A:
Posted on 09/12/2008 4:10:53 PM PDT by Comparative Advantage
What makes people vote Republican? Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies? We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany's best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress. But now that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world.
(Excerpt) Read more at edge.org:80 ...
A:
Better looking women.
True Republicans are liberals in the classic sense (i.e., they believe in free markets, the freedoms embodied in the Bill of Rights, respect for life, liberty, and property, equal opportunity, etc.)
Modern day liberals, on the other hand, believe in equality of results, to be enforced by the government. Since the traditional, “bourgeois” liberal freedoms don’t produce equality of results, they take a very subordinate role in the modern liberal view of things.
The writer would have us believe that the classical liberal view, as embodied in the beliefs of true Republicans, is reactionary; he wants to promote the modern, liberal view (which is equivalent to Socialism or even National Socialism) as progressive. This point of view was adopted by many in the intelligentsia in Europe, in the 1930’s - and we know how that all turned out.
A:
WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN?
Republicans can think. Something that is in short supply among democrats.
I'm all for liberalism, diversity and progress ---- correctly understood. Reaganism promoted liberalism (liberty), diversity (personal freedom) and progress. Democrats promote illiberalism (State control), uniformity (political correctness) and status quo (opposing all change).
And why are working people's economic interests in seeing the endless growth of government? Free markets have improved the lot of workers far more than government ever could.
My top three reasons:
1. Better at/more supportive of national defense.
2. More likely to “let” me keep more of my own money.
3. More likely to believe that government is usually a problem rather than a solution.
I prefer 
Mark
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