From George Lakoff, The Political Mind (2008), pp. 47-48:
[Boldface added for emphasis by editor]

"Behind every progressive policy lies a single moral value: empathy, together with the responsibility and strength to act on that empathy. Never forget "responsibility and strength," because there is no true empathy without them.

"During the conservative reign we have seen what Barack Obama has called an empathy deficit—a failure to care, both about others and each other. Caring is not just feeling empathy; it is taking responsibility, acting powerfully and courageously. You have to be strong to care, and to act on that care with success.

"The ethics of care shapes government. Care requires that government have two intertwined roles: protection and empowerment.

"Protection is more than just the army, police, and fire department. It means social security, disease control and public health, safe food, disaster relief, health care, consumer and worker protection, environmental protection.

"Empowerment by the government is everywhere: highways and bridges, so you can go where you want to go and ship products; the Internet and satellite communications, to keep you in contact with the world; public education, to open the world up to you and to provide skilled workers to business; the banking system, to allow bank loans, whether you're buying a house or your company is buying another company; the SEC, to allow the stock market to function; the court system, to enforce contracts and protect patents. Nobody makes a dime in this country without being empowered by our government. There are no self-made men or women. It's a myth!

"The role of progressive government is to maximize our freedom—and protection and empowerment do just that. Protection is there to guarantee freedom from harm, from want, and from fear. Empowerment is there to maximize freedom to achieve your goals.

"Progressive government is, or should rightly be through protection and empowerment, the guarantor of liberty. That is what a life-affirming government is about."