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The Answers to Two Big Questions About Trump and the GOP That Keep Befuddling Progressives
The Right Wing
The Answers to Two Big Questions About Trump and the GOP That Keep Befuddling Progressives
By George Lakoff / AlterNet
July 6, 2017, 7:16 AM GMT
Progressives are stumped. They keep asking the same two questions over and over again on social media, TV, and radio:
1. Why don’t Trump supporters turn against Trump even though he is doing things that hurt them (like taking away their health care)?
2. Why do Republicans hate the Affordable Care Act and why are they so transparently acting to give wealthy people a tax break by making health care unaffordable?
Here is the short answer: All politics is moral. Supporting Trump, and gutting public health care resources in order to provide tax cuts for the wealthy, fits perfectly within the strict conservative moral worldview, which is hierarchical in nature. Voters don’t vote their self-interest. They vote their values.
The longer answer requires a deeper explanation. Let’s start with the place where all ideas and questions originate: the brain.
Most thought (as much as 98% by some accounts) is unconscious. It is carried out by neural circuitry in our brains. We have no conscious access to this circuitry, but it’s there. This is basic neuroscience. When it comes to politics, progressives and conservatives essentially have different brains. The unconscious beliefs conditioned in their brains are nearly exact opposites.
Here are two statements you will almost certainly agree with if you’re a progressive:
1. In Lincoln’s words, the American government should be a government of, by and for the people.
2. Citizens care about other citizens, and work through their government to provide public resources for all—resources required for the well-being and freedom of all.
These imply just about all of progressive policies.
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/answers-two-big-questions-about-trump-and-gop-keep-befuddling-progressives
The Answers to Two Big Questions About Trump and the GOP That Keep Befuddling Progressives
By George Lakoff / AlterNet
July 6, 2017, 7:16 AM GMT
Progressives are stumped. They keep asking the same two questions over and over again on social media, TV, and radio:
1. Why don’t Trump supporters turn against Trump even though he is doing things that hurt them (like taking away their health care)?
2. Why do Republicans hate the Affordable Care Act and why are they so transparently acting to give wealthy people a tax break by making health care unaffordable?
Here is the short answer: All politics is moral. Supporting Trump, and gutting public health care resources in order to provide tax cuts for the wealthy, fits perfectly within the strict conservative moral worldview, which is hierarchical in nature. Voters don’t vote their self-interest. They vote their values.
The longer answer requires a deeper explanation. Let’s start with the place where all ideas and questions originate: the brain.
Most thought (as much as 98% by some accounts) is unconscious. It is carried out by neural circuitry in our brains. We have no conscious access to this circuitry, but it’s there. This is basic neuroscience. When it comes to politics, progressives and conservatives essentially have different brains. The unconscious beliefs conditioned in their brains are nearly exact opposites.
Here are two statements you will almost certainly agree with if you’re a progressive:
1. In Lincoln’s words, the American government should be a government of, by and for the people.
2. Citizens care about other citizens, and work through their government to provide public resources for all—resources required for the well-being and freedom of all.
These imply just about all of progressive policies.
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/answers-two-big-questions-about-trump-and-gop-keep-befuddling-progressives