What Democrats can learn from Moral Psychology.

This discussion on moral psychology relates directly to Steve's blog regarding how could anyone vote for McCain.

The article by Jonathan Haidt discusses first the idea of morality, which from his research he draws two basic conclusions. "First, when gut feelings are present, dispassionate reasoning is rare." He noted the philosopher David Hume's dictum that reason is "the slave of the passions, and can be pretend to no other office than to serve and obey them."

This lead him to formulate his first rule of moral psychology: Feelings come first and tilt the mental playing field on which reasons and arguments compete. If a person wants to come to an irrational conclusion they will find "rational" reasons to support it.

What he was saying reminds me of the old Simon and Garfuckle lyrics from the song The Boxer which said, "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."

His second conclusion was "that the moral domain varies across cultures." He refers to anthropologist Richard Shweder's idea that the moral domain (not just specific rules) vary by culture. So Mr. Haidt says the second rule of moral psychology is that "morality is not just about how we treat each other (as most liberals think); it is also about binding groups together, supporting essential institutions, and living in a sanctified and noble way."

That's what Lakoff was saying, that the Republicans are dominated by the strict father model. The strict father God is punitive. Follow God's commandments as set forth in the Bible, of the dictates of the church, accepted social norms, do not question authority, and pay strict allegience to the party and revere the Flag.

Haidt cites Drew Westen's book, The Political Brain, as saying that "the Republicans have become the party of the sacred, appropriating not just the issues of God, faith and religion, but also the sacred symbols of the nation such as the Flag and the Military." Haidt goes on to say, that "The Democrats, in the process, have become the party of the profane--of secular life and material interests. Democrats often seem to think of voters as consumers; they rely on polls to set policy decisions that will convince 51% of the electorate to buy. Most Democrats don't seem to understand that politics is more like religion than it is like shopping."

IMO, this is why the selection of Gov. Palin has so energized the Republican conservative base, she's not about substance, she's about symbolism. "When gut feelings are present, dispassionate reasoning is rare."

I hope the Obama campaign has gotten the message.

I like Thom Hartmann's explanation for Republican success, as it relates to cognitive functioning. We basically have three brains, Reptilian, Mammalian, and the Neo-Cortex. The Reptilian is the earliest development in evolution and it is just about fear and survival. It governs the flight or fight instinct we hear so much about. The Mammalian brain is about the heart and the gut. It is about emotions and feelings, loyalty, longings, etc. The Neo-Cortex part of the brain, or the last part developed in evolution, governs the higher functioning aspects of our minds and abstract reasoning.
The Republicans successfully appeal to the first two parts of the mind, the Reptilian and the Mammalian. They appeal to fear of others, foreigners, strangers, the future, communists, terrorists, etc. They also appeal to that old time religion, patriotism, guns, the frontier days when men were man and women were women, etc. The totally ignore the higher functioning part of the brain and almost never try to appeal to reason. They keep it simple and go straight for gut and the heart. Never mind the brain.The Democrats keep trying to get voters to be reasonable and vote intelligently for their interest and societies as a whole. Then they are baffled over why people vote against their own self interest. Obama has thankfully figured this out and tells stories that people can relate to.
The other dynamic is the quick sound bite that has become the standard for political advertising .Sound bites normally to go to the gut (the Mammalian brain) or the fearful, survivalist brain (Reptilian brain) and the Republicans are good at coming up with those sound bites.
It is unfortunate that politics has come to this, but that is what we are dealing with these days. Selling politicians is no different than selling cars or soaps or insurance plans.