An important component of conservative psychology is repressed or displaced fear and the related sense of feeling threatened by various events, ideas and people around them.
Conservatives see the world as a more threatening place because their brains predispose them to being fearful. They are also predisposed by brain biology to hating complexity and compromise. That would help to explain why politics can be so polarized, particularly in a rather conservative era like the present. [with citations]
There should be little doubt by now that those more reflexively-inclined to possess heightened anxieties about current events over which they feel powerless will respond in ways which should surprise no one: they seek out authority figures who seem to not only understand the fears, but offer just the right tone and assessments about how to fix things. If you doubt, check out today’s news, and pay attention to the political campaigns of Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz—painful as that may be.
The tough-guy, policy-free bluster and nonsense issuing from both camps is, sad to say, exactly what the more fearful need to hear. It seems more obvious by the day that the messages those supporters receive leave little if any room for considerations about the feasibility of implementing the proposed “solutions” or what might motivate a chosen leader to suggest such things in the first place. If there’s no room for those considerations, there will surely be no room to ponder what might actually happen should anything approximating those suggested solutions be put into place.
Every choice and every decision made—or not—carries consequences. On matters affecting the community at large, some thought needs to be given to that part of the process. It’s not, and while blame can be directed to those who pander, some responsibility must be placed upon those who seek solace and are satisfied with any pronouncements which address their fears. There’s more to problem-solving than appeasement.
And as studies, admissions from leading conservative thinkers, and current political dynamics have made abundantly clear, compromise is not a go-to strategy for them. Neither is an appreciation for the competing factors and interests which play their part in cultural, economic, and political issues affecting most if not all of us.
It might satisfy the inherent personality and psychological dispositions of some to skirt past the multiple issues and instead latch on to one or two points which serve a need to close off debate, but those traits—and the omissions—also produce consequences. Whenever any issue of any great complexity is reduced to minimalist talking points, you can be sure a great many considerations and issues left unaddressed are going to rear their heads soon enough.
Postponing resolution so that the problems become larger and even more difficult to resolve is a choice. It’s just not a particularly good one.
Adapted from a recent blog post of mine