Why am I a Conservative? (On the Neurobiology of Political Affiliation – and its Implications for Political Strategy)

This a question which has been asked and answered so many times, it probably seems like a boring topic for a blog post. But as with all things this blog covers, our fundamental perspective, of ideology as evolved Darwinian strategy, may offer a new view on this old subject.

A lot of writers try to answer this in a positive uplifting fashion, and this is where they go wrong. They try to extol the virtues of Conservatism, the value of Liberty, and the societal strength which arises when men interact freely, and bear the responsibility for their decisions. Some try to use a Darwinian perspective to argue that society self-assembles exceedingly well when bad decisions have consequences, and less healthy enterprises are allowed to fail, to make way for more successful iterations.

Of course none of that is really accurate, at least when answering the question which was asked. When I enter a voting booth, I’m not thinking of any of that. I’m thinking, if Republicans win, we may stall the collapse, but if Liberals win, our whole nation is royally screwed. I”m not seeing Conservatives holding hands, and skipping down meandering paths paved with gold bricks, toward a mythical city of Liberty. I’m seeing some conglomeration of Lord of the Flies, and Mad Max, mixed with Aurini’s new post-apocalyptic novel, threatening to become reality, if Liberals get a hold on the levers of power.

I’m seeing old relatives in broken down hospitals, being told they aren’t going to get treatments they need to survive, because they cost too much, and they don’t have that much time left anyway before they die, so why bother? I’m seeing a radical currency devaluation which stops all long range economic interactions only allowing for short range, local, barters and trades. I’m seeing bread lines, flash mob riots, and the savages coming to the suburbs, because the currency on their EBT cards is worthless, and they can’t get food any way other than raiding. I’m seeing Armageddon, unless a Republican wins.

This is crucial for idiots like Karl Rove to understand, before he goes wasting hundreds of millions of dollars. I don’t vote because I like Conservatism, or I believe in Republicans. I vote to keep the savages at bay, and their jackass minions in the Democratic Party out of power. The only reason I vote Republican is because their agenda destroys the nation at a much slower rate than that of their opponent.

I actually don’t like the vast majority of Republican politicians, maybe as much as a majority of Democrat voters do. With a few notable exceptions (Allen West, et al.), they are almost all corrupt, self-absorbed cowards.

In fact, let me put this so simply even an idiot like Karl Rove can understand. No matter what you do, you can’t make me like Republican politicos, or the party,  AND I’M A REPUBLICAN! I voted for your guy, and yet, there is nothing you can do which will make me like you. Think about that. Most all of you make me sick, and the world you inhabit disgusts me. Bear in mind, a loathing of government, and a disgust with most of those who seek governmental power is a natural part of a Conservative psychology. We don’t like government, or people who seek power attained through selfish social maneuvering. It’s in our programming, and an inherent part of our ideology and philosophy. So is telling people how wonderful you and your ideology are an effective use of funds? Probably not.

I’m not trudging off to the voting booth to support our wonderful Republican leaders. I vote because I know Liberalism is death, for our nation, our freedoms and even our citizens, especially now with Obamacare.

Why is this all important? That motivation in me, which drives me to the polls, and makes me vote, is the “Aversive Stimulus” of amygdala activity, and it is what is driving my behavior. The only way that stimulus emerges is by attaching negativity to the Democratic brand, in my brain, so I am motivated to take action to stop Democrats from obtaining power. Nice, uplifting storybook political commercials about yourselves won’t do it. Extolling the value of liberty, the need for better healthcare options, or the virtues of any of the Republican issue positions won’t do it either, unless you contrast it with how bad the Democratic option is, to develop amygdala pathways, and attach aversive stimulus to the Democrat option.

I voted for Mitt Romney, but I am of the honest opinion that he is a functioning psychopath. Who puts a dog on the roof of a car, drives on the freeway and scares it to the point it sprays diarrhea everywhere, stops the car at a rest stop, hoses the dog and the cage off with a garden hose, gets back in the car, cracks a joke, laughs uproariously, and then continues driving – with the dog still on the car roof! And worst of all, Mitt Romney was the guy running around telling that story. That is Callous/Unemotional behavior, lack of empathy, and textbook psychopathy, all in one, and he can’t even comprehend its unusual-ness, it is so natural to him. If the future of our nation wasn’t at stake, and Obama’s gross personality disorder wasn’t the alternative, no way I’d have ever voted for Romney.

Aversive stimulus is what drives me to the polls, and it seems like that is what does it every time. It is what turns out your vote. Now the only way that aversive stimulus gets implanted in people’s brains is if we fight, and amygdala up every Liberal, at every opportunity, in the most public way possible. Amygdala development has been shown in MRI analysis to be a critical difference in political disposition. Develop the amygdala, increase it’s volume, and you increase Conservative predisposition, by associating unwise/stupid Liberal behavior, with the aversive stimuli of the bad consequences it will produce. The only way amygdala volume can be increased, is through exercising the populace’s amygdalae, by exposing them to aversive stimuli, in association with Liberal concepts. Even Liberal John Jost has shown, expose an individual to negative or threatening stimuli (in the case of his research, mortal salience stimuli), an they will show a shift towards a Conservative ideology across all measures of ideology. Yes, a well respected researcher has shown simply exposing people to a stimuli can change their ideology, making them more Conservative.

That can not be done with niceness, and uplifting rhetoric (Though it can be masked with humor and other techniques – many which are likely to be found within Game). In fact, it is likely that niceness, and avoiding the stimulation of the nation’s amygdalae, through appeasement and conflict avoidance, probably allows the amygdala to atrophy, producing a nation which exists in a neurological fantasyland, where actions have no consequences to avoid, and there is no reason to not vote for the guy promising the most freebies for everyone.

In short, Republicans need to publicly assail Liberals at every turn, stimulate the populace’s amygdalae, and be less nice, not more nice. We need people hearing the word Liberal, and feeling a visceral revulsion at all the stupidity, the weakness and pathiety, and all of the negative consequences and suffering the ideology will bring.

That’s what motivates us to vote Republican, and it is what will motivate everyone else, if our leaders will approach the public debate in the right fashion, as a neurological battle that must be fought technically, by a unified force of Republicans opposed to Liberalism.

I will be rewriting all of this again, in different forms, in future posts, in the hope one presentation will hit someone somewhere, and open their eyes to how the party should be campaigning. For now, I just want to introduce this topic, by asking all of my readers to look at themselves, and ask, “Why did I vote for Romney/McCain/Dole/the Republicans etc.?” Did you see a sun-filled paradise if they were elected, or did you do it because an aversive stimulus in your amygdala was screaming about how a Democrat in power would literally be a nail in the coffin of our Republic? Would this effect within you respond more to an ad extolling what a magical life Mitt would produce, or would it respond more to a description of the misery Obama will produce?

Be honest.