Conservative Language

George Lakoff wrote a post relatively recently about "new centrist" ideology, found here.

Essentially, Lakoff believes that there is no real "centrist" ideology. What we deem centrism is a mix of conservative and progressive ideologies on different and distinct issues, rather than a "centrist" view on all issues.

In any case, the most relevant part of his post to my topic is his discussion on the effect of language on the listeners' perception of the issues.

When a liberal moves to the center, he is by definition becoming more conservative. This could mean that he would be adopting more conservative policies, and would likely mean that he would be using more conservative language. According to Lakoff, the change in language use (away from the empathy based language of progressives towards the individualistic language of conservatives) causes the strengthening of the conservative worldview in the listeners, essentially promoting conservatism. This seems to be a mostly one-way street: whereas progressives do move to the center and adopt conservative language, conservatives have been trained not to use the language of liberals. The conservatives play and believe in the language game more than the progressives.

Obama is a centrist. However, he does seem to know how to play the language game, as he adopts both conservative and progressive language. How do you think his use of both conservative and progressive language will play out for him in the future?