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Sep. 16th, 2008 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerWhat Makes People Vote Republican?
My apologies--I don't recall where I came across this article, but it's quite interesting nonetheless in its analysis of how emotional overpowers reason in our efforts to make rational choices in politics. Despite coming from a"liberal academic", it's not a polemic so much as an attempt to understand what makes people work. The concluding paragraphs alone are enough to make me want to read the whole piece.
"If Democrats want to understand what makes people vote Republican, they must first understand the full spectrum of American moral concerns. They should then consider whether they can use more of that spectrum themselves. The Democrats would lose their souls if they ever abandoned their commitment to social justice, but social justice is about getting fair relationships among the parts of the nation. This often divisive struggle among the parts must be balanced by a clear and oft-repeated commitment to guarding the precious coherence of the whole. America lacks the long history, small size, ethnic homogeneity, and soccer mania that holds many other nations together, so our flag, our founding fathers, our military, and our common language take on a moral importance that many liberals find hard to fathom.
Unity is not the great need of the hour, it is the eternal struggle of our immigrant nation. The three Durkheimian foundations of ingroup, authority, and purity are powerful tools in that struggle. Until Democrats understand this point, they will be vulnerable to the seductive but false belief that Americans vote for Republicans primarily because they have been duped into doing so."
My apologies--I don't recall where I came across this article, but it's quite interesting nonetheless in its analysis of how emotional overpowers reason in our efforts to make rational choices in politics. Despite coming from a"liberal academic", it's not a polemic so much as an attempt to understand what makes people work. The concluding paragraphs alone are enough to make me want to read the whole piece.
"If Democrats want to understand what makes people vote Republican, they must first understand the full spectrum of American moral concerns. They should then consider whether they can use more of that spectrum themselves. The Democrats would lose their souls if they ever abandoned their commitment to social justice, but social justice is about getting fair relationships among the parts of the nation. This often divisive struggle among the parts must be balanced by a clear and oft-repeated commitment to guarding the precious coherence of the whole. America lacks the long history, small size, ethnic homogeneity, and soccer mania that holds many other nations together, so our flag, our founding fathers, our military, and our common language take on a moral importance that many liberals find hard to fathom.
Unity is not the great need of the hour, it is the eternal struggle of our immigrant nation. The three Durkheimian foundations of ingroup, authority, and purity are powerful tools in that struggle. Until Democrats understand this point, they will be vulnerable to the seductive but false belief that Americans vote for Republicans primarily because they have been duped into doing so."
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-16 09:04 pm (UTC)Seriously, I'm smart and I had problems with all of that....
no subject
Date: 2008-09-16 09:16 pm (UTC)But if that selection is a bit abstruse, how about this, from the beginning of the piece:
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.
...This is the first rule of moral psychology: feelings come first and tilt the mental playing field on which reasons and arguments compete. If people want to reach a conclusion, they can usually find a way to do so. The Democrats have historically failed to grasp this rule, choosing uninspiring and aloof candidates who thought that policy arguments were forms of persuasion.
...the second rule of moral psychology is that morality is not just about how we treat each other (as most liberals think); it is also about binding groups together, supporting essential institutions, and living in a sanctified and noble way.
When Republicans say that Democrats "just don't get it," this is the "it" to which they refer. Conservative positions on gays, guns, god, and immigration must be understood as means to achieve one kind of morally ordered society. When Democrats try to explain away these positions using pop psychology they err, they alienate, and they earn the label "elitist." But how can Democrats learn to see-—let alone respect-—a moral order they regard as narrow-minded, racist, and dumb?
no subject
Date: 2008-09-16 09:29 pm (UTC)Liberalism's values are about structuring society so as to avoid the doing of harm and creating fairness.
Social conservatism's values include those, but place an equal (often higher) value on loyalty, respect, and purity.
Haidt suggests that because liberals often reject those other three values as being integral to creating a moral society [in some part, I would suggest, because those values have been misused by opponents of liberalism to repress their social opponents], liberals are tone deaf to many concerns of the broader society.
He makes a compelling argument that these values need not be antithetical to liberal ones, but can have complimentary aspects.
And he posits that until liberals understand and respond to the appeal of these values, they will continue to fail to sway a large portion of the electorate towards their positions.