Model Citizens and Demons -- from George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think (2002), pp.169-174
Conservative and liberal categories for moral action create for each moral system a notion of a model citizen -- an ideal prototype -- a citizen who best exemplifies forms of moral action. Conservative model citizens are often liberal demons, and conversely.
CONSERVATIVE MODEL CITIZENS

In the conservative moral worldview, the model citizens are those who best fit all the conservative categories for moral action. They are those (1) who have conservative values and act to support them; (2) who are self-disciplined and self-reliant; (3) who uphold the morality of reward and punishment; (4) who work to protect moral citizens; and (5) who act in support of the moral order.

Those who best fit all these categories are successful, wealthy, law-abiding conservative businessmen who support a strong military and a strict criminal justice system, who are against government regulation, and who are against affirmative action. They are the model citizens. They are the people whom all Americans should emulate and from whom we have nothing to fear. They deserve to be rewarded and respected.

These model citizens fit an elaborate mythology. They have succeeded through hard work, have earned whatever they have through their own self-discipline, and deserve to keep what they have earned. Through their success and wealth they create jobs, which they "give" to other citizens. Simply by investing their money to maximize their earnings, they become philanthropists who "give" jobs to others and thereby "create wealth" for others. Part of the myth is that these model citizens have been given nothing by the government and have made it on their own. The American Dream is that any honest, self-disciplined, hard-working person can do the same. These model citizens are seen by conservatives as the Ideal Americans in the American Dream.
 LIBERAL MODEL CITIZENS

Liberals have a very different notion of a model citizen, again generated by liberal moral categories. The ideal liberal citizen is socially responsible, and fits as many of the liberal moral categories as possible. The model liberal citizen (1) is empathetic; (2) helps the disadvantaged; (3) protects those who need protection; (4) promotes and exemplifies fulfillment in life; and (5) takes care of himself so he can do all this.

Model liberal citizens are those who live a socially responsible life: they include socially responsible professionals; environmental, consumer, and minority rights advocates; union organizers among impoverished and badly treated workers; doctors and social workers who devote their lives to helping the poor and the elderly; peace advocates, educators, artists, and those in the healing professions.

Interestingly, there does not seem to be any identifiable type in American life that is a model citizen in all of these ways. There have certainly been individuals who have been models in one or another of these ways, e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr., Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, John and Robert Kennedy, and, for many, Hillary Clinton.
CONSERVATIVE DEMONS

Correspondingly, conservatives have a demonology. Conservative moral categories produce a categorization of citizens-from-hell: anti-ideal prototypes. These nightmare citizens are those who, by their very nature, violate one or more of the conservative moral categories; and the more categories they violate, the more demonic they are.

CATEGORY I DEMONS: Those who are against conservative values (e.g., Strict Father morality). Feminists, gays, and other "deviants" are at the top of the list, since they condemn the very nature of the Strict Father family. Others are the advocates of multiculturalism, who reject the primacy of the Strict Father; postmodern humanists, who deny the existence of any absolute values; egalitarians, who are against moral authority, the moral order, and any other kind of hierarchy.

CATEGORY 2 DEMONS: Those whose lack of self-discipline has led to a lack of self-reliance. Unwed mothers on welfare are high on the list, since their lack of sexual self-control has led to their dependence on the state. Others are unemployed drug users, whose drug habit has led to their being unable to support themselves; able-bodied people on welfare-they can work and they aren't working, so (in this land of opportunity) they are assumed to be lazy and dependent on others.

CATEGORY 3 DEMONS: Protectors of the "public good." Included here are environmentalists, consumer advocates, advocates of affirmative action, and advocates of government-supported universal health care who want the government to interfere with the pursuit of self-interest and thus constrain the business activities of the conservatives' model citizens.

CATEGORY 4 DEMONS: Those who oppose the ways that the military and criminal justice systems have operated. They include antiwar protesters, advocates of prisoners' rights, opponents of police brutality, and so on. Gun control advocates are high on this list, since they would take guns away from those who need them to protect themselves and their families both from criminals and from possible government tyranny. Abortion doctors may be the worst, since they directly kill the most innocent people of all, the unborn.

CATEGORY 5 DEMONS: Advocates of equal rights for women, gays, nonwhite, and ethnic Americans. They work to upset the moral order.

LIBERAL DEMONS

There is, of course, as rich a liberal demonology as there is a conservative one. Those who violate categories I to 5 are the monsters of society.

CATEGORY I DEMONS: The mean-spirited, selfish, and unfair-those who have no empathy and show no sense of social responsibility. Wealthy companies and businessmen who only care about profit are at the top of the list, because of their power and political influence.

CATEGORY 2 DEMONS: Those who would ignore, harm, or exploit the disadvantaged. Union-busting companies are a classic example, as are large agricultural firms that exploit farm workers, say, by exposing them to poisonous pesticides and paying them poorly.

CATEGORY 3 DEMONS: Those whose activities hurt people or the environment. They include violent criminals and out-of-control police, polluters, those who make unsafe products or engage in consumer fraud, developers with no sense of ecology, and large companies that make extensive profits from government subsidies (e.g., mining, grazing, water, and lumber subsidies) by contributing to the coffers of politicians,

CATEGORY 4 DEMONS: Those who are against public support of education, art, and scholarship.

CATEGORY 5 DEMONS: Those who are against the expansion of health care for the general public.

 

Model Citizens and Demons -- from George Lakoff, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think (2002), as reprinted in: Persuasion Analysis | by Hugh Rank http://faculty.govst.edu/pa