How the Tea Party Exploits Liberals’ Weaknesses (and how to fix that)

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.politicususa.com/en/tea-party-exploits-liberals

I have written about economics, education, journalism, abortions, class actions, and Emergency Financial Managers, but this may be the most important piece I have written this year.

As I look back, nearly everything I have written this year includes some aspect of tracing political actions and results back to identify the driving purpose behind them, then envisioning that purpose carried through to its conclusion. It is not a new technique, and the results are not surprising. Conservatives have taken us down this path for decades, and the evidence has been there to see, yet neither conservatives’ purpose nor their final destination has penetrated the national consciousness.

Why? Because conservatives have figured out how to exploit liberals’ weaknesses, and liberals fall for it every time.

It is human nature to create stereotypes. Both left and right have stereotyped images of each other’s relative intelligence and driving motivations. If you’re reading this, you are already familiar with the stereotype of a Tea Party sympathizer: undereducated, overarmed, stubborn, belligerent, gullible. Too dumb to actually reason with, little brain development beyond the limbic center where fear lives (cf Ted Nugent). The right’s stereotype of a liberal elitist is something of its funhouse mirror image: an overeducated, insufferable know-it-all with too much book-learning and insufficient common sense. Too concerned with being technically correct, even over irrelevant things, and especially at others’ expense (cf Keith Olbermann).

More at the link --