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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Are These Clowns Winning? Secrets of the Right-Wing Brain
http://www.alternet.org/why-are-these-clowns-winning-secrets-right-wing-brainWhen George W. Bush became president in 2001, it marked the first time in 70 years that conservative Republicans controlled all three branches of government. By the time Bush left office, we were all reminded why. The financial crisis and resulting global economic meltdown Bush left us with were eerily reminiscent of the Great Depression, but there was also 9/11, the Iraq War and Katrinaa multifaceted record of spectacular failure so stunning that it should have disqualified conservative Republicans from holding power for at least another seven decades. Yet, the Democrats political response to the many messes Bush left behind has been so spectacularly inept that theyve not only lost both houses of Congress, theyve also lost more state legislative seats than any time since before the Great Recession.
There are many ways one might explain this state of affairsand certainly the rise of Wall Street Democrats and the decline of labor played crucial roles. But beyond any particular issue area, theres also the matter of differences in how liberals and conservatives thinkand how they act and organize as a result.
As Ive written before, a growing body of literature reveals that liberals and conservatives think differently from one another in ways that can even be traced back, in part, to the level of instinctual response, reflecting conservatives heightened sensitivity to threat bias. This work is congruent with an integrated multi-factor account offered by John Jost and three co-authors in the 2003 meta-analysis Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition. In their abstract, they explained, Analyzing political conservatism as motivated social cognition integrates theories of personality (authoritarianism, dogmatismintolerance of ambiguity), epistemic and existential needs (for closure, regulatory focus, terror management), and ideological rationalization (social dominance, system justification). Their meta-analysis integrated findings from 88 sample studies in 12 countries, with 22,818 individual subjectsmeaning it drew on a substantial body of work by others.
Yet, once publicized, it drew such a hostile response there was even talk of Congress defunding the entire field of research into political attitudes. In response, Jost and one co-author wrote a Washington Post Op-Ed, which defused the crisis. In it, they wrote:
True, we find some support for the traditional rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis, but it is also true that liberals could be characterized on the basis of our overall profile as relatively disorganized, indecisive and perhaps overly drawn to ambiguity all of which may be liabilities in mass politics and other public and professional domains.
Bagsgroove
(231 posts)"Analyzing political conservatism as motivated social cognition...epistemic and existential needs..."
Yeah, sounds like a political science major to me. (No offense, I am one myself and it does take a while to learn to speak English again.)
So maybe in English--Republicans vote. In every election. Democrats don't vote. When they are motivated (which is only in some Presidential election years) they win. Otherwise, they stay home and watch reruns of Seinfeld. That's how we got Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell.
Here's Harry Truman, speaking before the 1948 election to a labor crowd. These are his Democratic base and still, Harry Gives 'em hell for not voting in 1946.
"If stay at home like you did in 1946, you'll deserve those body blows!"
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)They don't give a damn if everything is terribly against their best interest they still vote this way. Back some years ago the Dixiecrats voted Democrat because they felt like the Democrats would prevent integration from happening. Ergo, the Civil Rights bill was passed and they started migrating to the Republican party. The KKK arrived on the Republican side and now with the election of a black man the rest of the stragglers' went to the Republican party. The Republican party is really hard on the middle class hard working people but they claim to be against abortion and besides the Democrats elected a black man for president. Now the Republican party has started to convince some in the Democrat party long standing Democrats are against raising minimum wage and promoting opportunities for the middle class to rise above poverty, to help their children get higher education and return the economic growth.
This is something we will have to overcome, unite, vote and we will win elections.
Bagsgroove
(231 posts)Exactly. The "social" issues like abortion, gun control, gay marriage, prayer in school--these are the issues that the Republican party has used to motivate people who otherwise would probably not vote at all to turn out. It doesn't matter that the well educated and wealthy GOP establishment doesn't really care a whit about those things, they say the right words.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)We need to return to the basics, there are younger generations who needs to have a government which works, the tired old men (whom votes) will not be here forever to fight the hard working middle class and the younger folks has to pick up the pieces and continue, I know they can.
kentuck
(110,947 posts)Any more losses in the House and Democrats are in danger of becoming irrelevant. As far as young voters go, many speak of "liberals" in a scornful way.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)They can spend every moment protesting or hand the reins to someone who may care. Elections has consequences, good or bad.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)They are self-centered and fearful, always want more than they could ever need, and will do whatever they can to get more, more, more.
Like two year olds with a terminal case of the terrible twos.
Liberals spend half their time trying to prevent conservatives from destroying all life on the planet, and the other half dealing with the messes that conservatives make in their all consuming greed.
We get sick of having to deal with our conservative "kids" who never grow up to be responsible adults. Responsible adults meaning adults who are ethically and morally developed to the point where they are conscious enough to do their best to cause no direct or indirect harm to others, who know how to share, and who take steps not to foul their environment.
I'm beyond fucking sick of having to constantly deal with the thoughtlessness, fear driven greed, neuroticism, deadly destructiveness, and total lack of real conscience that are the hallmark characteristics of conservatives.
I dream of a country that is free of conservatives, and also free from having to defend itself from being attacked by conservatives. But there is no way to prevent conservatives from attacking, because they would spend all their time developing ever deadlier weapons to make war on us so they could eventually take whatever we have, and then exploit and destroy the land, water, and air until it they can no longer support life.
Because that is their nature. It is what conservatives do, and it is what they have always done. They kill, steal, enslave, and destroy.
The fuckers are just flat out evil. It ain't rocket science.
GoneFishin
(5,217 posts)As individuals I don't find all of them to be extreme, but collectively when they are riled up by thug talking heads and right wing politicians doing the bidding for narcissistic billionaires, they are very destructive.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)I know longer know any republicans that I would piss on if they were on fire. They are a cancer in stage IV and I detest them with every cell in my body. They contribute nothing to the country except hatred, fear, and tragedy. I wish I was younger so that I might live to see the day when they as a subspecies are obliterated.
struggle4progress
(118,032 posts)Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Damn lazy to go and vote. When they want to get something accomplished those in office can just say it must not be important to them.