9 - Metaphors in politics

Summary

Where we know we can make a difference in the future, we set out our stall for the people with confidence. Because now they are thinking, reflecting – do we go forward with Labour, or back to the Tories. Our task is to persuade them to go forward.

(Tony Blair, 2005, address to the Conference of the Labour Party, Gateshead)

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

(Barack Obama, 2008, “A More Perfect Union,” Philadelphia, PA)

Politics is about material needs and actions, repairing streets and bridges, educating children, protecting people from crime, war, and natural disaster, as well as about more abstract needs and values – freedom, justice, and dignity. Politics is also about the organization of social relationships, about power, influence, the balance between autonomy and community, about trade-offs between contradictory needs and values. All of this complexity is reflected, in political discourse, in the metaphors people use and the stories they tell.

In this chapter I will begin with a more detailed examination of the use of metaphors in Blair’s Gateshead speech and Obama’s Philadelphia speech. Then I will broaden the discussion to a more general consideration of conceptual and thematic metaphors that are widely used in political discourse. Finally I will review the findings of research on metaphors used in discourse about specific topics, including metaphors that have been used in discourse about local issues.