Oh look, more evidence that it’s isn’t both sides after all!
From the VoteView blog piece Polarization is Real (and Asymmetric):
[W]e should be careful not to equate the two parties’ roles in contemporary political polarization: the data are clear that this is a Republican-led phenomenon where very conservative Republicans have replaced moderate Republicans and Southern Democrats. Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein do an excellent job of navigating these trends in their new book: It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.
The GOPs ongoing lurch to the right drags them further and further from mainstream America and from reality itself. But they have a bubble, so I’m sure they’ll be safe.
Obvious. So why aren’t we converting more Republicans?
A: Too much invested in the me first economy.
B: No one likes to admit they are wrong–especially to a “lesser” class or ethnic group.
Republicans cannot be converted. Psychopaths can’t be cured and neither can Republicans.
As much as I’d like to let them off the hook with an easy “they’re all psychopaths” excuse, I think there is something more awful at work here: fundamentalism. I’ve been reading up on the neuroscience of fundamentalism and it’s become quite clear to me that the GOP is less a political party, and more a fundamentalist religion. But I don’t want to tip all my cards, I’m working on a post about this. So stay tuned.
I just had a grainy black and white picture of Ayn Rand [from that awful interview with Mike Wallace, may he rest in peace, way back in the day] pop into my head. Creeps me out EVERY time.
I guess that there’s a reason for that.
Ayn Rand is the patron saint of the Republican cult.