This Liberal Moment (SM) draws from "Whose Idea of Freedom Will Shape America's Future?" by George Lakoff and from the systems thinking concept of freedom. See Handout.

There's an uncontested core on which there's agreement about freedom:

• physical freedom - government protects ability to move freely
• economic freedom - protects pursuit of "happiness," reach goals
• political freedom - of expression, to choose the government

What is contested:
The definition of what's an imposition on the freedom of others.

Lakoff argues that the conservative notion of what's an imposition derives from their "strict father" worldview.

Issue	Conservative	Liberal
Worldview	"Strict father"	"Nuturing parent"
Poverty	Giving people things they haven’t earned creates dependency and robs people of their freedom. And it robs resources from others.	Social security, a minimum wage, universal health care, & college for all are ways to guarantee freedom from want.
Economic	Economic liberty comes through the free market; government works against economic liberty in four ways: regulation, workers’ rights, taxes, & class action lawsuits	Protect freedom from want. Health of 45M workers without health insurance, freedom to earn a decent wage.
Religion	Freedom to practice religion for fundamentalist evangelicals means spreading the truth of the gospel ... implies school prayer, "under God" in the Pledge, Ten Commandments in courthouses, and teaching Intelligent Design.	Freedom of religion includes freedom from having a religion imposed on you and favored by government.
Civil Liberties	Bush’s spying on citizens without a warrant is protecting the freedom of citizens.	Bush’s spying on citizens without a warrant is a violation of freedom.
Marriage	"Freely elected" government officials determine who can marry whom. That’s what a "free country" means.	There should be a freedom to marry. The government should not decide who can marry whom.

And conservatives see government as an interference in the ability to make money and therefore a restriction of freedom. Then again, this neglects the need for support of the "commons" and that no one makes money without it. And it's also a matter of who's to be protected.

"Interference"	Conservative	Liberal
Regulation	Restricts freedom to make money.	Public protection; freedom from harm
Workers’ rights	Takes money out of employers pockets. Imposes costs on the market.	Worker Protection of current & future worker security & income: safety, OT, pensions, workmen's comp
Taxes	Restrict freedom to keep money earned and to earn more. Undermines economic incentive.	Protect individual freedom to earn by protecting and providing the commons (infrastructure: roads, courts, police, fire protection, banking, SEC for stock market)
Class action lawsuits	Frivolous lawsuits are theft of freedom of action and to retain earnings	Protect groups of individual from harm
Environment	Regulations restrict businesses' freedom to use property, private and public for profit.	Protects the freedom to enjoy the commons that's vital to us all and health from water & air pollution
Trade protectionism	Restricts freedom to trade for profit. Protecting intellectual property protects freedom to earn from invention.	Secures national economic independence & freedom. Protects worker freedom to earn a decent wage.