Politics as Tribe

 

Severely partisan-minded people do not, as a rule, engage in rational policy discussion. Instead, they immediately start calling names in an effort to choke off any discussion before it can really get started. What this shows is politics at its most tribal. It isn't about issues - it's about identity.

 

[...]

 

This is not new, of course, as politicians have been playing their electoral bases for suckers since at least the Roman Republic. But, despite all that, loyal Democrats are stepping up to defend their guy just as viciously as loyal Republicans went to bat for W. It is almost as if they are unable to recognize that they are backing policies which are exactly opposite of what their guy promised in order to get elected.

 

What gives with that, anyway? I’ve pondered that question for years, but finally got some inkling of an answer from a study done during the 2004 presidential election cycle. Researchers at Emory University did a study on both Democrats and Republicans to determine how hyper-partisan individuals processed information.

 

Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects’ brains were monitored while they pondered.

 

What did the researchers find? Essentially, partisan Democrats and Republicans are completely unable to see contradictions on their own side of the fence.

 

The tests involved pairs of statements by the candidates, President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry, that clearly contradicted each other. The test subjects were asked to consider and rate the discrepancy. Then they were presented with another statement that might explain away the contradiction. The scenario was repeated several times for each candidate.

 

The brain imaging revealed a consistent pattern. Both Republicans and Democrats consistently denied obvious contradictions for their own candidate but detected contradictions in the opposing candidate.

 

Overall, here were the results:

 

* Partisan beliefs are calcified, meaning partisan people can learn very little from new data

* Partisans spin data in their minds until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones. They literally feel a rush from ignoring facts which contradict their desired outcomes.

 

Partisan politics isn’t about facts or issues or policies. It’s about identity. In other words, it isn’t about what a member of my tribe says or does, what matters is that they are part of my tribe. So if a Democrat sells out totally on issue after issue, the Democrats simply ignore that fact and keep on vilifying the opposition. The Republicans do the same thing. In fact, partisan minds even reinforce this process by giving their owners a rush from ignoring contradictory data.

 

There is no logic to this. Which is why rational policy debate is out the window. How can you have a rational debate when you are totally blind to the contradictory nature of the policies emanating from your own side, and are incapable of learning from new data? In fact, how can you even begin to argue rationally if you are incapable of evaluating your own side’s ideas?

 

[...]

 

http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/2009/10/25/politics-as-tribe/

Great post, Wendy.

 

I think the reason politics is so irrational is because it starts from an irrational premise. All politics is:

 

1. "I will take something from you, and give it to another person."

2. "I will make something official" (when there really isn't such a thing as "official", it's just an idea)

3. "These are the rules, if you break them I will hurt you."

 

Politics is like a gun, and whoever gets control of the gun has a lot of fun for a while. But eventually the struggle ends up with the gun changing hands. One day, somebody will actually shoot the gun, and all dissent will be lost forever.

Hey Wendy, do me a favor. Take your racist propaganda elsewhere. Your National Policy Institute articles are ridiculous. I know it must be hard to have an independent thought all by your little old self.

 

For those that don't know and think that Wendy is actually making sense(which she is not). This is what the National Policy Institute stands for:

 

 

 

"White Americans have been led to believe that “diversity” and “multiculturalism” are sacred. We’re conditioned to be shy when it comes to standing up for our own beliefs. But doesn’t every race, ethnic subculture, and special interest—from left-handers to lesbians—have all sorts of organizations working for them? Isn’t it about time someone spoke for us? It’s not just the minority lobby who opposes our interests while advancing their own: even America’s white leaders—conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats—routinely push for policies that disadvantage their own people. Well, it is about time we had a voice in public policy—that’s why THE NATIONAL POLICY INSTITUTE (NPI) was formed. NPI promotes the American majority’s unique historical, cultural, and biological inheritance—and advances policies that, without prejudicing the legitimate rights of others, fearlessly defends our rights… our heritage."

I love how their party's own site sort of tiptoes around the fact they are bigots.

 

I mean there's nothing wrong with being curious about your family's heritage, but it ends up becoming irrational and creepy when you begin to feel "proud" about your "race".

 

A better (and more productive) way to be preoccupied with "race" is to breed purebred dogs for sale.

 

I just wish they wouldn't teach their kids to feel special. It's like that Dr Seuss story about the sneeches with stars on their bellies. Nobody cares.

Good response Jay. I just wish, I mean I really wish, that Wendy would engage in some kind of dialogue. She seems rather base to me.

If you search her name, you'll find she's on loads of sites besides this one. Meaning all 'it' does is go around like our evangelist friend frodo, posting mesages and moving on to the next of probably countless sites.

^^Good call:) I knew there was something not quite right about her.