Book Review: "The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century American Politics With an 18th-Century Brain"

Review by Don Hanway

“The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century American Politics With an 18th-Century Brain”
Author: George Lakoff
Viking Penguin, 2008

If you have found the past seven years of American political life puzzling and frustrating—or if, on the other hand, you have been thrilled at how easily our current president has managed to establish the unitary executive under the rationale that we are a nation at war with terrorism—this book will help you understand how fundamental changes in the American system of government have been accomplished.

Lakoff’s earlier best-seller, “Don’t Think of an Elephant,” was the primer; this book is the advanced course, explaining not just what has been happening but how it has been engineered. More descriptive than prescriptive, this effort by the distinguished linguistics professor outlines the deeper structures of thought out of which people react reflexively and unconsciously in the political arena, rather than reflectively and deliberately based on assessment of the facts.

If you find fault with current presidential leadership primarily on grounds of questionable competence, think again: This president is the front man for a thorough program of changing the way Americans think; and that program is now well in place. Though this is unquestionably a partisan book, it is one that can be useful to both major parties as well as fringe groups seeking a hearing in the national conversation.

More clearly than anyone else I have read, Lakoff lays out the story line for a shift of power away from public ownership (the notion of the “commons,” or what belongs to all Americans) to corporate and private ownership, where economic success is seen as the sign of merit. The shift has been from a view of government’s function as that of a nurturant family protecting and empowering its members, to a view of government in a scary world as functioning best under a strict father who maintains discipline, and where the family’s role is to obey, not to question or share in governance.

Although I don’t recall that Lakoff mentions Walt Whitman, what Lakoff describes, and what we have witnessed, is nothing less than a dismantling of Whitman’s vision for America—a vision of democracy and individual freedom—replacing that with a program under strict government control, but transferring government functions designed to protect and empower the individual to private interests focused more on the profit motive than on the public interest.

Lakoff coins a word, “privateering,” to characterize this move toward privatization and profiteering at the public expense. In his words, “Privateering is a special case of privatization in which the capacity of government to carry out critical moral missions is systematically destroyed from within the government itself, while public funds are used to provide capital for private corporations to take over those critical functions of government and charge the public a great deal for doing so, while avoiding all accountability” (p. 132). Examples of such a transfer of functions to the private sector include product-safety monitoring, prisoner interrogation and security abroad (think Blackwater), disaster relief (think New Orleans) and oversight of the environment.

Such a major shift in American governance has been accomplished not by rational persuasion but by a constant reinforcement of the underlying message that morality means adherence to the dictates of the head of the family, because he is the one who keeps us safe. Such a preconscious, constantly reinforced message paints anyone who disagrees as disloyal, disobedient and hence immoral, thus explaining why arguing the facts isn’t enough. What is needed, Lakoff says, is for progressives to make their own case for morality based on government as a family that protects its citizens not by fiat but by looking out for their interests.

It occurs to me that Lakoff’s analysis squares with two other phenomena I have observed: that one sermon doesn’t usually accomplish much, while many sermons by the same preacher can do a great deal; and the split we are seeing in the Church between two views of God and the essential Christian message, one with God as strict father and judge, the other with God as caring parent, nurturing the family for mature participation.

One thing Lakoff cannot supply for the loyal opposition to current policies, and that is the courage to stand up and to persevere in framing an alternative moral message about the proper role of government and a return to Constitutional principles. So long as progressives continue to roll their eyes and roll over to the demands of the unitary executive, nothing will change, no matter how many facts are presented. What is needed is a moral argument, constantly repeated, and not only by political candidates. Lakoff can’t supply the will to do so, but he has supplied a roadmap out of the slough of despond.

There are some paragraphs in the book that a reader not fascinated by arcane details of cognitive science may want to skip over; some of these made my eyes glaze. Overall, though, this is the best book I’ve read to make sense out of what has been happening; and to others who read it, it may be potentially the most important book currently available on how change can happen. If you want more of the same, this tells you how to keep it going. If you feel, as I do, that we have very nearly lost our country, this tells you what we need to do about it.