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Edited on Sat Dec-06-03 05:31 PM by HereSince1628
You've made a critical observation(if perhaps somewhat exaggerated in its reporting, every republican probably doesn't think our party would let the nation fall into ruin or run in the face of attack, although many may)
You captured it here... "Without exception they think the Democratic party would be more than willing to let the nation fall into ruin or shrink under attack."
What you've correctly recognized is that that the republicans you know are motivated in their political orienatation by fear.
In an article published in May 03 issue of Psychological Bulletin, Jost et al identified FEAR as the most powerful personality trait associated with a person being a conservative. The article is titled "Political conservatism as socially motivated cognition." You can google the title and get to both pdf and html versions...
Now, you might say that being conservative and being republican aren't the same thing. Once upon a time I would have agreed with that, however, I know longer believe in the mythic liberal republican. I am having doubts that anything like a moderate republican exists. I do think we could describe a statistically average republican and that average descriptor would be conservative.
So, although the research on conservatism can't perfectly parallel republicanism, the statement of your republican contacts' fear suggests that you ARE dealing with conservatism.
So...expect them to be fearful, expect them to resist change, be dogmatic and to recreate history to provide a mythic Utopia with flawless leaders (free market capitalism and Ronnie Reagan). Expect them to prefer "doing SOMETHING" to thoughtful planning, and expect them to characterize the world in stark terms good vs. evil, black vs. white.
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