Bob Altemeyer Meets The Tea-Party
Another wonky post, with some amusement…
I found myself on YouTube the other day, viewing the new RNC web ad, which assumes their audience has a mental age of about 8. So far, the leadership of the Republican Party has yet to approach an issue with maturity, and I couldn’t help but post a comment to the page, asking if anyone didn’t feel offended by the aforesaid assumption. My question was: “I’m stunned by how many people can be swayed by this kind of trash, even in the face of the Arizona legislation, the GOP refusing to work on financial reform, and the plain lack of substance to many of the falsehoods being circulated. Do you really believe Michelle Bachmann when she talks about internment camps? Do you believe Sarah Palin when she threatens you with ‘Death Panels’? When does their credibility suffer?”
The response was swift. I was told that all would be made clear if I read the “Founding Documents” and stopped drinking Kool-Aid (no offense to the KraftFoods Corporation.) As justification for their paranoia, I was referred to FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It was asserted that the Department of Labor – responsible for the census – gave Roosevelt the information he needed to find people. Now we have to worry about Obama, because anyone who disagrees with the need for healthcare reform should be shipped off to central Nevada and be placed in holding pens.
Of course, I pointed out that there have been six decennial censuses since 1942, so why freak out now? Because our freedom is threatened: the government owns 96% of home mortgages, it has taken over student loans, and will force everyone to buy health insurance. After a couple of back-and-forths, this is how the argument lined up:
- The new Arizona “Papers, Please” law is okay even though it presumes you are breaking the law;
- Warrantless wiretapping is okay because it made us safe;
- Holding Jose Padilla (a U.S. citizen) without charge for years was okay because he was obviously a terrorist;
- But insuring (not owning) home mortgage securities so that banks will offer them at lower interest rates is tyranny.
These assertions seem nonsensical; they certainly don’t adhere to a consistent policy platform. How is this possible? Back in the 1980s, a Canadian psychologist named Bob Altemeyer did ground-breaking research to find an answer. Altemeyer studies authoritarianism, and has identified the ‘right-wing authoritarian’ (RWA) personality type.
Briefly, since this information rightly occupies multiple volumes, the RWA is characterized as being submissive to [proper] authority, or following established authorities without question; will aggressively support their established authority, even to the point of violence; can be described as conventional and reject moral relativism; separate into homogenous groups and hold prejudices against minorities; tend to lack skepticism and rely on information provided by their authorities; construct a moral standard and reject everything outside of it; and view the world as a dangerous place, with society on the brink of destruction. There is more, but I think the point is made. An RWA personality is capable of accepting an authority like the Bush Administration violating Constitutional tenets while claiming that last year’s stimulus package is ‘big government’, because Glenn Beck told them so.
Which brings us to the end of this post. Altemeyer would define figures like Beck, Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney as social dominators, those who score high on a Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) scale. While RWAs tend to be submissive by nature, SDOs are in control. They believe in a social Darwinism, will discriminate against minority groups, identify threats everywhere in the world, and are Machiavellian (sorry for the disrespect, Niccolo) in their approach to enemies. Interestingly, while they use morality as a talking point, their own behavior demonstrates little of it. If the RWAs are the wind, then SDOs are the sail.
There’s much more, so I’d like to just cite a couple of books, in case you want to keep going (I’m off for a tasty falafel sandwich.) While much of our media makes the Tea Party movement out to be something significant in contemporary politics, I see it differently: it is an incoherent fringe that has always existed, but is now being prodded by a major political party that’s out of power and willing to play hardball. Which was the point of my question on YouTube: if directly confronted with shameless manipulation by the Republican Party, the RWAs will happily lap up their milk and proceed as directed.
“Conservatives Without Conscience,” John W. Dean, Penguin Books, 2007
“The Authoritarians,” Bob Altemeyer, Self-Published, 2007
“The Authoritarian Specter,” Bob Altemeyer, Harvard University Press, 1996
