Democrats for a Republican Hegemony

This analysis may not get the Dems as much success at the voting booths as they'd like, and it seems to be a prety popular one. Marc Cooper in The Atlantic reviews George Lakoff's "Don't Think Like an Elephant":

Lakoff makes it simple to assume this smug, self-aggrandizing posture, arguing that "the two different views of the nation" -- conservative versus progressive -- reflect two basic kinds of American families. Those who vote conservative, he says, are proponents of authoritarian "strict-father families," which emphasize self-interest, greed, and competitiveness. These are families that "are against nurturance and care," favor corporal punishment, and have a propensity to follow the teachings of the Christian-right ideologue James Dobson. Progressives, meanwhile, reflect a "gender-neutral [and] nurturant parent model," which values "freedom," "opportunity," and "community building," and which protects its children against crime, drugs, "cars without seat belts," smoking, and "poisonous additives in food," while adhering to the teachings of the Dali Lama. Yes, there are many conflicted people in the middle, the so-called "biconceptuals," who are a meld of the two family types, Lakoff says. And they, like the uniconceptual daddy worshippers, must be persuaded to let their better, more liberal angels dominate.

Couldn't be simpler, then: redneck, chain-smoking, baby-slapping Christers desperately in need of some gender-free nurturing and political counseling by organic-gardening enthusiasts from Berkeley.

THAT should bring 'em to the polls in droves.

There seems to be a faction of Democrats and their sympathizers who need to attribute their Republican rivals' political beliefs to deep-seated emotional flaws. They came out of the woodwork during Reagan's presidency: Reagan's belief in freedom from government, of individual responsibility, and of standing up to the Soviets was widely touted by Dems as products of his having grown up in a disfunctional family, with an alcoholic father. The suggestion was that to explain was to dismiss. Of course the Republicans aren't a lot different- just listen to some of them denouncing their un-favorite Dems.

Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily for the tip.