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We prefer this explanation because it does not depend upon mass changes in parental visions. But
the particular mechanism underlying the historical change element of the story, is not crucial to
Lakoff’s theory, and we remain officially agnostic with regard to that. Rather, our empirical
models concentrate on examining the relationship between nurturance-discipline and
contemporary political attitudes across a variety of issue domains, leaving the historical elements
for others to ponder.
A third criticism of Lakoff’s theory is that it is too reductive. To be sure, we consider it
unlikely that ideological constraint could be easily explained by one or two variables. We can
imagine several alternate perspectives and hypotheses, which must also be given consideration --
particularly when their omission might lead to a spurious relationship between
nurturant/disciplinarian attitudes and political ideology. The first of these is the partisan learning
model, as already noted. This is particularly important, because it and Lakoff’s theory are not
mutually exclusive. Thus, without controlling for it, we would not be able to precisely assess the
degree to which nurturance-discipline contributes to ideological constraint, beyond that which
may be attributed to inherited partisanship.
Secondly, we must account for the story told by James Davidson Hunter, who has put
forward perhaps the most popular theory of the micro-foundations underlying the emergent
cultural divide in American politics. This account points to differences among citizens in the
degree to which they see morality as absolute or relative. Simply put, Hunter argues that the
“orthodox” -- those who see morality as absolute, unchanging and knowable through faith
(whether religious or otherwise) – are partial to political conservatism, while “progressives” --
those who see morality as context-driven, evolutionary, and dependent upon reason/scientific
understanding – are drawn toward political liberalism (Hunter 1991, 1994, Layman 2001). This is
quite different from Lakoff’s account, which portrays both liberals and conservatives as clinging
to absolute (albeit dramatically different) value systems. It should be noted that Hunter’s theory
of political change assumes a conflict displacement perspective rather than a conflict extension
Convention