Weekly Briefing

Noted scholar reminds N.C. progressives of what they’re all about

What is it that defines and unifies the progressive movement in modern America? What distinguishes it from conservatism? How can progressives reassert themselves and reclaim their rightful place as the true heirs to the American traditions of freedom and liberty espoused in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?

These were some of the provocative questions posed and addressed this past weekend during a pair of appearances in the Triangle by the noted writer and thinker, George Lakoff. Lakoff, of course, is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley and co-founder of the Rockridge Institute, who rose to national prominence a few years back as the author of the book “Don’t Think of an Elephant.”

In that book and many other publications, Lakoff offers a compelling, science-based explanation of how conservatives have “reframed” the American public policy debate, along with a number of specific, common sense recommendations for how progressives can and ought to respond. During his brief stay in North Carolina, Lakoff provided a general overview of his findings and theories as well as a number of observations about the current national political scene. His talks seemed to be well-received by a pair of attentive and enthusiastic audiences that, together, numbered close to 400 people.

The present mess

Modern American progressives are, according to Lakoff, in a difficult fix. For too long, the answers to the questions posed above about what it means to be “progressive” have amounted to little more than a set of collective group shoulder shrugs. Especially during the last three or four decades, most progressives have been so deeply immersed in the day-to-day battles in front of them – for a more peaceful world, for civil rights, for a healthier environment, for economic justice, for scores of other individual causes – that they have neglected to tend to or articulate their core, unifying beliefs. This was not because such core beliefs didn’t or don’t exist, it was more a matter of benign neglect. It was as if the progressive armies went off to fight their battles while allowing the home fires to ebb and smolder.

Meanwhile, across the way, conservatives were taking a very different approach. Rather than dispensing troops to fight progressives on every specific policy front and issue area, the right has devoted enormous resources to building and tending a huge bonfire that it has constantly stoked with a few simple core ideas:

• The laissez faire “free” market is natural and, essentially, infallible.
• Any attempts by government to interfere with the market via taxes or regulation or to reward those not succeeding in the market (i.e. the poor) are morally wrong.
• Every individual is ultimately responsible for his or her own success or failure.
• It is the natural order of things for America to be led by a strong leader who will establish a system that rewards those who succeed in the market and punishes those who don’t.        
• Likewise, it’s natural for the United States to play a similar leadership role in world affairs.

Leaders of the right understood, says Lakoff, that if they delivered these unifying messages repeatedly, over a long enough period of time in a skillful enough way, they would lay the groundwork for the election of the leaders and adoption of the policy results they favored.

Unlike progressives, the right didn’t invest millions of dollars in a network of issue-specific, nonprofit advocacy groups that sought to convince policymakers about the inherent logic of their positions on every issue under the sun. Rather, leaders on the right invested big in a relative handful of “think tanks” that would continually bang the drum for a few core values while “framing” specific issue in terms of those values. Instead of immediately targeting specific policies, they invested in a communications capacity that helped them change the landscape in a way that their desired policies would come about naturally. 

The results, of course, are there for all to see. Like the proverbial frog in a slowly heated pot of water, Americans have sat idly by as the right has slowly but surely altered the basic terms of the discussion. Tell people that the “free market” is natural and infallible enough times and pretty soon even those who are harmed on a daily basis by such an extreme and absurd idea are saying it too. Tell people enough times that private actors are inherently more efficient than public actors and pretty soon you get for-profit prisons and roads and mental health systems. Tell people enough times that it is America’s destiny to rule the world and pretty soon you get the invasion and occupation of the Middle East.          

The scientific explanation

Lakoff ascribes the right’s success in reframing the American political debate to a combination of design and luck. On the one hand, the experience of corporate leaders in modern advertising techniques was essential. On the other hand, some political leaders – Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms (and even George W. Bush) simply understood intuitively how to use the skillful and repeated invocation of core values to bring about election and policy results.

Interestingly, however, what the right figured out from selling soap and listening to Ronald Reagan has actually been confirmed in the last 15 years or so in the laboratory.  Lakoff, of course, is not a policy wonk by trade by but a scientist. During his presentations this weekend, he explained how he and his colleagues and peers have confirmed through scientific experiments how humans think: namely in “frames.” According to Lakoff, much of the right’s success stems from the fact that they have helped alter the basic ways that Americans “frame” issues. By sheer repetition and skillful use of the language, the right has literally changed how many people perceive “common sense,” that is, the basic filter through which they run various individual issues and ideas.

In effect, Lakoff argues, the right understood and acted upon the fact that people do not act with the kind of disembodied rationality of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. They understood that emotion and feelings are an essential component of human rationality. Hence terms like “war on terror,” “pro-life,” and “free market” have been essential for helping the right to frame individual issues in a way that would appeal to a large number of Americans – even when, from a strictly rational point of view, the results were counter to the well-being of the majority. (You can obtain a much more thorough and coherent explanation of this research by checking out this summary of Lakoff’s book Thinking Points.)  

Getting back to basics

If there was any core message that emerged from Lakoff’s presentations it might be this: “It’s time for progressives to get back to basics.” While it remains important for progressive advocates to continue to work in each of their many specialized fields and sub-fields and to remain actively and pragmatically engaged in direct lobbying and electoral politics, it’s also critical for progressives to do a much better job of shaping the overall debate.

Ultimately, if American progressives are going to gain the upper hand in the day-to-day policy battles over the future of the country (and even the planet) it is essential that they move to assertively reframe the debate. Unless progressives actively engage with and, indeed, outdo the right when it comes to shaping what amounts to “common sense,” they will remain at a perpetual disadvantage. It is not enough to show over and over in meticulous detail the societal benefits of a progressive tax structure or a robust regulatory structure for food and drug inspections. Progressive must also connect these specific policy ideas to the naturally embedded (but often dormant) parts of the human psyche that favor empathy and cooperation. Lakoff argues that this approach lies at the heart of much of Barack Obama’s recent successes.

This is not mere “spin” or “messaging,” but the application of a real understanding of what real human rationality is all about. Humans are “hardwired” for these positive emotions, says Lakoff, just as they are for negative emotions like fear and selfishness. The genius of the right’s work over recent decades has been to beat progressives to the punch by successfully framing so many of the issues of the day in terms of these negative emotions.

So what are the implications for progressives? The answer, according to Lakoff, is clear. To successfully reframe the political debate, progressives must alter how they do their work. Most notably, we must make significant new investments in progressive think tanks capable of connecting specific issues to overarching ideas – about government’s essential role to protect and empower the citizenry, about the real role of the market in society and about human empathy and cooperation as the necessary predicates to freedom and liberty. Lakoff argues that progressives could construct such a new and improved infrastructure in as little as a year’s time. In the months ahead, it will be interesting to see if Lakoff’s message helps reshape what North Carolina progressives consider to be “common sense.”    

 

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Weekly Briefing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.