The Conservative Republican Mindset
A good friend posted this on Facebook: "After watching the Republican debates last night I need some help. Can
someone please explain the conservative Republican mind set?? I'm
serious people, I simply don't get it. Please help!!"
I am of the opinion that we need to explore the makeup of the Republican party to better understand the conservative mindset. A lot of what makes up the Republican party has to do with the traditional "American Dream." The family with the house that has a white picket fence around its front yard. 60% of married men who vote, vote Republican. 55% of married women who vote, vote Republican. 53% of married families vote Republican.
This connects to the radical right, the Christian conservatives who place more emphasis on the traditional family unit, family values and adherence to scripture. They believe homosexuality and gender dysphoria to be sins. Never mind that these same people who call others sinners have high levels of adultery among them, apparently that's different.
The conservative mindset also has to do with age. As the population bands age, they grow more conservative. I think the more urban the setting, the less likely this shift will occur. My father, when young, was a very liberal person. He worked on the RFK campaign and was at the Ambassador Hotel the night that RFK was murdered. That was 1968. 16 years later, when he was older and had achieved a good amount of financial success, he'd suddenly become a conservative Republican. So much so that he lent his fairly new limo to the RNC for their 1984 convention in Dallas. They needed it to chauffeur Wayne Newton around.
The conservatives don't want government doing for individuals. They want infrastructure, they want national defense and they want limited regulation of business. But they don't like social safety nets that help individuals because they buy into the "by your own bootstraps" concept. Also, even those among them who have had limited financial success look at people like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers and see what they firmly believe they can achieve through hard work. They don't let the reality of the ever-widening gulf of income/wealth inequity cloud these delusional dreams.
The conservative mindset has to do with race. 87 % of people who identify themselves as Republicans also identify themselves as non-Hispanic white people. That percentage has held fairly steady for decades, long before minorities began flocking to the Democratic party after Republicans abandoned the struggle for civil rights after 1965.
The conservative mindset is also a product of a careful, well-thought out marketing plan. With men like Adelson and the Kochs willing to spend hundreds of millions on political campaigns backing those who they believe will support their agenda, they can afford to research and find the best way to appeal to their primary voting blocs and those voters who might be swayed into buying into the claptrap.
But most importantly, the conservative mindset is based on fear. Funny thing is, the best articulation of this is from a movie.
"I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it."
Substitute Republicans for Bob Rumson and there it is. The root of the conservative Republican mindset.
I am of the opinion that we need to explore the makeup of the Republican party to better understand the conservative mindset. A lot of what makes up the Republican party has to do with the traditional "American Dream." The family with the house that has a white picket fence around its front yard. 60% of married men who vote, vote Republican. 55% of married women who vote, vote Republican. 53% of married families vote Republican.
This connects to the radical right, the Christian conservatives who place more emphasis on the traditional family unit, family values and adherence to scripture. They believe homosexuality and gender dysphoria to be sins. Never mind that these same people who call others sinners have high levels of adultery among them, apparently that's different.
The conservative mindset also has to do with age. As the population bands age, they grow more conservative. I think the more urban the setting, the less likely this shift will occur. My father, when young, was a very liberal person. He worked on the RFK campaign and was at the Ambassador Hotel the night that RFK was murdered. That was 1968. 16 years later, when he was older and had achieved a good amount of financial success, he'd suddenly become a conservative Republican. So much so that he lent his fairly new limo to the RNC for their 1984 convention in Dallas. They needed it to chauffeur Wayne Newton around.
The conservatives don't want government doing for individuals. They want infrastructure, they want national defense and they want limited regulation of business. But they don't like social safety nets that help individuals because they buy into the "by your own bootstraps" concept. Also, even those among them who have had limited financial success look at people like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers and see what they firmly believe they can achieve through hard work. They don't let the reality of the ever-widening gulf of income/wealth inequity cloud these delusional dreams.
The conservative mindset has to do with race. 87 % of people who identify themselves as Republicans also identify themselves as non-Hispanic white people. That percentage has held fairly steady for decades, long before minorities began flocking to the Democratic party after Republicans abandoned the struggle for civil rights after 1965.
The conservative mindset is also a product of a careful, well-thought out marketing plan. With men like Adelson and the Kochs willing to spend hundreds of millions on political campaigns backing those who they believe will support their agenda, they can afford to research and find the best way to appeal to their primary voting blocs and those voters who might be swayed into buying into the claptrap.
But most importantly, the conservative mindset is based on fear. Funny thing is, the best articulation of this is from a movie.
"I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it."
Substitute Republicans for Bob Rumson and there it is. The root of the conservative Republican mindset.
posted by me at 6:03 PM
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