much as their average employees—they can’t be working two hundred times as hard. And many of the rich have inherited their money not earned it through work. Another”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Systemic causation must be taught if the effects of global warming are to be seriously understood. The”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Private enterprise and private life depend on nurturant morality, but so does freedom in American life. Freedom is what public resources provide—freedom in a way that we take for granted but that needs to be brought out in the open.”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“Conservatives deny that the private depends on public resources. Citing Ronald Reagan’s credo that “The Government is the Problem,” conservatives are constantly trying to eliminate public resources and to privatize as much as possible.”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“From the beginning, the United States has been based on a nurturant principle: • Citizens care about other citizens and work, through their government, to provide public resources for all. Those”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“I think the issue to bring progressives together should be this most central of all issues—raising children to become responsible, empathetic adults.”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think

“There are progressives primarily concerned with children and family issues, but such issues are child care, children’s health, prenatal care for mothers, child poverty, education, the problems of minority children, child abuse, and so on. These very real concerns reflect the interests of the major groupings, but, to my knowledge, such groups are not principally concerned with the promotion of Nurturant Parenting itself. All”
― George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think