In an 'Age of Austerity,' How Scarce Resources Could Shape U.S. Politics {polarization}

[xchrom]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june12/ageofausterity_01-26.html

In a time of scarce resources, plans to cut deficits and reduce spending can develop into campaign issues. Judy Woodruff and Tom Edsall, a longtime Washington Post reporter who's now a New York Times columnist and journalism professor, discuss how austerity could shape and define American politics this election year and beyond.


***scarcity plays on our already polarized country.
conservatives are better at fighting & winning -- they are willing to fight for their team and win.

[Enrique]

1. this passage made me think of the new Springsteen song

But, actually, the idea that conservatives are willing to inflict harm is not necessarily a criticism. If you are in a fight, and you're fighting to protect what you have, being loyal to your own people is not necessarily a bad thing. If you and your family had to protect what your child is getting and what your husband and so forth -- if they face serious threats of lost goods, in effect, you're fighting for them, and, in fact, if that meant someone else had to get hurt, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

So to hear that as a fault is not really right, I don't think. It's a different value structure. Conservatives have a much stronger in-group sense and out-group sense. And they see the in group as one to be protected. You can see this in Congress, where they are protecting their tax cuts, they're protecting what they want.

And they see the out group as an adversary, which they are much more willing to cut benefits, for example, for poor people and for those who are not those within the conservative Republican constellation.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. "Conservatives have a much stronger in-group sense and out-group sense."

That's almost self-parodying. "Those people who are nothing like us in their tribalism and self-interest sure do work against our the interests of our tribe."