Conservatives are Whiny and Weak
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Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school,
the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running
to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the
Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years.
The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.
Twenty years of conservative thrashing about, they get in power
and what do the Republicans do? They blow it. Now we know why.
The analysis in this new study explains so much. It also has the added benefit that it will drive the conservatives nuts.
… The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative,
and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles
and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.
The world isn't a black and white place. It's filled with shades
of gray and unknowns.
It's not the first proof we've gotten that “conservatives
are crazy.”
Similar work by John T. Jost of Stanford
and colleagues in 2003 drew a political backlash. The researchers reviewed
44 years worth of studies into the psychology of conservatism, and concluded
that people who are dogmatic, fearful, intolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty,
and who crave order and structure are more likely to gravitate to conservatism.
Critics branded it the “conservatives are crazy” study and accused
the authors of a political bias.
Republicans have tried to turn George W. Bush's rigidity into
moral certainty, as the article reminds us. But that moral certainly is turning
to dust through the innumerable IEDs and bombs blowing up in the Iraqi desert.
Moral certainty must be accompanied by the humility to evaluate
your position when things go wrong. Rigidity is what makes you unable to recalibrate
and refocus when needed.
The Republicans' “stay the course” attitude that is
buffered by “victory” has been proven wrong, but their dogmatic ideology
won't allow them to correct their devastating course. It starts when they are kids.
Republicans have been rigidly unmovable on Iraq, so that 3 years
later our soldiers are in the middle of a civil war, while Bush marks the anniversary
by refusing to say the word WAR. There is nothing moral in being obstinate.
Yelping “stay the course” and “victory” doesn't make it
certain.
The conservative movement has been based on a sure thing of traditional
values, structure and order. They are moored to a pre-9/11 way of thinking, long after “Leave it to Beaver” blew up. Denying reality won't help you fix real problems.
In the face of our foundation of immutable safety blowing up on 9/11, the conservatives didn't embrace
a world of change. Instead, conservatives freaked, they panicked, then went after the wrong guy and let the one that did all the damage get away. Then they whined and made a weak case for war based on
fears and threats and smears at anyone who disagreed, which has led us to an abyss in Iraq, as our enemies multiply, our country goes bankrupt on their dogmatic pledges of “victory,” while the president and his rubber stamp party spout slogans instead of offering plans.
The moral certainty to do what's right in Iraq is what made Jack
Murtha stand up, admit he was wrong about the war, then present a plan for a
way out. His confidence secure, this Democrat didn't care what people thought, it only mattered what he could do to solve the problem. No slogans. No ideology. Just offering a solution. Now that's a plan.
Republican weakness to admit mistakes, their timidity to try something new, and their rigidity to admit they've blown it has lost Iraq.
One can only wonder what Ken Mehlman, Karl Rove and Tom Delay
were like as kids. But I cringe just thinking about Joe.
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