When Bush speaks of "values"

[SHRED]

What is that code for?

We can all asssume what he means but I wonder just what the hell he is talking about.

White, Christian, males...or what?

[livetohike]

1. I don't think he knows what he's talking about

His speeches are full of buzz words meant to illicit a positive reaction. The word "values" is one of them. That way everyone will apply their own meaning to the word and think that the President is one of them.

I haven't had enough cups of coffee yet this morning to think of other examples, but maybe some DU'ers will come up with some :-) .

[SHRED]

2. You said it:

"That way everyone will apply their own meaning to the word and think that the President is one of them."

You summed it up well with the above sentence. That's what I was looking for and just didn't quite have it.

:toast:

[TreasonousBastard]

8. I'd add to that...

that the "values" are wishful thinking. We all have our idealistic little perfect worlds that we would like to see.

I suspect the greatest difference between us and many on the the rightwing is that we know we will never see our perfect worlds, and are willing to accept small victories. They are deluded into thinking their "perfection" can and will happen.

[gWbush is Mabus]

3. racist, sexist, & homophobic

[deutsey]

4. George Lakoff has a lot to say about this

http://www.wwcd.org/issues/Lakoff.html

Snip

For me, one of the most poignant effects of the ignorance of metaphorical thought is the mystification of liberals concerning the recent electoral successes of conservatives. Conservatives regularly chide liberals for not understanding them, and they are right. Liberals don't understand how anti-abortion "right-to-life" activists can favor the death penalty and oppose reducing infant morality through prenatal care programs. They don't understand why budget-cutting conservatives should spare no public expense to build prison after prison to house even non-violent offenders, or why they are willing to spend extra money to take children away from their mothers and put them in orphanages --- in the name of family values. They don't understand why conservatives attack violence in the media while promoting the right to own machine guns. Liberals tend not to understand the logic of conservatism; they don't understand what form of morality makes conservative positions moral or what conservative family values have to do with the rest of conservative politics. The reason at bottom is that liberals do not understand the form of metaphorical thought that unifies and makes sense of the full range of conservative values.

Snip

If this analysis is right, or even close to right, then a great deal follows. Liberals do not understand what unifies their own worldview and so are helpless to deal effectively with conservatism. Not only is there no unified liberal political structure, but there is no overall effective liberal rhetoric to counter the carefully constructed conservative rhetoric. Where conservatives have carefully coined terms and images and repeated them until they have entered the popular lexicon, liberals have not done the same. Liberals need to go beyond coalitions of interest groups to consciously construct a unified language and imagery to convey their worldview. This will not be easy, and they are 30 years behind.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Seems like a good article...

that I'll have to be more awake to deal with.

Too early to get past "conceptual meataphors."

[porphyrian]

6. The price of oil that day? - n/t

[bryant69]

7. I think in part he's hoping

You will project whatever values you happen to have on that statement. So that it's a one size fits all campaign promise.

A Republican Conservative Christians hears values and thinks "that means he's going to keep the Gays from getting married and stuff."

A Republican Log Cabiner hears valuse and thinks "Well he's talking about the tolerance that should be the hallmark of the party of lincoln."

In theory at least. In practice, once you put the term in the context of what the party has done, well, the Log Cabiner is probably a lot further from what President Bush is thinking than the Religious conservative.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Warren DeMontague]

9. anti-choice, anti-gay...

...in other words, he's explaining to folks in the heartland-- folks who make less than $30K a year, or who are unemployed because their jobs were outsourced, who don't have health insurance, and whose kids are coming home from boxes in Iraq because that was the only way they could afford a college education, that he "shares their values".

[neebob]

10. Bush's values

= stupid beliefs that enable people like him to get richer and more powerful

[Warpy]

11. Ask any wingnut to define "family values"

Most often you'll be met with a stunned silence, or an "everybody knows what they are." Say that since the GOP has them and nobody else does, that he needs to define them. Beyond maundering about gay marriage (and feel free to say that gays can't be families yet, so that aint it), the smartest of the bunch usually come out with something like this: men are next to god, women and children are their property, to be discarded at will without support, as soon as they get shabby enough to be replaced with newer, younger models. Women are never to speak out or contradict a glorious male and to be sexually available at all times but still manage to be abstinent until marriage, a great trick. Children are sent from god and men have little responsibility for them. That's basically it, just more patriarchy and madonna/whore doublestandardism, no personal responsibility for men, and approval of serial polygamy for wealthy old men. That's why men are so likely to buy into the whole line of crap. It's a great deal for them.

That's really what is behind the buzzwords. Make a wingnut think about stuff like that in an attempt to define a few things, and you have a chance of making a wingnut think, period.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. He only values the haves and the have mores!

Anyone he can use!