Posted on 09/12/2008 11:55:38 AM PDT by gridlock
“You can stand on my wagon, if you want.”
I tend, when I’m not in big crowds, to forget that I’m short. In Republican crowds, I find, I feel particularly small.
And dark. And unsmiling. And uncoiffed, unmade-up and inappropriately dressed.
For the McCain/Palin rally in Fairfax, Va., on Wednesday, the organizers had asked people to wear red. I – unthinkingly – had dressed in blue, which was somewhat isolating.
I was isolated, too, because, unable to find the press area in the crowd of about 15,000, I was out with the “real” people. Which meant that I could hear everything from the podium and from the onlookers around me, but could see nothing...
(snip)
For those of us who can’t tap into those yearnings, it seems the Palin faithful are blind – to the contradictions between her stated positions and the truth of the policies she espouses, to the contradictions between her ideology and their interests. But Jonathan Haidt, an associate professor of moral psychology at the University of Virginia, argues in an essay this month, “What Makes People Vote Republican?”, that it’s liberals, in fact, who are dangerously blind.
Haidt has conducted research in which liberals and conservatives were asked to project themselves into the minds of their opponents and answer questions about their moral reasoning. Conservatives, he said, prove quite adept at thinking like liberals, but liberals are consistently incapable of understanding the conservative point of view. “Liberals feel contempt for the conservative moral view, and that is very, very angering. Republicans are good at exploiting that anger,” he told me in a phone interview.
Perhaps that’s why the conservatives can so successfully get under liberals’ skin. And why liberals need to start working harder at breaking through the empathy barrier.
(Excerpt) Read more at warner.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Judith Warner
I am not in the habit of posting Judith Warner columns, but this one is interesting. You can see that she is really trying to struggle with what makes us tick.
Of course, she still has that Jane Goodall "Gorillas in the Mist" attitude, as if Conservatives are some kind of alien species. But at least she is making an effort.
It is worth a read.
Wore blue instead of red. Tried to be provocative. YAWN.
To them, they are..............
Wait a sec, this isn’t an Onion parody piece type thing? This is a REAL column? Hilarious!!!!!!
You know, there’s a verse in the Bible about the light shining in the darkness but the darkness not comprehending it.
Just thought I’d put that out there.
I’m thinking that there is no such thing as an “Empathy” class. Besides, if they could project well enough to understand how we think they would realize how wrong they are....
If liberals could think like conservatives, they would be conservatives unless, of course, they are elitists who want to be in charge of everyone else or they are people wanting something given to them by the government. Oh wait. . .
“I hope they brought their own Brie and Chablis with them,” he’d said, to raucous laughter, as I willed myself to disappear, remembering, with a shudder, that my children had demanded Brie for breakfast only that morning.
FWIW, I wouldn't know brie if I ate it.
I was at a breakfast table a few years ago visiting my journalist lib brother with his liberal friends when my table neighbor abruptly asked me, “you’re such a nice guy, how could you possibly be a consrvative?” Interesting mind set these libs. Sad, but interesting.
The difference between conservatives and libs?
Conservatives see a right and a wrong most libs only see shades of gray.
LOL!
it seems the Palin faithful are blind – to the contradictions between her stated positions and the truth of the policies she espouses, to the contradictions between her ideology and their interests.
They always talk about truth but to them the truth is whatever they want it to be. There are no contradictions in Palin's positions and policies. She consistently shows that she walks the walk and her life proves it. It also should prove to Ms. Warner that Palin's positions have worked out pretty well in real world practice.
You must remember that liberals are devoid of logic and reason. Their whole philosophical outlook is based on emotion, and as such is illogical from the start. They never consider the consequences of their actions or policies, only the fact that they feel good about them. Their intentions are all that matters, not the outcomes. Critical thinking is not in their toolkit.............
I have had that then. Went to a fairly upscale (for our small town) function one time and saw this stuff that I mistook for cheese cake. Big mistake.
Well doesn't that just say it all!
I have to look up this guy's research. Sounds fascinating.
Gee, and I thought the left was supposed to be all about "empathy" and "understanding"...... obviously they do not consider convervatives worthy of any of that empathy, ever.
I rest my case...............
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