The passions witnessed today on Daily Kos, whether for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, have grown intense over the last few months. I will not comment on whether this situation rises to the level of a civil war; it is pointless to debate such a thing: it is not the label that matters, only the consequences.
That fruit is the core of why we should examine and try to understand this schism, as even now it is affecting the community negatively and that seeping destruction will only grow with time as we become, as a group, emotionally exhausted.
Hop, skip and jump over the fold for more...
Many of you have become aware of the work of Bob Altemeyer over the last year or so. For those of you who are not, The Authoritarians [Warning: PDF][1], his most relevant work to this discussion, is available in full on the web.
As a meme, Altemeyer's description of Authoritarian personalities has emerged as a forceful, psychological explanation for many of the behaviors the left has witnessed emerging from the Bush/Cheney administration and their followers, demonstrated through repeatable experiment.
In the process of digesting the nature and causes of Right Wing Authoritarian (RWA) personality, the definition of the "RW" has become lost in an unfortunate juxtaposition with the more typical American political interpretation of Right Wing.[2]
As Altemeyer draws out in his works, RWA personalities are not tied to political parties, they are tied to organizational behaviors, situational positioning, and certain kinds of education. Nor are RWA personalities all equal in relative intensity: a scale is defined from 20 at the low end to 180 on the very high end, with Americans tending to fall near 90, slightly below the average of 100.[3]
Without an objective evaluation, I would intuitively expect the Daily Kos population to fall somewhere below 90. But perhaps not as far as you might expect.
Herein lays the crux of our current schism, the abyssial battle over those who see Hillary Clinton as somehow akin to the Devil and those who see her as a Savior to shine light over Obama's hollow shell of charisma, charm, and hopeless hope. This is a battle writ large across political boundaries, though we seem to ignore that critical observation here in our cloistered microcosm of sinister[4] echoes.
The distaste of some of Clinton in the netroots community bears shocking resemblance to the hate she receives from the political right's media and political machines. The tearing of Obama's image by others echoes the same as the left's evisceration of Reagan's persuasive characteristics.
Have you presumed, Clinton acolytes, that Obama supporters are somehow disjoint, fundamentally different than the crowds that thralled at Reagan?
Have you presumed, Obama acolytes, that Clinton supporters are different than that core 30% of republican supporters who shall never cede ground to the failures of their leader, however bare they are laid?
They are. They are, but...
These are not qualitative differences.
They are differences in quantity, experience, and expectation.
Consider, for a moment, the scale I've presented above. Altemeyer purports to present an average RVA. A shallow analysis might lead someone to accumulate all Republicans in a bucket above this line, and all Democrats in a bucket below this line. Intuitively, though, this cannot be: we know from dealing with people day in and out that it is a rare woman or man who is absolutely defined by their averageness across all of their personality traits.
Each of us contains extremes that pull us in one direction or another and not all balance in the same way.
And here we see the terrain we are fighting our little war over. Even on the political left, there is a spectrum of RWA values, and a multitude of personality traits.
Some favor a particular form of confident individualist authority ("I will", answers always confidently delivered without presentation of consideration or uncertainty at the time of questioning) presented by Hillary Clinton, and some favor the collaborative outwardly analytic face of Barack Obama ("We will", less absolutist, the face of the thinker).
It is at this point in my essay that some of you will feel smug, and some will want to give my scent a pack of ravenous badgers, and point them in my general direction.[5]
I implore both groups to step back and recognize that it is precisely that feeling that causes our venom. I have lead you to that place to make the point that neither group is justified in their absolutist devaluation of the other. Equally, no advocate is justified in irrational exuberance in their advocacy, certainly not to the point of twisting facts until they look vaguely like DNA.
Both perspectives provide an approach that is appropriate to the world at different times and circumstances, day to day. Neither can work flexibly without the other.
Neither is the extremist Right Wing Authoritarianism of the post-modern republican machine. We are all of one mind: we do not want that, ever.
So stop yelling, please. The differences are necessary for balance, and whomever is elected will not make absolutely happy anyone, supporter or detractor. Each will take on attributes of the other if elected.
Focus on what binds us. Not the tiny cracks in the side walk, like absolute healthcare mandates, that will not likely survive first contact with a legislative body.
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Since I’ve recently invested in some environmentally sensible imitation asbestos underwear and matching laptop skin, flame away. But remember, don't hurt the Badgers.
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[1] http://members.shaw.ca/...
[2] http://members.shaw.ca/... p9 or 15 PDF.
[3] http://members.shaw.ca/... pp10-14 or 16-20 PDF.
[4] Before you get all enraged, the Sinister Hand is traditionally the left one, and has nothing to do with nefarious or undesirable motive. Except maybe that Bender is left handed. Ok, its a cheap misdirect. Sue me. I liked how it sounded.
[5] Be warned: I have an exceptionally good relationship with Badgers. I like them. They like me. Also, if they're hungry, I have snacks.