Why do people vote Republican?

[red_planet]

I found this article mentioned in a Judith Warner piece and thought it was illuminating in more ways than one.  It helps to explain the question of why well-reasoned, logical arguments generally fail to penetrate the conservative mindset.  I think many of us liberals have been so outraged and disgusted that it only fuels arguments that we think so

Comments

[chlorinegoddess]

I read the same Judith Warner piece, but didn't read the essay until you posted it. I, also, found it particularly enlightening. What is interesting to me is how he subsitutes "religion" for "morality," and clearly illustrates that there are multiple moral systems in America, one emphasizing the individual and his rights and the other focused on the collective and the uniting forces behind it

[kitkatlj]

I wonder how they rank on his five "sliding bars" of morality.
Heh. I'm definitely someone using just my "2 bars" of the "equalizer."

I suppose even after reading this article, I still am so two-barred that I can't really figure out how to convince people that ideas I like are good ideas other than convincing them that practices that appeal initially to their other 3 bars won't actually produce results that appeal to their other 3 bars. :-(

That's not very close to a very good job of actual communication, is it? :-P

[kitkatlj]

I'm partway through your article, in the part mentioning sex ed & liberating women from men's control, and I just remembered a conversation I had a couple of years ago where a woman wondered how on earth individual people could try to control teenaged women the way they did, and I said that I thought the answer was simple--they honestly thought their practices would result in a higher number of people's lives being quality lives than alternative practices would.

Though I tend to surround myself w/ other liberals who get that. So it does surprise me to hear people trying to explain that to liberals.

But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are so many of such liberals out there. I bitch about mainstream liberals all the time when they get suckered in by greenwashing and pseudo-empowerment stuff all the time. I suppose it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that they also go around wondering why on earth conservatives advocate the practices that they advocate.

[kitkatlj]

These three systems support moralities that bind people into intensely interdependent groups that ... make it easier for individuals to forget themselves and coalesce temporarily into hives

Fascinating. Thank you so much for posting this article.

[userj]

I really enjoyed the article for many of the reasons Kate stated. I find it really irritating when liberals say that people who vote conservative are either "evil or stupid," considering I don't really think conservative people I know (like my parents!) are either evil or stupid.

Now... I do think he is missing part of the pie of "conservatism", and these are exemplified by the libertarians. Libertarians are more likely to vote conservative than liberal in general, however their reasons are the exact opposite of the conservatives described in this article. In fact, their reasons, as implied, are more the "1 bar" reasons that liberals use to justify their decisions - logical reasoning from reasons of individual morality. They simply disagree on the facts of the situation - the evidence for the logical arguments being used. Conservative christians on the other hand disagree on the entire "1 bar" system. Very cool.