Why Do People Vote Republican?

I know a lot of people in other countries do not understand why U.S. citizens vote Republican. The link to this article is a very apt description of what people hear when a Republican speaks...it's not just the words, it's the feeling. I highly recommend Democrats and people in England, visitors form around the world, and here in Canada to read the article linked in this post. An ol buddy brought this article to attention, and I appreciate that. I liked that this writer mentions several people whose work I have been following for ages, E.O Wilson and Frans DeWaal. These two are some of my GODS! (both on my World Peace Reading List). Special thanks to Greg S. for his thoughtful insight into human nature, politics and giving heads up about the hilarious, spot on, Paglia article at Salon Magazine. (I didn't know she was still writing there. I wish you had a blog! I could link you!)

Who knew the Democrats would screw up yet again? Why are they so seemingly self-destructive? How can they blow this election once again? How could the Obama campaign manage to lose the incredible momentum of the past few months?

Why do the democrats focus on trashing Sarah Palin? This woman is greatly underestimated by most people especially liberals. Sarah Palin is absolutely fascinating...agree with her or not, like her or not, Sarah Palin is one compelling persona...and the democrats look like babies.

Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment. (Camille Paglia, linked below) The gun-toting Sarah Palin is like Annie Oakley, a brash ambassador from America's pioneer past. She immediately reminded me of the frontier women of the Western states, which first granted women the right to vote after the Civil War -- long before the federal amendment guaranteeing universal woman suffrage was passed in 1919. Frontier women faced the same harsh challenges and had to tackle the same chores as men did -- which is why men could regard them as equals, unlike the genteel, corseted ladies of the Eastern seaboard, which fought granting women the vote right to the bitter end.

It is nonsensical and counterproductive for Democrats to imagine that pro-life values can be defeated by maliciously destroying their proponents. And it is equally foolish to expect that feminism must for all time be inextricably wed to the pro-choice agenda. There is plenty of room in modern thought for a pro-life feminism -- one in fact that would have far more appeal to third-world cultures where motherhood is still honored and where the Western model of the hard-driving, self-absorbed career woman is less admired.

But the one fundamental precept that Democrats must stand for is independent thought and speech. When they become baying bloodhounds of rigid dogma, Democrats have committed political suicide.

Why? Why are the democrats so out of touch with people?

...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.

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.

Why do people vote republican?


... is an article by Jonathan Haidt found here (click the yellow text)

I photocopied this article and have put it in the mail to Jack Layton, Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama, and Stagg's dad. (Stagg's dad we have just discovered is really interested in talking about these kinds of articles with his friends every morning over bagels and coffee...so I mailed him a few copies, for his buddies. How cute!)

Related Links:

Emile Durkheim and his philosophy
moral psychology
The Misunderstanding of religion
Frans DeWaal Answers Your Primate Questions...at Freakonomics!
E.O.Wilson Foundation
profile E.O.Wilson
Jonathan Haidt's home page
Feminism's Greatest Leap Forward Since Madonna...by Camille Paglia
definition of Consilience