What makes people vote Republican?

[Speck Tater]

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

Outstandingly insightful article examining people's motivation for voting Republican. More important, it give Democrats a lot of good pointers on how to capture those very voters that it now alienates.

---quote---

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.

Diagnosis is a pleasure. It is a thrill to solve a mystery from scattered clues, and it is empowering to know what makes others tick. In the psychological community, where almost all of us are politically liberal, our diagnosis of conservatism gives us the additional pleasure of shared righteous anger. We can explain how Republicans exploit frames, phrases, and fears to trick Americans into supporting policies (such as the "war on terror" and repeal of the "death tax") that damage the national interest for partisan advantage.

But with pleasure comes seduction, and with righteous pleasure comes seduction wearing a halo. Our diagnosis explains away Republican successes while convincing us and our fellow liberals that we hold the moral high ground. Our diagnosis tells us that we have nothing to learn from other ideologies, and it blinds us to what I think is one of the main reasons that so many Americans voted Republican over the last 30 years: they honestly prefer the Republican vision of a moral order to the one offered by Democrats. To see what Democrats have been missing, it helps to take off the halo, step back for a moment, and think about what morality really is.

---end quote---

MUCH more at the link

[jakem]

1. Too many momma/aunts and daddy/uncles?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. greed, fear and ignorance nt

[Growler]

11. you nailed it. n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. Thank you. After all they're pretty transparent. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

19. You forgot obedience. n/t

[cdb]

3. I always thought it was due to blunt trauma to the skull...

or a lack of oxygen

[AverageJoe]

4. Here's my take

It is one or more of the following:

1. They are evil.
2. They are stupid.
3. They are ignorant.
4. They are rich.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dogtown]

23. Why are you here?

self-actualization?

[AverageJoe]

25. But Republican policies do nothing--I mean nothing--to promote

those things you say you care about. Sounds like you should consider switching party affiliation.

[underpants]

5. Ask Auntie Pinko article about 7 years ago was one of the first things I read on DU

Can't find it in the archives

[notadmblnd]

6. asshole-ish-ness?

[HughBeaumont]

7. Because it's their Gawd-given right to be an "all about NUMMER ONE" dick.

That, and their extreme hatred for being proven wrong.

[southernleftylady]

8. ignorance nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

27. Ignorance for the majority, greed for about 10 %.

[NV Whino]

9. A few missing brain cells?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. God, guns, and greed.

Throw in a bunch of flags and candidates who pretend to be "just plain folks" that they'd like to have a beer with..and bingo! The obedient losers conform.

[Shiver]

13. My guess?

Alien elephants have slipped into their brains, feeding off their compassion and intelligence, leaving only stupidity, greed, and a fondness for striped things that flap in the wind.

Seriously. Run a striped shirt up a flagpole, they won't know the difference.


~Shiver

[Jello Biafra]

14. I think it's fear and stupidity...n/t

[Speck Tater]

15. It is interesting that all the replies so far are exactly why the article says we lose elections.

Because we trivialize a problem that we should be solving by discovering how to maintain our basic principles, yet appeal to the deep-felt needs of the conservative mind. It can be done. But it CANNOT be done if we only sit around calling our fellow Americans "morons". As the article clearly explains, they are not morons, and they have NOT been tricked into voting Republican.

"The truth will set you free. But first it will really piss you off."

[Vickers]

17. It all boils down to fear.

Blacks.

Gays.

Foreigners.

France.

Other languages.

Terrorists (real or imagined).

etc. etc.

It must really SUCK to be such a goddam 'fraidy-cat.

[ColbertWatcher]

18. I liked John Dean's explanation in his book, "Conservatives without Conscience" ...

... something about them being authoritarians.

[flvegan]

20. It's easier than actually thinking. n/t

[kath]

21. Thanks fiziwig. Very thought-provoking article.

I skimmed parts of it, but have bookmarked it for later so I can give it the time it deserves. I think Obama is trying to express "a clear and oft-repeated commitment to guarding the precious coherence of the whole", as mentioned in the next-to last paragraph of the article. Let's hope it is working...

Did ANYONE else here even read the article? -- by the dumbass, kneejerk comments here, I think (and fiziwig alluded to this in his recent post)the answer is "no".

sheesh.

[Brewman_Jax]

22. Brains turned off

it's easier to be lead around and told what to do and who to fear rather than think for oneself.

[KathieG]

24. Willful ignorance

[Locrian]

26. materialism

In a materialistic society, when the more $$ you have the "better" you are - the repukes "personify" wealth. That's the only thing that matters - not that you are actually voting against your $$ interests if you vote R, its the IMAGE. And the $$ and power is all they see.

Its like how people with nothing LOVE the lottery even though they never win. They LOVE the **IDEA** that they will win. They OBSESS about what winning would be like.

Must have been how some of the peasants loved their king even though they only had dirt to eat.