The Distinction between Republicans and Democrats: Two Views

 

The Political Zoo: Courtesy of Pew Research

Friend Xerxes introduces me to the work of Jonathan Haidt, who defines the innate tendencies of “liberals” and “conservatives.” Haidt found that what he called “liberal” voters were mainly influenced by two social values: “fairness” and “care”. Haidt’s “conservatives” had three core values: authority, purity, and loyalty.

Haidt’s analysis makes some sense, but not if you try to identify his “conservative” and “liberal” with current political parties in either the US or Canada. What Haidt calls “liberal” is really the Marxist-socialist position, and closer to classic conservatism than to classic liberalism. For “conservative,” Haidt is indeed describing the classic conservative position, but the modern Republican party, or the Conservative party in Canada, is actually more classically liberal. 

Pretty confusing, granted. Politics, as George Orwell noted, is largely about falsifying terms to get away with murder. We need to keep the terms straight to prevent this.

The modern Republican party is no respecter of authority. It is in more or less open rebellion against the “elites.” So too with Poilievre ‘s Conservatives in Canada. It is the Democrats, or the Liberals in Canada, who regularly appeal to authority and oppose questioning it. “Follow the science.” Don’t doubt the integrity of the mainstream media. Don’t doubt the integrity of the academics, or the climate scientists, or the teachers and ed schools; of the professions generally.

Purity? Nobody believes in racial purity as a value, but last time anyone did, it was the Democrats. Or, in Canada, the Liberals and Clear Grits. It is also the Democrats who are concerned with ideological purity: with “political correctness.” Political views in the Conservative or Republican parties are much more diverse, and diversity is much better tolerated.

If by “purity” Haidt actually means morality, he is right that morality is a classic conservative value, and it is also a modern Republican and Canadian Conservative value; and not a Democratic or Liberal value. Fair enough. But Christian morality is not “purity.” It is acknowledgement and remorse for sin when committed, not never sinning, and especially not claiming to have never sinned. Innocence ended in the Garden.

Loyalty? The Republican primary voters in 2016 rejected loyalty to their party leaders in nominating Trump. They were supposed to vote for Jeb Bush. In Canada, the Conservatives have ousted two leaders in about four years. Look, too, at the Conservatives in Britain.

By contrast, the Democratic primary voters obediently accepted the backroom deal to hand the nomination to Biden, four years after accepting the backroom deal handing the nomination to Hillary Clinton. The Democratic Party has always been the party of machine politics, party bosses, and client groups who will vote for a yellow dog out of party loyalty. Or are expected to, out of group loyalty, or “you ain’t black.” 

Haidt does not seem to even be aware of classic liberal values, but those are the values of the modern Republicans or Canadian Conservatives: freedom, the rights of the individual, free markets, equality. He misses half the political equation.