Is conservatism a birth defect?

An illustration of the republican elephant and the democratic donkey

Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey/Flickr

Since the founding of our country, we have viewed competing political ideologies as part of the very fabric from which our democracy was woven. But somewhere along the way, the whole notion of truthfulness and integrity has been torn asunder. All parties wish to be viewed as equally legitimate regardless of whether that legitimacy is merited.

The GOP has become the party of lying and fear-mongering. That’s all they got. Their actual policies don’t sell well in the free marketplace of ideas, so they have no choice but to lie out of desperation to hold onto power. Fortunately their tactics have limited reach: lying and fear-mongering alone won’t win them elections. (That’s where the voter suppression comes in.) But why is the GOP base of conservative voters so easily manipulated into believing the lies? Because they are hard-wired to do so.

Studies have shown that there is a physiological difference in the way the conservative brain works. Conservatives have an exaggerated fear response, which explains a great deal, not the least of which is how we end up with so many people who vote against their own interests. Their fear responses have been manipulated into fearing the wrong things. It’s truly despicable. People who are not able to react rationally to fear pose a danger to themselves and the rest of us. We should help them rather than exploit them.

The word “socialism” is thrown around to scare voters as if it’s some foreign concept, something we don’t practice here in America. Except we do. Big time. Social Security and Medicare are forms of socialism that the GOP base loves — as long as you don’t admit that they are socialism. Yet somehow the base doesn’t seem to see that the GOP leadership wants to gut those programs because they hate socialism. (Unless we’re talking about corporate socialism, of which the GOP leadership is wholeheartedly supportive.)

My writing is not aimed at wooing conservatives over to my point of view. In most cases that’s a futile effort. My tact rather is to shame them, make it socially unacceptable to hold certain conservative views. Make racism wrong again. Make lying wrong again. Make greed wrong again. If we do that then we actually would make America great again.

No matter how hard they fight, conservatives are ultimately, eventually going to be selected by nature for extinction. They will be ridiculed by most of society as not very bright nor very moral.


Jeff Taylor is a vendor and artist for Street Sense Media


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