in high numbers for whatever they're told to. In fact, they care too much.
As for what they're caring about politically at the moment, sure, we know that changes. Most CONSERVATIVE Trump evangelicals (not others) tend to be strong authoritarians. Politically, they care about what their leaders tell them to care about. May be temporary, but when the directive's issued they're all in.
Getting millions of voters whose natural orientation is a strong passion for social/cultural issues to care big time about national debt was a huge victory for the Repubs' anti-tax/anti-regulation billionaires. But for a while, the Tea Party rebellion cared a LOT, were True Believers on crusade. The passion didn't sustain because in their guts, like the one W bragged about bypassing his brain to consult, the majority were progressive conservatives who wanted big government programs.
For those who haven't read it, a far more frightening reality than most think they know about ardent trumpster-type evangelicals is outlined in Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians, maintained free on line as a public service. It's as entertaining as a best-selling humorous thriller, but research since has validated and built on what Dr. Altemeyer's research revealed. It's a short book but has a whole chapter full of insights on religious fundamentalists.
And scarier still, there's also one on authoritarian leaders, who make their potentially murderous followers look downright nice in comparison, with many of today's easily identified examples. When them in power, "it" really is happening here, at least it has on the right.
When I say authoritarian followers are aggressive I don’t mean they stride into bars and start fights. First of all, high RWAs go to church enormously more often than they go to bars.
Secondly, they usually avoid anything approaching a fair fight. Instead they aggress when they believe right and might are on their side. “Right” for them means, more than anything else, that their hostility is (in their minds) endorsed by established authority, or supports such authority. “Might” means they have a huge physical advantage over their target, in weaponry say, or in numbers, as in a lynch mob.
It’s striking how often authoritarian aggression happens in dark and cowardly ways, in the dark, by cowards who later will do everything they possibly can to avoid responsibility for what they did. Women, children, and others unable to defend themselves are typical victims.
Even more striking, the attackers typically feel morally superior to the people they are assaulting in an unfair fight. We shall see research evidence in the next chapter that this self-righteousness plays a huge role in high RWAs’ hostility.
Believe it or not, researchers are not allowed to organize murderous mobs to study hostility. So we have to study authoritarian aggression in subtler ways. For example: ...
https://www.theauthoritarians.org/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxxylK6fR81rckQxWi1hVFFRUDg/view
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