I am wondering why people think the GoP has an edge in economics (including inflation)... then I remember that people are , by and large, economic illiterates and idiots.
The reality is that a lot of this supposed concern over economics, inflation, etc. is merely a mask or rationale for voting your partisan lean/identification. Democrat…
I am wondering why people think the GoP has an edge in economics (including inflation)... then I remember that people are , by and large, economic illiterates and idiots.
The reality is that a lot of this supposed concern over economics, inflation, etc. is merely a mask or rationale for voting your partisan lean/identification. Democrats have an economics disadvantage because they are identified with "socialism" (whatever that actually is in this day and age--it certainly isn't the actual dictionary definition of socialism) while the GoP is identified with good old market capitalism (which screws a lot of people over, but hey, it is the American Way).
Same thing with Law & Order.. the GoP gets an unthinking nod here for some reason--despite the fact they they are openly increasingly lawless and led by someone whop thinks that the law is for little people.
So what it REALLY comes down to is not what is actually done or doable (because the GoP has no plan or ability to "fix" the economy or curb inflation) but a combination of:
partisan identity/lean;
voting against whoever is in charge;
who you are most angry at because of what your central issue/value is (IOW, does abortion outweigh economics, does the election denialism outweigh other factors, and so on).
Basically a small group of voters decide things in many places, and they decide it largely on a non-rational basis, although it is rationalized through claims of voting kitchen table issues or whatever.
This is only my intuition, and I have no hard science to back this up. But here's my thought: Republicans are perceived to be at an advantage when Americans want a ruthless, aggressive approach -- crime, the economy -- and Democrats are perceived to be at an advantage when collaboration and collective decision making is required to solve a problem/produce a public good -- climate change, and education.
Read George Lakoff's The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientists Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics and also (same author) Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think.\
I match up pretty well with the general conservative mindset (at least in how it perceives how people operate and about the perfectability of humanity). But my study and thought push me in other directions, making me something of a mixed bag, as it were.
There are probably a fair number of people here at The Bulwark who find themselves in the same boat, to greater or lesser degrees.
Thanks for the recommendation. Political psychology is such a complicated thing. I have a lot of conservative tendencies in my personal life: I like to manage my finances conservatively, I'm generally a fan of tradition and a big skeptic of change (I'm still not comfortable with Interleague Play in MLB, and I never will be). And yet, politically, I'm solid (non-woke) D. Go figure.
Quite frankly, in this day and age, the non-woke D is the conservative party in this country. The bulk of the republican party appears to be happy disposing of representative democracy if it won't give them what they want.
On the one hand a party that is bordering on revolutionary, and on the other a party that wants to try out this new-fangled universal health care that pretty much every other developed nation has tried first.
On one hand a party that is continually redefining the second amendment to where armed teachers doesn't sound completely batshit crazy, and on the other a party that would probably be thrilled to go back to 1980's era gun regulation.
On one hand a party that is thrilled about overturning 50 years of precedent, but isn't happy with their decades long push for states' rights on abortion and is now pushing for a national ban. On the other, a party not happy with tossing citizen privacy aside in favor or legislatures deciding what rights various citizens have.
Conservative is one thing, the Republican party of the 21st century so far is something else. I suppose if one is an evangelical christian, it can be seen as conservative when viewed from that particular religious prism, but my own conservatism taught me that this country was founded on not mixing religion and politics.
I am wondering why people think the GoP has an edge in economics (including inflation)... then I remember that people are , by and large, economic illiterates and idiots.
The reality is that a lot of this supposed concern over economics, inflation, etc. is merely a mask or rationale for voting your partisan lean/identification. Democrats have an economics disadvantage because they are identified with "socialism" (whatever that actually is in this day and age--it certainly isn't the actual dictionary definition of socialism) while the GoP is identified with good old market capitalism (which screws a lot of people over, but hey, it is the American Way).
Same thing with Law & Order.. the GoP gets an unthinking nod here for some reason--despite the fact they they are openly increasingly lawless and led by someone whop thinks that the law is for little people.
So what it REALLY comes down to is not what is actually done or doable (because the GoP has no plan or ability to "fix" the economy or curb inflation) but a combination of:
partisan identity/lean;
voting against whoever is in charge;
who you are most angry at because of what your central issue/value is (IOW, does abortion outweigh economics, does the election denialism outweigh other factors, and so on).
Basically a small group of voters decide things in many places, and they decide it largely on a non-rational basis, although it is rationalized through claims of voting kitchen table issues or whatever.
This is only my intuition, and I have no hard science to back this up. But here's my thought: Republicans are perceived to be at an advantage when Americans want a ruthless, aggressive approach -- crime, the economy -- and Democrats are perceived to be at an advantage when collaboration and collective decision making is required to solve a problem/produce a public good -- climate change, and education.
Read George Lakoff's The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientists Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics and also (same author) Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think.\
I match up pretty well with the general conservative mindset (at least in how it perceives how people operate and about the perfectability of humanity). But my study and thought push me in other directions, making me something of a mixed bag, as it were.
There are probably a fair number of people here at The Bulwark who find themselves in the same boat, to greater or lesser degrees.
Thanks for the recommendation. Political psychology is such a complicated thing. I have a lot of conservative tendencies in my personal life: I like to manage my finances conservatively, I'm generally a fan of tradition and a big skeptic of change (I'm still not comfortable with Interleague Play in MLB, and I never will be). And yet, politically, I'm solid (non-woke) D. Go figure.
Quite frankly, in this day and age, the non-woke D is the conservative party in this country. The bulk of the republican party appears to be happy disposing of representative democracy if it won't give them what they want.
On the one hand a party that is bordering on revolutionary, and on the other a party that wants to try out this new-fangled universal health care that pretty much every other developed nation has tried first.
On one hand a party that is continually redefining the second amendment to where armed teachers doesn't sound completely batshit crazy, and on the other a party that would probably be thrilled to go back to 1980's era gun regulation.
On one hand a party that is thrilled about overturning 50 years of precedent, but isn't happy with their decades long push for states' rights on abortion and is now pushing for a national ban. On the other, a party not happy with tossing citizen privacy aside in favor or legislatures deciding what rights various citizens have.
Conservative is one thing, the Republican party of the 21st century so far is something else. I suppose if one is an evangelical christian, it can be seen as conservative when viewed from that particular religious prism, but my own conservatism taught me that this country was founded on not mixing religion and politics.