Besides greed/fear/hate, what motivates conservatives & Republicans?

[begin_within]

[ClassWarrior]

1. Isn't that enough?

:shrug:

NGU.

[begin_within]

4. To me, greed/fear/hate are 3 manifestations of self-interest, so they are

really all one thing, like space and time in Einstein's theories, they are really dimensions of space-time.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. Viagra!

[Mz Pip]

3. Power

THat's the big one. Power and control. THey use fear and hate to accomplsh them.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[begin_within]

5. Thanks

[Mythsaje]

6. I think it's a chicken and egg scenario...

They want power and control because fear and hate drives them, but they use fear and hate as their tool to collect power and control.

Vicious circle.

[rucky]

8. totally.

They measure themselves in relation to others, but it's easier to bring others down than it is to build oneself up - especially when you're insecure about your place in society. Everything to them is a power relationship. They're completely exhausting to be around.

Money is just how they keep score.

[moblsv]

7. religion

Christianity = good
Everything else = enemy

for programmers: notice = not ==

These are not equivalent values but the GOP is trying to define them as such.

You can't have a proto-fascist, authoritarian, theocracy without an enemy.

[EFerrari]

9. shame. n/t

[Oak2004]

10. Believe it or not, idealism

A very misplaced idealism, but idealism nonetheless.

Many of them very sincerely believe that the cure to all the world's woes is an unfettered market. They believe, sincerely, that the enemy is Godless and that their God,who is good, is on their side. They believe that obedience to one's leader in the face of doubt is strength of character. They believe that it really is possible to carry democracy on the point of a bayonet, and see such conquests as a natural extension of America's Manifest Destiny. They believe, genuinely, that merit will rise to the top, that those persons and nations who haven't risen to the top have failed because of their own doing, and that helping individuals and societies who lag behind merely enables them in their failings.

They believe all this, and more, with all the sincerity and righteousness that we can muster in our own beliefs, and more. The far right is very much a utopian movement. It's no coincidence that neoconservativism was founded by ex- Trotskyites and open admirers of Italian fascism, and that their dupes and allies emerge from religion. The problem of course is that it's not enough to sincerely believe that one is doing good in the world. You've got to test that belief from time to time against reality, and we all know what they think of reality.

[moblsv]

13. one more

they believe that each person is responsible for their own salvation from the grips of poverty and liberalism through accepting Jesus Christ as there savior and following the path he set out for them.

[EFerrari]

15. Idealism shades right into delusion, doesn't it? n/t

[Straight Shooter]

11. A sense of entitlement and smug self-righteousness. n/t

[orwell]

12. You can boil it all down to one...

...fear.

Greed is fear of want. It is also fear of missing profit.

Hate is fear of the unknown.

It all boils down to fear.

[PurityOfEssence]

14. selfishness and narcissism

n/t