THEY WON'T GET ANY SMARTER LISTENING TO THIS GUY:

Bush puts his own spin on 'freedom': Left's mainstay word recast in economic terms, analyst says (Joe Garofoli, January 21, 2005, SF Chronicle)

While progressives were turning their backs during George W. Bush's inaugural address Thursday, the president laid claim to one of their metaphorical mainstays: the meaning of "freedom," a word he mentioned 26 times in his 21-minute speech.

In Bush's parlance, "freedom" has been recast largely as "economic freedom," a political shift that could damage liberals already searching for a cohesive message, analysts said.

"What he's done is take over the old progressive language of 'freedom' and redefined it without explicitly saying it -- only with code words -- in terms of a conservative worldview," said UC Berkeley linguistics Professor George Lakoff. "Those people who've got that worldview will understand the code words."

In Lakoff's decoding of Thursday's address, "freedom" meant "unfettered economic markets." Same goes for phrases such as "ownership society" and "the governing of the self." They're conservative shorthand for believing that the government should not be regulating business."Conservatives have been masterful at this, but they've been working on it for 35 years, while progressives have just been standing by," Lakoff said.

What is unfettered about a Social Security program that allows you a narrow range of options for money the government requires be withheld from your paycheck?

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 21, 2005 7:38 PM