Obama is Being Republican Lite

Lofty rhetoric aside, after the election dust has settled, President Barack Obama seems to be giving us “Republican Lite” in his proposed economic stimulus package which may go over $850 billion. The package includes some $300 billion in tax cuts and $100 billion in givebacks to big business and other large business tax breaks long sought after by the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. The plan seems to be a shill to allow for more Republican support in the US Senate where President Obama apparently fears a filibuster from a weakened GOP. GOP minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-TN.) has said the bill will likely be passed by mid-February. Former Senator Obama’s legislative centrist instincts have taken over.

Continue ReadingObama is Being Republican Lite

More evidence that the right wing media is thoroughly corrupted

Consider this implied admission, that the National Review "spent the last eight years holding their tongue, taking it easy on Bush, averting their eyes from failures, and deliberately backing power over truth."   Compare this talk with the November 2006 admission by Rush Limbaugh, that "I no longer am going to…

Continue ReadingMore evidence that the right wing media is thoroughly corrupted

Former Publisher of The National Review endorses Obama

Wick Allison was Editor in Chief of The National Review from 1990 through 1993.  Allison donated a lot of money to John McCain during the primaries, but he is now endorsing Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States: Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for…

Continue ReadingFormer Publisher of The National Review endorses Obama

Sarah Palin’s downward spiral picks up speed.

Andrew Sullivan is saying it like it is and he is thus getting pummeled by many conservatives.  But the conservative press nonetheless refuses to acknowledge and discuss Sarah Palin's lies: [N]o one at the Corner has the intellectual honesty to discuss the lies that the McCain camp has been putting…

Continue ReadingSarah Palin’s downward spiral picks up speed.

Why do conservatives become conservative? It’s not a rational choice.

Nor is it primarily the result of a rational choice (i.e., a systematic analysis of facts) that liberals become liberals. 

We’d like to believe that we adopt our political views rationally, only after careful consideration of the “facts.” That’s a pipe dream, however.  Jay Dixit’s article, “The Ideological Animal,” (published by Psychology Today) demonstrates that our political persuasion takes root well before the cerebrum kicks fully into gear.  There are deep triggers that lead individuals to crave one political ideology over the other.  For many of us, rational thought is post-facto justification.  As David Hume famously argued,

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.

Dixit’s arguments dovetail with Hume’s beliefs.  As Dixit argues,

We tend to believe our political views evolve as a result of rational thought, in that we consider arguments, weigh evidence, and draw conclusions. But the truth is more complicated. Our political preferences are equally the result of factors we’re not aware of—such as how educated we are, how scary the world seems at a given moment, and personality traits that are first apparent in early childhood. Among the most potent motivators, it turns out, is fear.

What else correlates with political leaning?  You won’t be surprised at some of these differences:

conservatives and liberals boast markedly different home and office decor. Liberals are messier than conservatives, their rooms have more clutter and more color, and

Share

Continue ReadingWhy do conservatives become conservative? It’s not a rational choice.