Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don't Book

Moral Politics takes a fresh look at how we think and talk about political and moral ideas. George Lakoff analyzed recent political discussion to find that the family--especially the ideal family--is the most powerful metaphor in politics today. Revealing how family-based moral values determine views on diverse issues as crime, gun control, taxation, social programs, and the environment, George Lakoff looks at how conservatives and liberals link morality to politics through the concept of family and how these ideals diverge. Arguing that conservatives have exploited the connection between morality, the family, and politics, while liberals have failed to recognized it, Lakoff explains why conservative moral position has not been effectively challenged. A wake up call to political pundits on both the left and the right, this work redefines how Americans think and talk about politics. "Clearly [Lakoff] is one who believes that the interests of the heart and mind deeply coincide. . . . How many books on politics can make that claim?"--Paul Rosenberg, Christian Science Monitor "[Moral Politics] isn't just an 'issue-by-issue debate.'. . . [It is an] unusual mix of judicious scholarship, tendentious journalism and inflammatory wake-up call."--"Editors Recommend" selection, San Francisco Chronicle Book Review "[Moral Politics] focuses brilliantly on questions that are central to understanding American politics."--Steven V. Roberts, Senior writer, U.S. News and World Report "Like Freud and Lacan, Lakoff wants to bring this structure of language of political discourse--and hence of consciousness itself--to the surface and free us from the prison of unthinking categorization."--Michael Stern, San Francisco Chronicle Book ReviewRead More