Fascinating article on moral underpinnings of political thought

[pegkerr]

People vote Republican and liberal intellectuals are mystified. For their part, Republicans say that Democrats "just don’t get it." What is this "it" they don’t get?...

What makes People Vote Republican?

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

But his argument doesn't explain the adoration of Palin, the super-individualist (if you put lipstick on John Galt, he's still John Galt).

I grew up in the very racist south, and the attitudes of present-day conservatives, and their emotional defensiveness about them, appears to me to descend directly from those conservative values. Loyalty means "we" are better than "them." "Social order" means "our way or the highway."

It took me a good part of my adolescence, in the late fifties, to learn to see beyond that kind of thinking. He's right that I don't get it, and I hope I never get it again.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I said in sleigh's LJ, where I first saw the link to the article:
I think it comes down to "Us" and "Them": liberals tend to have a more encompassing "Us" than conservatives do.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Yes, very true, though I think some liberals recognize the need to get beyond that kind of thinking. And at that point, the communication with conservatives really gets difficult. I don't think the "us-them" divide comes naturally to Obama, for example (though it does to Bill Clinton!), and maybe not to Al Gore.