The talk of change is all around. We are seeing its potential in the transition from one president to the next. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of change that will rekindle the ideas of our founding fathers and their desire for liberty and justice for all.

Here is one more look at where we have been, but is is followed by a look at where we could be going with this change.

The following quotes from Senator, now President-elect, Barack Obama provide his perspective on what has gone wrong under the rule of Conservatives Without Conscience. He refers often to our empathy deficit brought to us by our authoritarian leaders and followers within The Republican Party.

In June 2006, at the Northwestern University Commencement Address, Obama said:

… for me the first lesson of growing up:

The world doesn’t just revolve around you. There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit – the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us – the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.

A month later Senator Barack Obama Urges Students to Reverse ‘Empathy Deficit’:

Obama also railed against what he called an “empathy deficit,” which he said blinds many to the plight of struggling members of society. He urged students to put themselves in the shoes of the despondent and downtrodden, adding that true personal fulfillment only comes through working towards the public good.

In January 2008, Obama spoke on The Great Need of the Hour:

I’m not talking about a budget deficit. I’m not talking about a trade deficit. I’m not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.

I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

We have an empathy deficit when we’re still sending our children down corridors of shame – schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education.

Because if Dr. King could love his jailor; if he could call on the faithful who once sat where you do to forgive those who set dogs and fire hoses upon them, then surely we can look past what divides us in our time, and bind up our wounds, and erase the empathy deficit that exists in our hearts.

More recently, President-Elect Obama reframed the empathy deficit in his nomination acceptance speech:

For over two decades, he’s [John McCain] subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy – give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is – you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don’t have boots. You’re on your own.

Others have also written about the authoritarian conservative rule of our federal executive and legislative branches of government and the history of this empathy deficit. John Dean (referenced frequently in this blog) wrote Conservatives Without Conscience (or Empathy) in which he writes about what has happened to the Republican party and the authoritarians that are responsible.

In another more recent book, The Political Mind by George Lakoff, Professor Lakoff explains the how and why Republican authoritarians gained control. In doing so, Lakoff also provides an understanding of the mind and how it changes, how to avoid falling into empathy deficit traps of the conservative mind set and how to rekindle your empathy and promote a progressive mind set.

Dr. Lakoff, professor of cognitive linguistics at UC Berkeley, hopes that we will learn to recognize the “conservative cognitive policy” that has plagued our country for decades and replace it with a “progressive cognitive policy” based on empathy for our fellow humans. Lakoff defines cognitive policy as “getting an idea into the normal public discourse.”

This conservative ‘you’re on your own’ public discourse, which has been promoted through an “explicit, well organized, and well funded” conservative (non-caring) cognitive policy, has attempted to:

• Replace medicare and social security with private medical and retirement accounts
• Replace public schools with school vouchers
• Replace progressive taxes, which impose higher taxes on those who benefit most from America’s infrastructure, with a Flat tax for the rich
• Use big government to attack social programs from within
• Use profit oriented private contractors to replace the protection and empowerment provided via our government
• Use the bad apple frame to transfer responsibility from those in charge to those placed in the bad barrel

Lakoff also writes of his hopes of replacing the empathy deficit with responsible and strong empathetic actions. Lakoff hopes a progressive cognitive policy will grow to support the “change we need.” This “conscious” change includes realizations that:

• “… empathy is at the heart of American democracy” and “ecological consciousness.” Empathy is caring “about fundamental human rights,” caring “about protecting our people in all ways,” caring “about empowerment of both individuals and businesses” and caring “about checks and balances against authoritarian power.”
• The moral base of progressive thought is the “politics of empathy, with the responsibility and strength necessary to act on that empathy.”
• Conservative politics is based on “authority, discipline and obedience”
• “The question of whether American politics should be based on empathy or authority will not disappear.” Both mindsets will continue to exist but both will be understood.
• “… there is no right-to-left line between progressive and conservative views …” There is a conservative strong-father mode of thought and a progressive nurturant mode of thought which can be mixed in varying proportions depending on one’s life experiences.
• “… nurturant upbringing is far better for children – and society …”
• “Advocates of strict father upbringing … would be recognized as being harmful to children.”
• Progressives would learn to “avoid using frames [and words or phrases] that best fit the other side’s values …”
• Progressive foreign policy will be focused “on people, not just states …”
• “Kinds of common wealth – the air, the airwaves, the rivers, streams, and aquifers, the oceans, the national forests – would be recognized as more valuable preserved than used and as property owned by all and kept in trust, with permits for use sold at auction and caps placed on pollution and reasonable use.”
• “Privateering would be a recognizable conservative strategy. … Deregulation and privatization would be understood not as elimination of government, but as a shift from … public government with a moral mission (protection and empowerment) to private government with only the mission of maximizing profits.”
• “Taxes would be seen as payment for both continuing protection and empowerment [by government].”
• “The immorality of the vast divide between the ultra-wealthy and the middle and lower classes would be manifest.”
• “Health would be seen as a matter of protection [like the military, police and EMTs], not insurance.”
• “Education would be seen as a matter of empowerment [like highways, the internet, banking system and the courts].”
• “Accountability would flow upward – toward those in charge, not downward to those who are powerless or subordinate.”

After detailing the above points in the last chapter of The Political Mind, George Lakoff concludes with:

… A new understanding is emerging about what it means to be human. Our political institutions and practices reflect our collective self-understanding. When that changes dramatically, so should our politics.

But, we’d better hurry up. The ice caps are melting.

If you would like to learn more about changing minds, there are many articles by and videos with George Lakoff available on the web. You can also visit The RockRidge Institute and the new Cognitive Policy Works. A related book you might also find of interest is Cracking the Code by Thom Hartmann.

The following was written by Mary Vogas and is the first in her series to discuss issues with the authoritarian membership of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE).

It’s time to get involved  so our children will be taught sound science principles in the schools in Texas!  The countdown is in its final moments!  The Texas State Board of Education will be meeting in Austin on Nov. 18 – 21, 2008.  They will be looking at the science curriculum standards for Texas public schools.  The last time changes were made in the  science standards was a decade ago. 

The SBOE will be deciding if sound science will be replaced by political and religious beliefs.  That’s because some members of the SBOE are hung up on ideology that evolution is just about humans and apes.  But in biology, evolution refers to changes in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next.  The science community has spoken that biological evolution is a fact and has been proven.  There are over 100,000 published biological research studies that state that evolution is a fact.  Even Pope Benedict XVI has said that evolution can coexist with faith.  What has not been proven is how it occurs.  So the fact that evolution occurs has nothing to do with whether you believe that God created life on earth or not.  That is the “how” that science has not proven, and scientists do not suggest that they have.  If the SBOE rules that evolution is not a fact and classrooms around the state start teaching that erroneous concept, we will produce students indoctrinated with incorrect science principles!  It is a priority to some of the SBOE members to weaken teaching evolution as a fact.  We need to listen to professionals when updating our science curriculum, not lay people that use their own ideas to decide what Texas students will be taught!

The textbooks that would be forthcoming would be filled with wrong information!  And, as you know, the textbooks that Texas buys will be bought in many other parts of the country.  Texas could be  the cause of our whole nation going down the wrong path in science!  We are already lagging in comparison to other countries in science test scores; so think where we will be if these changes are made!

What happens in Texas will reshape what happens in the rest of the country.  So, get up and and get involved now before we have to wait another 10 years to undo the mess that will be upon us from the SBOE! 

Public testimony will be held on November 19. 
Register to testify.
Review the science standards on which you will be testifying.

The primary effort of this blog, with the help of John Dean, Robert Altemeyer, Shadia Drury, Philip Zimbardo and many others, has been about our close call with becoming a single-party state under the likes of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and other conservatives without conscience. This history has spanned almost 40 years and has been described relative to the Executive and Legislative branches of our federal government. It has been about a minority of the Republican Party that is strongly authoritarian; born-again white evangelicals lead by neocons that favor preemptive continuous war, fear mongering and rule by the unitary bully pulpit. It has been about what has happened and could have happened under the rule by this totalitarian minority.

Now that the nation has reached a major turning point, I will be taking this blog around that corner away from the “you’re on your own” me society toward a more empathetic society where a limited federal government empowers and protects its citizens from various abusive power brokers including big business and big government.

As we turn, I will do my best to explain why the authoritarians are who they are and what we can learn from them to replace their conservative infrastructure with a new progressive one. The conservatives have spent almost 40 years building this infrastructure and progressives have just laid a foundation for building theirs. Are we ready to build on this foundation?

“This [presidential] victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change.” – President Elect Barack Obama, 11/4/08.

Jim normally provides the postings under Bad Deeds. Now, however, he is trying to prevent future bad deeds from the Texas State Board of Education:

Would you like to be part of a statewide grassroots network of mainstream Texans who believe all students deserve a 21st-century science education?

Here are two ways you can support sound science in the classroom:

1. Sign the Stand Up for Science petition and help spread the message that cynical politicians should stop promoting a phony conflict between science and faith.

2. Join the TFN Stand Up for Science Response Team. The Texas Freedom Network (TFN) will notify you how and when to take action to support sound science. There are opportunities to testify at a State Board of Education meeting, become a postcard captain, write a blog entry, and much, much more. You make a difference by reminding people that we can do best for our kids and honor the faith of all Texans by teaching sound science in science classrooms and leaving personal religious views to our families and churches.

Regards,

Jim

McCain Supporter Turns Away Children of Obama Supporters During Trick-or-Treat - Shirley Nagel of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan gave out treats Friday evening, but only to those who share her support of John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin. A sign posted outside Nagel’s house, about 12 miles west of Detroit, served notice to all trick-or-treaters. It read: “No handouts for Obama supporters, liars, tricksters or kids of supporters.” Nagel said that “Obama’s scary.” When asked about children who’d been turned away empty-handed and crying, she said: “Oh well. Everybody has a choice.”

When they’re like that, one is all you need (or can stand).

Regards,

Jim