The Cult of Conservatism
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")
The cult of conservatism at work:
People who believe God is very engaged in their everyday life tend to see conservative economic policy as an article of faith, according to a study published Tuesday by Baylor University.
Paul Froese, co-author of the Baylor Religious Survey, says that those who believe in a more hands-off God tend to believe in more than one way to fix America’s economic woes. But those who believe in a more active God tend to believe there is “one truth” when it comes to fixing the economy.
The study also found that 20% of Americans believe God is in control of the economy. According to Froese, those who believe God is in control also tend to believe that a hands-off approach is the economy's only possible fix.
“Lack of government regulation, low taxation," he said. " That kind of conservative economic world view, for people with an engaged God, is almost synonymous.”
This coupling of belief systems began in the 1980’s said Froese, when the Republican Party began to court values voters who selected their candidates based primarily on social issues. Over time, the value voters began to go along with the economic teachings of Republican leaders of the time.
“Those kinds of voters who are driven by their faith tend to think that there are these ultimate truths out there and that everything else is wrong,” said Froese. “If you find a part of a leader you are in agreement with on these faith statements, then their discussion on the economy must also be right.”
In a way, this sort of thinking goes all the way back to the Calvinist ideology that arrived in America via the Mayflower. Yet even the Puritans, who very much believed that success on this earth was proof of God's favor, nonetheless possessed a spirit of collective well-being best evidenced in John Winthrop's classic City on a Hill. The modern conservative marriage of Calvin and von Mises is one of the most deadly ideological brews in the nation's history, and it's a fairly recent development.
This evidence is pretty much conclusive proof of a couple of key points progressive advocates have been making for years now:
1) Per Drew Westen and George Lakoff, voters cannot be reached at the level of individual policy. This is an argument about values. A failure to clearly differentiate progressive values from conservative values leads to the universal acceptance of conservative values, which in turn makes it impossible to implement commonsense legislation. Discussing individual policy in this context without having an almost theological discussion of core values is a recipe not only for failure at the ballot box, but more importantly for failure at the level of policy implementation.
2) There is a large segment of voters out there whom the progressive message will simply never reach. The amount of contortion necessary to try to win their votes would be do far more harm than good. The Democratic Party's effort to win back the "values voter" has essentially been a counterproductive waste, as the few Blue Dog Democrats who do sneak in under these auspices are so damaging to the party brand as to make them more trouble than they're worth, particularly considering the huge amounts of money the DCCC spends each year to make them viable.
This is partly what has been happening throughout President Obama's first term: in an effort to appeal to "independent" voters who have been brainwashed into this conservative cult, the President has done significant harm not only to his base, but to the promotion of the sort of rhetoric that can serve as antidote to the conservative ideological poison.
When Obama is talking, he is always talking about looking at anything that works: ‘I want to make compromise. I want to do things that pragmatically have immediate results,’” he said.
In contrast, Froese said the rhetoric of candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry is shaped by their belief in an involved higher power.
“’“Have faith in God. Don’t regulate. Lower taxes. There you are seeing a distinction in the almost philosophical outlook and how you understand economic theory,” he said.
Dr. Froese is elegantly saying in a clinical way what many Administration critics have been pointing out for months. Modern conservatism is a cult. Neither it nor its voters can be reasoned with. Attempting to pragmatically compromise with them in the hopes of
deflecting criticism, "changing Washington" and winning "independent" voters is a waste of time.
Thankfully, the Administration seems to be taking a more combative approach of late, with an increased willingness to go toe to toe with the conservative cult. That's what it will take for the nation to survive, and vaccinate itself against this particularly nasty ideological virus.
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