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Two Questions About Trump and RepublicansThat Stump ProgressivesBy George LakoffProgressives are stumped. They are asking two questions over and overon social media as well as on tv and radio.1) Why don't Trump supporters turn against Trump even though he is doing things that hurt them? (like taking away their healthcare)?2) Why do Republicans hate the Affordable Healthcare Act, and why are they so transparently acting to give wealthy people a tax break by making healthcare unaffordable?Let’s start with where the questions come from. As neuroscience teaches us, most thought (as much as 98% by some accounts) is unconscious, carried out by neural circuitry that we have no conscious access to. This leads to two basic ideas that are an implicit, often unconscious, part of progressive thought, though not often discussed openly these days. In Lincoln’s words, the American government is, or should be, of, by, and for the people.Citizens care about other citizens work through their government to provide public resources for all — resources required for the well-being and freedom of all. They imply just about all of progressive policies. With a government of the people, those in the government are not separated from those outside. There is two way communication and transparency, and response to the people’s concerns.With a government by the people, those in the government have the same basic experiences as those outside. The government therefore responds with empathy to the basic needs of its citizens.A government for the people cares for its citizens and gives necessary help as a matter of course. There is no democracy without care.The second principle has been implicit in American democracy from the start, and applied both to private enterprise and private life. Most people are now, and were then, in business. The public resources used by businesses were not only roads and bridges, but public education, a national bank, a patent office, courts for business cases, interstate commerce support, and of course the criminal justice system. From the beginning, the Private Depended on Public Resources, both private lives and private enterprise. In private life, the public resources include protection — not just a military and police, but protection from harm by unscrupulous corporations either by poisoning products, the air, water, etc. or by unscrupulous banks, mortgage holders, and investors. There protections are carried out by “regulations” — protective laws and agencies.Over time those resources have included sewers, water and electricity, research universities and research support: computer science (via the NSF), the internet (ARPA), pharmaceuticals and modern medicine (the NIH), satellite communication (NASA and NOOA), and GPS systems and cell phones (the Defense Department). Private enterprise and private life utterly depend on public resources. Not on “the government.” But on “the public.” What these public resources provide is freedom: freedom to start and run a business, and freedom in private life. You’re not free if you are not educated; your possibilities in life are limited. You’re not free if you have cancer and no health insurance. You’re not free if you have no income — or not enough for basic needs. And if you work for a large company, you may not be free without a union. Unions free you from corporate servitude — free you to have a living wage, safety on the job, regular working hours, a pension, health benefits, dignity. It should be clear that most progressive policies follow from these basic, largely implicit and unconscious, principles. When we state them consciously and overtly, we can see where questions (1) and (2) come from. Why should Trump voters support him when his government does not supply necessary care, when it can hurt them deeply, threatening their health and possibly their lives by, say, taking away their health care? Why should Republicans, who are Americans after all, hate the Affordable Care Act, which was for the people, and which supply care of the most essential kind — health and often life itself — for tens of millions of Americans? From a progressive point a view, questions (1) and (2) are mysterious, especially when you ask them together. What do they have to do with each other — support for a Trump who harms them and hate for government care?One Answer to Both QuestionsAll Politics Is Moral. When a political leader proposes a policy, the assumption it that the policy is right, not wrong or morally irrelevant. No political leader says, “Do what I say because it’s evil. It’s the devil’s work, but do it!” Nor will a political leader say, “My policy proposal is morally irrelevant. It’s neither right nor wrong. It doesn’t really matter. Just do it.”When political leaders have opposing policies that means they have opposing moral worldviews. Why do voters vote their values?Everyone likes to think of himself or herself as a good person. That means that your moral system is a major part of your identity — who you most deeply are. Voting against your moral identity would be a rejection of self.That is why poor conservatives vote against their material interests. They are voting for their moral worldviews to dominate, and for respect for their values. To vote against them would be to vote against their own identity, to vote against yourself, in the deepest sense.What Are Conservative Moral Values?In my 1996 book, Moral Politics (now in a 2016 3rd edition), I pointed out with myriad examples that political values tend to arise from the fact that we are all first governed in our families, and so the way that your ideal family is governed is a model for the ideal form of government. This is often a matter of how your real family is governed, though some people rebel and adopt an opposite ideal. I argue there that conservative moral values arise from the values of the strict father family (with variations discussed below).In the strict father family, father knows best. He knows right from wrong and has the ultimate authority to make sure his children and his spouse do what he says, which is taken to be what is right. Many conservative spouses accept this worldview, uphold the father’s authority, and are strict in those realms of family life that they are in charge of.When his children disobey, it is his moral duty to punish them painfully enough so that, to avoid punishment, they will obey him (do what is right) and not just do what feels good. Through physical discipline they are supposed to become disciplined, internally strong, and able to prosper in the external world. What if they don’t prosper? That means they are not disciplined, and therefore cannot be moral, and so deserve their poverty. This reasoning shows up in conservative politics in which the poor are seen as lazy and undeserving, and the rich as deserving their wealth. Responsibility is thus taken to be personal responsibility not social responsibility. What you become is only up to you; society has nothing to do with it. You are responsible for yourself, not for others, who are responsible for themselves.The Moral HierarchyThe strict father logic extends further. The basic idea is that authority is justified by morality (the strict father version), and that, in a world ordered by nature, there should be (and traditionally has been) a moral hierarchy in which those who have traditionally dominated should dominate. The hierarchy is: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, America above other countries.Men above women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above non-Christians, Straights above Gays. On the whole, conservative policies flow from the strict father worldview and this hierarchy. Trump is an extreme case (he wants to be the ultimate strict father), though very much in line with conservative policies of the Republican party.Answering the Two QuestionsWhy don't Trump supporters turn against Trump even though he is doing things that hurt them? (like taking away their healthcare)?Most Trump supporters have strict father moral values that determine their sense of right and wrong. Since they see themselves as doing what they see as right, or trying to, those values define their very identity — who they most deeply are. They see themselves as the true Americans and their values as fundamental American values. Under Presidents Clinton and especially President Obama, they felt oppressed since the country was being run according to values that contradicted their very identities and their view of what was right. They see Trump as bringing America back to their values in a powerful way, making their values respectable and in line with the way the country is being run. Trump’s presidency has given them self-respect. Their self-respect is more important than the details of his policies, even if some of those policies might hurt them. On the whole, they like the way he has restructured the government and what is being done throughout the government. Why do Republicans hate the Affordable Healthcare Act, and why are they so transparently acting to give wealthy people a tax break by making healthcare unaffordable?Strict father morality insists on self-responsibility. Being taken care of by the government is seen as immoral, making people dependent and giving the government an authority above strict father principles. The care of the Affordable Care Act in itself violated the moral sense and the very identity of conservatives. Of course they would hate it.Moreover, the Affordable Care Act attempted to help people lower on the conservative Moral Hierarchy: the poor, African-Americans and other minorities, women, and so on.The Mandate to buy insurance went directly against self-responsibility over all, giving Americans responsibility for their fellow Americans. It also went against the Laissez-faire free market, putting constraints on insurance companies. Why a tax break for the rich? Because, in the conservative Moral Hierarchy, the rich are better than the poor. The poor are lazy. They rich deserve to be rewarded. From the conservative world view, it is natural for Republicans to hate the Affordable Health Care Act. The Importance of UnderstandingThis paper is not just about the two questions. The two questions provided an opportunity to write about moral bases of progressive and conservative thought — both progressive and conservative. At a time when the country is tearing itself apart, when progressives and conservative each see the other as immoral and un-American and as attacking what is right, it is useful, as a start, at least to understand why this is happening. ................
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