November 16, 2004 :: Lakoff Class [Meta-note.. i'm not entirely thrilled to be thinking about politics... trying to keep notes but i admit lack of energy.] Questions? Jokes about moving to Canada... Lawsuits have begun in Ohio. Student: "I'm convinced that Kerry will win but Bush will be President." Lakoff: "What is important about that? It's important that there is a serious attempt to change the system." - Need a strategy to change the electoral college system - Up against folks who bought their Diebold machines Barbara Ehrenreich in The Nation - Lakoff ideas + acknowledge what the conservative right has done by integrating social welfare into their churches... faith based dollars. Churches are doing the work of Democratic government. Meals, job training... much bigger... get sucked into religious bit. To ask them to reject any affiliation means that they lose social structure. Liberal churches need to be organized. In Berkeley, religion schools are doing this. Need serious spokesman List time... What would be needed to do this? Intellectually - an understanding of liberal theology and its relationship to politics. Appropriate writings. Connections to the Jesus movement (figure out if there was a historical Jesus, how you can attribute parts of the Bible to that person... scholarship is very nurturant there). In that tradition, have a language... language of liberal Christianity. Need a history. Have the guy to do it... young scholar in Chicago, written extensively about the 1850s-1920s movement of nurturant Christianity. This was a major movement that was driven out by the fundamentalists. Revival/renewal of that... Organizing - these churches do not currently have organizers Community Service - part of liberal christianity is community service - includes child-rearing counter to Dobson, courses training, books, radio/tv programs, websites, etc. - service systems for the poor Politics - Theology and its relationship to politics It is people in the Progressive Christian community that need to organize this way. (Onus not on non-Christians who don't identify with this, although they can help.) This is a large extensive movement where the other folks have given us a blueprint. These are the requirements/functions that need to be served. If you're not religious, you still have plenty you can do. Government is a protector of America and Americans... this is not simply playing into the right but recognizing that there are similarities. Have to talk about investment in people. Talk about the moral as well as business functions of government. In addition to what government should/can do, ... we have a moral mission, a spiritual practice. This is a supplement to government. Value is in the action. Part of spiritual practice. No Child Left Behind - Hidden goals that aren't articulated publicly: produce a conservative education system with a conservative morality... conservative ideology. - Two tier education system that fits the two-tier economy. Legislators are moving far far far to the "right" - how do we stop this? Lakoff will be addressing the Democratic caucus - move the right: you shoot yourself in both feet - shouldn't fight for what you believe... set values/principles that people can believe Should the government ever be involved in the most important issue in people's lives? (marriage) Country that values and considers sacred love and commitment. i value this - do you? Abortions have gone up under Bush - need a true pro-life agenda... do you really want a culture where babies die because they don't have prenatal care? Rape victims - want a wedge issue that protects victims of rape and incest - i don't think that any rape victim should have to bear the child of her rapist. do you? They're going to propose a national sales tax. What positive defensive thing to do we do? How do we characterize this as immoral? - convince the younger generation that they're paying for the older (no one falls for that) - father against son is sinful in this country Flat tax - flat tire economy, flat on your back Since 1980, the amount of wealth held by the top 2% has doubled (something like 20%->40%) - that picture has to be burned into folks' brains - work creates wealth Baby Tax, Saudi Tax (at the gas pump) Entitlement Reform - umbrella of all of these new initiatives their argument: getting rid of entitlements... reframe: they are making America economically weak and redistributing wealth towards the rich... taxing the working rather than the indolent elite Major social problem: agism... we don't have this discussion. What do people in their 50s do after outsourcing? Outsourcing is a fact. It's part of trade policy, part of overall wealth. The argument that needs to be made is that the best way of dealing is education. Having your workforce be so good that you have to be here. Economics from of outsourcing doesn't talk about culture, environment, ecology, etc. The culture is being destroyed when America is playing God with other country's economies. Culture, individuals here and beyond. Collective is considered far more than individuals. You need an ecology of jobs. What happens to craftsmanship (no one able to make a dress, door knocker)? What happens when you need simple programming (like the Little League) here? No sense of an ecology of skill... skill is not seen as a measurable thing in the economy. There's no sense of ecology of culture or human worth. Political Will. Frame political will in terms of what the Republicans do. Wednesday morning meetings. Have an agenda, argue it out, and in the end, everyone supports it. Strategic moves towards framing -> think long term. Harry Reid -> Morman who has put through lots of environment bills by being able to talk to the right wing.. he may be pro-life but is very liberal... from Nevada with 80% approval. New Senate Minority Leader. (Whip: Dick Durbin - announced today). Durbin is brilliant and is a good spokesperson. Reid is good at making deals. Both have lots of hope and aren't going to roll over dead. Yay for good team! 1. Framing system. 2. Framing of truth. - lots of truths that cannot be understood unless they are framed properly (i.e. global warming, peak oil) Values make truths important... distinguish between relevant and non-relevant truths You can't reframe locally. Need to tax play more than work... leisure income [Devolve into discussion about Perot and 1992] Clinton is a pragmatist - he was actually good with language - got rid of the big government frame from the right by declaring it over... he took that away because he knew that wasn't what they were about - radical actions were a disaster: health care, gays in the military - they went with incrimentalism... unfortunately, didn't add up to a vision that people understood... just a list of things - he assumed people were voting with self-interest, that this is the best that he could do [Framing systems - class projects discussion] Global Gag Rule. Estate Tax. Remember that it is only Western culture that thinks individuals first... many cultures think family first. When you're dealing with estate tax, you challenge the family from both the conservative and the immigrant frames. Metaphorical ideas around legacy.. Faulkner's legacy to the South. What legacy do we want to leave behind? Legacy is good. Memory, value, significance. Value someone who leaves you a legacy, value that legacy. To take it away is to take away the value of what they worked for and their identity as a good person. 3-6 December 1, 3-6 December 2