GOP's Winning Frames -Lakoff

[Locrian]

9. the point is they are still getting their message out there:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/santorum-strategy_b_1338708.html

This is anything but an irrational position for radically conservative Republicans. Quite the contrary. It fits conservative moral logic -- the logic used by conservative populists, male for sure and for many women as well. In some respects it embodies the most powerful aspects of conservative moral logic, strengthening conservative moral logic in the minds not only of conservatives, but also of independents who have both conservative and progressive world views and swing between them.

Here's how that logic goes.

* The strict father determines what happens in the family, including reproduction. Thus reproduction is the province of male authority.

* The strict father does not condone moral weakness and self-indulgence without moral consequences. Sex without reproductive consequences is thus seen as immoral.

* If the nation supports birth control for unmarried women, then the nation supports immoral behavior.

The conservative stress on individual responsibility means that you and no one else should have to pay for your birth control -- not your employer, your HMO, or the taxpayers.

* Having to pay for your birth control also has a metaphorical religious value -- paying for your sins.



That is what makes conservative moral logic into such a powerful instrument. And conservative and independent women can be pragmatic about the birth control details, while accepting the moral logic as a whole.

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