What makes people vote Republican?

[LunaSea]

<9.9.08>
By Jonathan Haidt

What makes people vote Republican? Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies? We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany's best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress. But now that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world.

More
http://edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html

[Saturday]

1. They vote Republican because their father told them to.....

40 years ago. Seriously.

[auburngrad82]

2. Mostly lies

"Tax and spend Democrats", "Democrats are for abortions", "Big Government Democrats" etc.

[faithfulcitizen]

3. fear, fear, fear

[Bosso 63]

10. Bingo,Bingo,Bingo.

Fear is the mind killer.

[AzDar]

4. At this point, if one identifies oneself as Republican, it indicates either corruption or stupidity.

Period.

[melody]

5. Greed, fear or ignorance (sometimes all three) n/t

[KillCapitalism]

6. A few different reasons.

Some vote repub. b/c they're violent warmongers, some b/c they are racist, some b/c they are greedy, some b/c they hate the poor, and some do so out of ignorance.

The last category probably makes up most of their voters.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. and the one issue voter

GGA ( Guns, Gays, Abortion)

[Stuart G]

7. Simple..selfishness, greed..inward view.....what is said above (post 4)..fear.

[OneGrassRoot]

8. brainwashing, propaganda. n/t

[parasim]

9. Many are one-issue voters... such as my sister...

She votes Republican because they are "pro-life". She told me the other day, that she could not vote for anyone who was pro-choice. Simple as that for her.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Americans being mean, stupid, and bigoted.

[lonestarnot]

12. Ill functioning gray matter!

[seabeyond]

13. their illusion of what a repug is. if you would take how they see repugs

and put repugs up about how they really are, .... they wouldnt vote for them. but they are voting for something that isnt

[onecent]

14. People are lemmings. I'm totally amazed at how many McCain

signs I saw (at a high ended neighborhood garage sale last weekend).

HOW CAN ANYONE VOTE FOR THEM.

America is a fucking mess!
A president who cannot even go to the Republican convention because he is so hated - and Americans still show up when McCain shows up in town.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[atommom]

15. Interesting article.

A Durkheimian ethos can't be supported by the two moral foundations that hold up a Millian society (harm/care and fairness/reciprocity). My recent research shows that social conservatives do indeed rely upon those two foundations, but they also value virtues related to three additional psychological systems: ingroup/loyalty (involving mechanisms that evolved during the long human history of tribalism), authority/respect (involving ancient primate mechanisms for managing social rank, tempered by the obligation of superiors to protect and provide for subordinates), and purity/sanctity (a relatively new part of the moral mind, related to the evolution of disgust, that makes us see carnality as degrading and renunciation as noble). These three systems support moralities that bind people into intensely interdependent groups that work together to reach common goals. Such moralities make it easier for individuals to forget themselves and coalesce temporarily into hives, a process that is thrilling, as anyone who has ever "lost" him or herself in a choir, protest march, or religious ritual can attest.

My hunch is that liberals are more likely to find the prospect of losing themselves in a "hive" a little bit creepy. I know I do; I tend to see the hivemind as a dangerous thing.

In several large internet surveys, my collaborators Jesse Graham, Brian Nosek and I have found that people who call themselves strongly liberal endorse statements related to the harm/care and fairness/reciprocity foundations, and they largely reject statements related to ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. People who call themselves strongly conservative, in contrast, endorse statements related to all five foundations more or less equally. (You can test yourself at www.YourMorals.org.) We think of the moral mind as being like an audio equalizer, with five slider switches for different parts of the moral spectrum. Democrats generally use a much smaller part of the spectrum than do Republicans. The resulting music may sound beautiful to other Democrats, but it sounds thin and incomplete to many of the swing voters that left the party in the 1980s, and whom the Democrats must recapture if they want to produce a lasting political realignment.

In The Political Brain, Drew Westen points out that the Republicans have become the party of the sacred, appropriating not just the issues of God, faith, and religion, but also the sacred symbols of the nation such as the Flag and the military. The Democrats, in the process, have become the party of the profane—of secular life and material interests. Democrats often seem to think of voters as consumers; they rely on polls to choose a set of policy positions that will convince 51% of the electorate to buy. Most Democrats don't understand that politics is more like religion than it is like shopping.

There is a lot of truth to this, but I'm not convinced that we can follow this prescription without ultimately giving up our progressive values (especially if we started in on the purity/sanctity stuff).

[UTUSN]

16. It's not Rethug superiority in voting NUMBERS, it's that MOST Dems DON'T vote

If every single eligible voter actually voted, there wouldn't be a Rethug in office anywhere. The country is NOT "evenly divided." Only the VOTERS are. The hardcore voters of both parties are about even, but the difference is that the number of Rethug voters is ALL they've got, while there is a vast pool of Dems out there who DON'T vote.


Since we here are such political junkies and are up on every little detail of what's going on, it staggers me every time I run into somebody out there and they DON'T know crap about what's going on. They don't know who CHEENEE is but they "think" Shrub is "a good man."

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. Mythology.

<"People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world."[br />
Wow! what a great sentence.]

Anyway, the Republicans have created a myth about who they are and what they stand for. Small government, low taxes, fiscal responsibility in a nutshell. All ridiculous posits. I do believe that the myth is starting to crack

[atommom]

18. I'd like to think the myth is cracking, but it's still possible for Republicans

to live in a bubble (Fox News, talk radio) and be constantly reassured that nothing has changed and Dems are still the bad guys. I'm not sure how we can get them to poke their heads out and see what's really happening, when they have such a strong emotional need for the lies.

[hfojvt]

26. the myths are deeper than that

They promote the myths of "American Greatness" of "Free Enterprise" of "Self Reliance" and the "American Dream". Republicans play into those standard American themes better than Democrats do.

[onetwo]

19. Republican Party is "aspirational."

Regular people want to put themselves in line with rich Republican folk despite the fact that it is ultimately not in their best interest to do so.

Many people equate "Republican" with "upper class" and "Democrat" with "working class." Look at the crowds at the rallies -- notice the number of dressed up tie-wearing people at McCain events?

[asteroid2003QQ47]

34. Thought-

"Aspirational" got me thinking.
How about-- Born losers vicariously aspirational with the Republican myth.
One does well to avoid that kind of person at all costs in my experience.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. God, taxes and nationalism

As far as I can tell, Republicans get most of their votes for three reasons:

1) Social conservatives, attracted by the Republicans opposition to abortion, gay rights etc.

2) Voters to whom "government" is a dirty word, attracted by the promise to cut taxes (not necessarily their taxes; in many cases the hostility to taxes is ideological rather than self-interested) and reduce the size of government

3) Nationalists, attracted by the fact that Republicans are more hawkish and Democrats are "soft on abroad".

[behave]

21. Greed, bigotry, and fear.

[fascisthunter]

22. also.... it is the Party of Sociopaths

those without the ability for empathy for others. Some bullshit others truly have no empathy at all....

[bdamomma]

23. pure stupidity,

[ColbertWatcher]

25. Kick, too late to rec (where was this hiding?) n/t

[DumptyHumpty]

27. Blame father Pfleger...lol

[leftofthedial]

28. genetic defect

they were born without brains or souls

[leftofthedial]

29. genetic defect

they were born without brains or souls

[MarkInCA]

31. I'll second that...

...oops, you already did.

[Naturyl]

30. Selfishness, ignorance, bigotry, and pride.

It's your typical deadly sins.

Not that simple, one may object? I admire your intellectual openness, but like hell it isn't.

[Winterblues]

32. Here is an e-mail I received from a friend that has drucnk the kool aid

well, he has managed to chase Bin Laden and the Taliban into Pakistan and I realize his approval rating is 23% but he was stopped at every turn by the Congress which happens to be Democratic and their approval rating is 18%. He has improved our defense which Clinton nearly wiped out...as you recall we were attacked at the world trade center then before 9/11 and he let it go...after 9/11 Bush worked on our defense and we haven't been attacked here since and John McCain doesn't follow the Republican mantra....he works for the people not the party or himself. oh and all this mortgage and foreclosure problem started under Clinton....now it's a problem and Bush thinks people should be smarter than that...i tend to agree with that....it was a matter of greed and now the banks are failing....believe me it wasn't due to Bush...people should do their homework and find out exactly when these problems started and they will be surprised to find most of them were instigated during Clinton's reign....McCain is against the "good ole boys" network and wants to eliminate the stupid spending that's been going on for years.........example....Ted Turner owns a lot of farm land and he gets money from our government to not grow anything!....excuse me?.....STOP THE FARM SUBSIDY PAYMENTS to rich people who don't farm in the first place.....right now farmers are turning to corn production to make a lot of money......how stupid....we need food and corn uses fuel to produce fuel....it's bad for the soil....they should be growing industrial hemp....good for the soil naturally grows here, can be used for fuel, clothes, food additives, etc. etc.......anyway every time Bush tried to implement a working plan congress would stop him...if they can't work together they can't accomplish much ....and to those people who said he would overturn Roe v. Wade....please! did that happen in 8 yr's of his presidency?...NO...it should be left to individual states to decide....less government!

I believe he has gotten rid of the biggest bully since Hitler. Saddam was the epitome of the worst kind of human. God willing, he is gone and I believe that part of the world deserves to live like humans and I so appreciate Bush sticking his neck out to do something about people that treat other humans like he did. With him in any sort of power who knows how far he would have taken it. Everyone knows that if the bully is not stopped, they will proceed. Just look at the bully in the school.

[wiggs]

33. Identity. People like to belong to groups that either exclude others or look down

on others. If you've called yourself a republican and have made demoCRAT party, Kerry, and Clinton jokes for years with your republican friends...you can be a low information ideologue voter that is loyal. No consideration of issues is needed. These people are not stupid, necessarily, but their political affiliation has become as wrapped up in who they are as anything else. The GOP has taken advantage of this with polarizing public comment combined with ridicule, exaggeration, black and white statements, and lies. The decision making process has been thwarted, replaced with aggression and conflict between parties.

[DevonRex]

35. Fear and greed. That's all. nt