@AI-O-Meter, First of all, thanks for your thoughtful reply. I only saw it last night, missed it in my notifications apparently. I apologize in advance for not giving it the time and thought it deserves in return. I’m going to fail on that count.
As far as decisions made beneath the surface, so to speak, the political ad men, and politicians in general, understand that to be the case. Presidents are marketed, it’s the “selling of the president” in each election cycle. Yes, people do consider issues, but triggering emotions like anger and fear are more likely to be what those doing the selling of a candidate aim for, not thoughtful consideration and rational thought processes. Especially since the dawn of the TV, the aim seems to be the baser instincts, beneath the surface. It’s a very cynical view of human nature and the electorate. It’s crafting a positive image for your candidate, and a negative image of your opponent. And that seldom involves appeals to the intellect of voters.
People who track with right-leaning ideologies are not different animals from those with left-leaning ideologies regardless of your right-left definition. They simply have a slightly different set of motivations. You can get either to readily accept authoritarian government but you may have to press different buttons.
Well, I won’t argue with this point of view. I’ll just throw this out there as potential food for thought, namely, that there may be biological differences, that are reflected in psychological differences, and differences in how liberals and conservatives respond to the world, and life.
Scanners try to watch the red-blue divide play out underneath the skull
www.scientificamerican.com
From the essay: “On the whole, the research shows, conservatives desire security, predictability and authority more than liberals do, and liberals are more comfortable with novelty, nuance and complexity. If you had put Buckley and Vidal in a magnetic resonance imaging machine and presented them with identical images, you would likely have seen differences in their brain, especially in the areas that process social and emotional information. The volume of gray matter, or neural cell bodies, making up the anterior cingulate cortex, an area that helps detect errors and resolve conflicts, tends to be larger in liberals. And the amygdala, which is important for regulating emotions and evaluating threats, is larger in conservatives”.
On a practical level, we just experienced a right wing authoritarian who was willing to attempt to remain in office by overturning a fair election on the basis of a Big Lie. And we are experiencing a party that not only supports that Big Lie, but which may very well attempt to steal the 2024 election, should it be closely contested.
The erosion of social trust that you speak of is perhaps no starker than that between the Left and Right, between the bases of the two parties. That specific distrust seems to have reached the level where each regards the other as the enemy of America. That’s lack of social trust to the max. Just one more reason why a Trump re-election in 2020 concerned me. I’ve already seen his authoritarian nature, I don’t want to see what else “own the liberals” might engender in this country, especially given what his base is capable of, and some perfectly willing, to accept. “It can’t happen here” is not an attitude I have ever shared. Americans are not “special” or immune from the worst impulses of human nature.
And, right now, the danger lies with the Republican Party I believe. If the 2024 election is closely contested, I expect Republicans will attempt to steal it. And if they cannot disown the Big Lie, that’s just not a good place for our body politic to be….
I found this Atlantic essay to be an excellent summation of the situation we are facing in this country:
Unless and until the Republican Party recommits itself to playing by democratic rules of the game, American democracy will remain at risk.
www.theatlantic.com
www.businessinsider.com
