Slacking off with Lakoff

While browsing in Ninth St. Bookstore spilled coffee on George Lakoff's little book Don't Think of an Elephant!, and so bought the discolored volume and have been reading it. It's a series of essays, somewhat disjointed, mayhaps tossed together in a mighty haste to generate some bucks while it was potentially relevant and of interest: during the 2004 pres. election season. Boiled down to single sentence, it 1)discusses framing (interesting) and 2) attempts to explain U.S. politics in terms of voters' identifying with one of two family models - strict father or nurturant parent.
(interesting but not convincing)

What do family models have to do with national politics? Lakoff connects 'em by arguing that metaphorically, at least, the nation is viewed by most people as a family (good thing we've got hired help to deal with the budget). I don't know what evidence he bases that on... wait, here it is page 5: it was a paper written by one of his students that "showed we all have a metaphor for the nation as a family." So if you think his argument is good, you've gotta buy that bit of it as well, even if it's not so strong.