The conscience of a conservative

[IndianaGreen]

Decades ago Barry Goldwater penned The Conscience Of A Conservative in which he laid out his global view of what conservative ideology was supposed to be. The article by Ira Chernus, excerpted below, deals with a another topic, but in a few paragraphs Chernus nails the reason why conservatives behave the way they do, particularly now when the election of Obama poses the greatest threat to their world view since abolitionists came into being.

Virtually all of the motives that lead people to be conservative "originate in psychological attempts to manage uncertainty and fear. These, in turn, are inherently related to the two core aspects of conservative thought-resistance to change and the endorsement of inequality. The management of uncertainty is served by resistance to change insofar as change (by its very nature) upsets existing realities and is fraught with insecurity. Fear may be both a cause and a consequence of endorsing inequality; it breeds and justifies competition, dominance struggles, and sometimes, violent strife."

In other words, conservatives want to live in a world where the differences between people are fixed, clear-cut, and organized into simplistic hierarchies of better and worse, because they think that will keep them safe. So they want their world organized by the most basic hierarchy of all: "We are better than them."

Who the "we" and "them" are is a secondary matter. It could be straights versus gays, or Israelis versus Palestinians, or Jews versus Arabs, or any other convenient pair of opposites. Any dichotomy will do, as long as it can make life seem simple, unchangeable, and therefore secure.

Stereotyping is a key to this psychological strategy. It turns complicated three-dimensional people into simplistic two-dimensional images, and that makes the world seem more manageable. When the stereotypes of "them" are negative (as they almost always are) they justify the belief in inequality and the superiority of "our kind of people," which is essential to conservatism.

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/04-2

[yourout]

1. If you find a conservative with a conscience let me know....it would be a first.

Guinness would need to be notified.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Bullies lack Empathy..they have no conciousness other than lie cheat steal brag

[elleng]

3. "I'm a very religious man," he explained, "I don't go to church every Sunday

By the 1980s, the increasing influence of the Christian Right on the Republican Party so conflicted with Goldwater's libertarian views that he became a vocal opponent of the religious right on issues such as abortion, gay rights, and the role of religion in public life.<2> Goldwater concentrated on his Senate duties, especially passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater

[DrToast]

4. The current Republican party is nothing like Goldwater

I'm not sure who they are, but they pushed Goldwater aside.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Goldwater: what every good Christian should do is kick Jerry Falwell in the ass!

Great quote from Goldwater made after Falwell came out against the Supreme Court appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor.

Ann Coulter called Goldwater a senile old man.

[SidneyCarton]

6. Ann Coulter wasn't fit to clean Barry Goldwater's toilet.

I would have disagreed with Goldwater on many issues, but he was an honest man, who thought and learned, even as he grew older. He genuinely loved this country, and worked to secure what he thought were it's best interests. He may have been a Republican, but he was one of those who deserved respect, the same cannot be said of Anthrax Annie.

[Cha]

7. Yes, she's very limited in what she's

fit to do.

[Superfly007]

12. Gotta love that Bastard Barry!

[Juche]

8. Good article, thanks

The whole 'blaming the victim' mentality conservatives have too is also a form of fear management from what I can tell. If bad things are the fault of victims then it is a decision, which means that people can avoid the bad things in life by making good decisions. Hence conservatives blame the actions of the poor (as an example) for their own situation and refuse to believe that environmental factors can play a role.

Look up the scientific paper 'Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition'. It is free online, and goes in depth on conservative idealogy. You have to copy & paste the link, and remove the space before (2003) (not sure why it is doing that).

http://www.sulloway.org/PoliticalConservatism(2003).pdf

[invictus]

9. K&R

[LynnTheDem]

10. RIGHT WING; right wing of the House of Parliament; HOUSE of LORDS.

LEFT WING; left wing of the House of Parliament; HOUSE of COMMONS.

Amazing how most rightwingers don't even know where the term "right wing" originates. Or perhaps they all think they're right up there with the LORDS.

It takes a whole lot of stupid to be for against your own best interests; that's why they're rightwing.

[RagAss]

11. LOL.... yeh right ...like a Pig with Wings !

[Amos Moses]

13. Conservatives Without Conscience by John Dean

That book has a number of insightful Goldwater quotes. Lots of good info about right wing authoritarianism and the Christian fundies.

Goldwater was very disturbed to see these two factions gaining power in his party and predicted much of the grief they would eventually bring us.

Lots of good info from Robert Altemeyer's study of authoritarianism as well.

highly recommended!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatives_without_Conscience

[IndianaGreen]

14. Thanks for the info! Your link led me to a PWW review of Dean's book, which I know post

Conservatives without Conscience: An insider views the GOP’s ominous politics

Author: Al Olson
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 09/07/06 16:08

BOOK REVIEW
Conservatives without Conscience
By John W. Dean
Penguin Books, 2006
Hardcover, 246 pp., $26.95

In recent years our society has witnessed the rise of a right-wing authoritarian political movement hiding behind a self-described “conservative” label while engaging in vicious, confrontational and hypocritical tactics in all areas of political activity. The unholy alliance between this movement, the Republican Party and religious right extremists has created a grave threat to our democratic freedoms.

John W. Dean is a former Watergate figure and counsel to the late President Nixon. In Dean’s latest book, “Conservatives without Conscience,” he observes that under the Bush-Cheney administration, there has been a “striking shift toward a very un-American type of authoritarianism,” in all branches of the federal government.

The author charges “the Grand Old Party to which I belonged has moved so far to the right, that on the contemporary political spectrum, I now often fall to the left of the Republican center.” Dean credits the present administration with giving “authoritarianism a new legitimacy in Washington.”

The author explains that this book originally began years ago as a collaborative project with the late conservative Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater during the last years of his life. Goldwater himself, certainly no model of moderation during most of his career, had become greatly concerned over the growing influence of religious right extremism in the Republican Party, and he gave this book its title.

Dean quotes Goldwater saying: “Those people (the religious right) frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. The government won’t work without it. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know. I’ve tried to deal with them.”

http://www.pww.org/article/view/9786/1/338/

[Amos Moses]

15. Glad you found it interesting.

Conservative political philosophy has never appealed to me as a voter but it's interesting to read about them. I always thought these new Republicans of the last decade or so were different from the ones I'd grown up seeing in the news. The book put it in a different perspective for me. Now I realize they've been around for much longer but the difference is they have taken total control of the party. Now, they are the ones that set the agenda. It just wasn't as obvious to me before.