Lakoff & Smith on the public moral vision

They have an extended article out today on the progressive value of the public. It is a moral vision that promotes mutual care and responsibility for each other instead of rank greed and egoism. Such a public vision is embodied in the nature of our government, whose job it is to enact that care by enabling the people to cooperatively build a better life for all. Such public policy manifests in building infrastructure like "roads and bridges, public schools, hospitals, a national bank, a patent office, police, a justice system, public buildings and records, sewers, clean water, public transportation, public health and disease control, scientific research, the internet, GPS, and energy grids." 


They reiterate that budgets are moral documents and examine the Ryan budget, what it does. I appreciate the framing of it as "Evil," because that's exactly what it is since it is antithetical to the public vision above. It's about dog-eat-dog, greed and selfishness, about getting mine and to hell with everyone else, and about further enriching and empowering those with all the money and power already while taking from the rest of us. It's quite a powerful statement and I encourage you to read it.