Psychologizing the voters
Jonathan Haidt writes at The Edge:
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?
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.
“Cognitively inflexible” sounds better than “bitterly clinging to guns and religion”, I suppose. There seems to be a cottage industry devoted to explaining Republicans, rather than appealing to them. Condescension is not a viable strategy.