What's Important?

[Yvonne]

The following is a report on a 2009 survey by Public Religion Research Institue. You may already be familiar with it, but I thought it was interesting what priorities conservatives and progressives placed on issues such as same-sex marriages, abortion, social justice, and the environement. Not particularly surprising, but interesting.

 

http://publicreligion.org/research/2009/09/conservative-progressive-religious-activists-surveys/

 

Of course, having been a researcher, I tend to be somewhat hesitant about quoting statistics, but these are quite telling.

I have also maintained that extremists, on either the left or the right, are still extremists. Fortunately for me, I don't find any extremist progressives.

 

Equally interesting was that the conservative activists were evangelical Christian, while progressive activitists were more diverse.

 

What does this say about our socio-political structure and responsibility, if anything?

[GeorgeW]

Yvonne,

 

I think this is consistent with the model developed by George Lakoff in Moral Politics. There are basic, underlying values that motivate our worldview. We would expect that someone who is religiously conservative would also be politically and socially conservative although a particular issue may have nothing to do with religion. Of course, the converse would be true of liberals. These underlying values are scalar not polar, so we are not always perfectly one or the other.

 

Did anyone see clips of the Republican debate in which it was asked, if someone was in a coma and had no insurance, should they be allowed to die. Ron Paul agreed and said it is the consequence of his freedom. I don't think any of the other candidates responded. But, people in the crowd shouted, "Let him die." This is conservatism on steroids.

 

George

[Yvonne]

 

Did anyone see clips of the Republican debate in which it was asked, if someone was in a coma and had no insurance, should they be allowed to die. Ron Paul agreed and said it is the consequence of his freedom. I don't think any of the other candidates responded. But, people in the crowd shouted, "Let him die." This is conservatism on steroids.

 

 

George,

 

I didn't catch that, though, like you said, its not surprising. My concern is that the conservatives seem to be so much more vocal about their beliefs. Do you think that's true? For example, I'm the only liberal in an very conservative family. The few times I tried to discuss any issues with my brothers, they shouted me down, literally. When I turn on the news (and I try to find impartial news sources), it seems the conservatives are shouting the loudest. Maybe liberals are too polite? Well, except for the extremists of course.

[GeorgeW]

My concern is that the conservatives seem to be so much more vocal about their beliefs.  Do you think that's true?

Yes, I do think that is true. It may be related to liberal tolerance of differing points of view and seeing the world in a more nuanced way. Therefore, conservatives are more likely to see truth as absolute and feel that it must be asserted. Liberals tend not to be comfortable with absolute truth shouted from the rooftops.

 

George