Comments on an hypothesis?

[Ready4Change]

I know many people who don't like Bush, yet still voted for him due to a single issue. Some on abortion. Some because they feel Kerry would have raised their taxes. Some because of Kerry's post Vietnam service activism. Some on gun control. Etc...

On the other hand, people I know who voted for Kerry based their choice on the sum of many issues. They weighed each candidate on all the issues they consider important, and picked the one who agreed best with their own viewpoints.

So I'm wondering if Right Wingers/Bush voters tend to focus on a single issue at the exclusion of others, while Left Wingers/Kerry voters tend to have a wider view and look for the greatest good? Or is it just the people I hang with?

[rwenos]

1. Is a Snake Built Close to the Ground?

Only problem with your hypothesis is it's way too obvious. OF COURSE the RW's are narrower.

How many topics do you think GWB can hold in his head on a given day? Two? Three? I'd be surprised if it was more. His appeal to morons is he thinks like them.

[Ready4Change]

3. Well, I can think of opposing ideas.

For example, the people I hand with tend to be moderate to liberals. However, I encounter many people who are fairly extremely right wing. So another idea would be that the more extreme your viewpoints are, the more myoptic your view is, and the more moderate your views, the wider your viewpoints.

In that case I might balance a strong pro-lifer with a strongly anti-war activist. Both make their choices on a single topic.

So I'm wondering, is a single minded point of view more a result of a Right Wing mindset, or of an extremist mindset?

[whistle]

2. Probably that is true, moral values, what is that exactly. . .

. . . If someone explains that as pro-life or man/woman marriage only or right of religious people to voice their views in politics, I can deal and discuss those quite openly and work through compromises on each and every one. But to throw out a catch-all umbrella term like "moral values" it could mean anything and in various areas it carried very different meanings like prayer in schools, banning teaching about evolution and so on. In each area, the same term takes on a different meaning. "You got trouble, right here in River City and it rhymes with pool!"

[Ready4Change]

4. Yes, and the Bush campaign used many "umbrella" terms.

Terms which were easy for single minded people to attach their issue to.

Whereas Kerry, in giving specifics, provided chances for myoptic people to find something at odds with their specific issue.

Interesting. I wasn't tying this to campaign strategies. Thanks.