Why do liberals think that conservatives will ever change for the better?
Conservatives are not sick in the head. Conservatism is not a mental disease. IOW, the things THEY say about US are not true of either us OR them. Cons will improve when their leadership improves. Sooner or later cons will get leaders that don't believe political cheating is okay if it's on your side, or spreading malicious lies is okay even after they've been discredited, or that it's fine to get all personal with anyone you disagree with. And that if you can win by bring out the very worst in Americans--hatreds, intolerances, blaming, etc. When conservative leaders start showing some actual principles and stop making politics into a prepubescent food fight, their followers will follow, hopefully I can't say when that will be, though.
Why do so many Liberals become Conservatives but so few Conservatives become libs?
That's funny, I guess we all find our way soon enough.... As for me I was conservative, and yes, during the days of Bill I was a Rush ditto head, I think back and see those years as him being in his prime, I even help voted Bush into office, and was happy when he beat Kerry. What turned me was seeing conservatives go back on everything they stood for during the last years a Bush, what keeps me from returning is continually see the so called conservatives, provide only insults, as if they're only hope is found in creating hatred and fear. As for true answers for today's problems, they offer none, for such did not make their spokes-persons talking points. They now stand in shambles known only as the party of 'No'.
Are liberal more mature than conservatives?
Son, you are very blinded. You see only what you want. I have a special dislike of political bigotry, and during the Bush years I saw TONS of it. I saw tons of it during the Clinton years. I spoke up both times. It is political bigotry, it's on both sides and it's contemptible. I am glad you feel it is immature. I utterly agree. Also, to make clear, I have made the mistake myself, and I'm a democrat. Here is from Wikipedia: "Democrat Party" is a political epithet used in the United States instead of "Democratic Party" when talking about the Democratic Party. The term has been principally used by conservative commentators and members of the Republican Party in party platforms, partisan speeches and press releases since the 1930s. The explicit goal is to dissociate the name of the rival party from the concept of democracy." For those wishing to avoid the kind of nonsense that starts with deliberately calling the Democratic Party the "Democrat Party" and that ends with things like "Tea Baggers" rather than "Tea Party Movement", then I would have to say that your point is well-taken. But folks, never blind yourself in one eye. We see our opposition, our hated enemies, when we are bigoted. And we often miss the white sheeted KKK riders who ride past our door loudly shouting.
What causes people to change from liberal to conservative as they get older? What factors contribute to this change?
As others more well known than I have pointed out: one definition of “conservative” is- one marked by moderation. And one definition of “liberal” is- generous and open minded. I will further observe: that we are seeing more political extremism than has been normal over the past 40 years and this is reminiscent of the last half of the 60’s Decade. So neither of those two definitions are really applicable because extremism has marred them both.Yet I know from personal experience that none of the people I know are extremist in their daily lives nor in their talking about political subjects. So something unusual is going on between the “national public” level and the personal day-to-day level.As people get older a fairly complex “existential process” inevitably takes hold. Part of this is gains in knowledge finally reach the highest level that any individual may reach. And accumulated experience tells persons of “retirement” age what works and what doesn’t in many areas. (yet older people also observe younger generations having to learn the same things they learned and have lived with for years).Living long basically forces Reality on people -provided they don’t refuse to face Reality and the inevitable lessons it teaches. In that way, Liberalism today encourages idealism over pragmatism. Conservatism today teaches pragmatism over idealism. And that’s why some people tend to become more pragmatic and conservative after a certain age.But - neither ideology is perfect. Objective analysis shows that both contain flaws, some of those are serious and weaken these ideologies. This is why the majority of people are Independents, not conservatives or liberals.
Why do conservatives use logic while liberals use emotion?
Excuse me while I pick up myself off the floor here a moment. Erm, no... Conservatism is nothing but the defense of aristocracy. The argumentation is whatever is convenient to that goal. And Calvinism misses an important point: Hard work is a punishment. It's not an end. It's one of the calamities that befalls mankind after original sin. So while work is indeed necessary, its worship is stupid. One should certainly seek leisure to enjoy creation AS IT WAS GIVEN. Worshipping hard work is like worshipping death. It was meant as a calamity. Conservatives are the modern day Pharisees. They seek an interpretation of the LETTER of the text which will justify their preferred hierarchy. (And it must be hierarchical. The opening paragraphs of this article describe it quite well: http://www.skeptic.ca/Poverty_of_Conserv... They read the constitution the same way of course, and are not interested in historical context, because facts, right?
Why do conservatives believe they're immune to groupthink?
A major evolutionary achievement of human beings is that we can think together and achieve a far higher effective group intelligence than the intelligence of any group member alone.However successful group thinking requires suitable - relatively small - group sizes and mutual respect.If group sizes are too large, or if there is a lack of respect by some of the group for others in the group, any kind of group thinking tends to be a reflection only of the thoughts of the bullies in the group.Relatively few US-style conservatives have experienced any real group thinking because they tend to lack the respect for others that is essential to making it work effectively. That makes them deride the idea of collective thinking.By sad paradox, though, it makes them more likely to grasp at dogma because they lack the depth of thinking that can come from group discussion so they are easy targets for slick propaganda. They are quite right in thinking that they do not think as a group but they do share the same ideas because their only reference for the validity of their beliefs is the agreement of their beliefs with others who are similarly in the grip of the same propaganda.I do know some conservatives here in Australia who are exceptionally good at facilitating people thinking constructively together, but such people seem to be a lot rarer amongst conservatives in the extremist political environment of the USA.
What does being a liberal or conservative mean to you today?
Being liberal means you are on the blue team, conservative means you are on the red team. No, I am not joking, that is what it has become; that is what it is today. These teams have their mascots like social responsibility vs. traditional values; progressive economics vs. fiscal responsibility, etc. But it doesn’t matter who you vote for, your candidate has no capacity of delivering on their promises so you’ll never get what you thought you wanted. That’s because what you thought you wanted is only what you have been taught to want and is not what you need. That is why political promises are not a promise of anything.Nothing is more important that politics because bad politics leads to moral, economic and political bankruptcy; conditions in which life becomes nearly impossible. But ironically it doesn’t matter what you thought you voted for because the “issues” are just like the mascots at sporting events or the impressive team logos and flags. They are just symbols around which the voters can rally and be lead.By the way, you may think you want these fictitious policies to be enacted but any rational analysis of these policies shows they are deeply flawed in concept and can only lead to failure. That’s why legislators only pretend to fight for them. The people need to vote for policies and candidates based on properly conducted research and reliable facts. That kind of information is routinely and systematically withheld from the voters and replaced with convenient fiction. That’s how you win elections.Good policies would be based on current circumstances that change daily. Any good policy will sometimes look conservative and sometimes look liberal according to circumstances and what needs to be achieved in the immediate future. Instead we are taught to vote for our party and our heroes.People do not vote based on the merit of the issues or the merit of candidates. People mainly vote based on emotional content and personal identification. That is why what determines election outcomes is the best advertising campaign. Being liberal vs. being conservative has more to do with who your parents are or who your friends are rather than on rational choices.
Do people become more conservative as they age? Why?
I think most people with reasonable mental capacity learn from experience and tend to get more sceptical as they age, but scepticism is not the same as conservatism. I also feel due to having more life experience that you tend to appreciate the little things more, things that younger people tend to take for granted.I think this mantra that you get more conservative as you age came from baby boomers. The baby boomer generation was probably the first American generation that questioned authority, and challenged it. Many boomers were probably liberal themselves and subscribed to at least some aspect of the counterculture and civil rights movement. As many boomers aged though a good deal of them became more conservative, and maybe even Reagan Republicans. I know this is an assumption, but it’s at least what I’d seen with many of the boomers I’ve known - hippie to Vietnam vet to conservative voter - a common pattern I’ve noticed within my own circle.With me it was the opposite; I went from conservative to libertarian to progressive. The latter is where I’m at now. My life experience has demonstrated to me that most conservative economic and social policies do not work. I had also found it hypocritical to claim to champion ‘life’ (abortion issue), but yet support policies that severely undermine those born into unfortunate circumstances. The war on drugs was a joke too, and another version of hypocrisy. My own motto: keep religion, God and objective morality out of my politics and government.
How are old Liberals different from young Liberals?
Age has a way of making you see issues / movements within the mosaic of history.When you’re in your 20s, you’re impatient and wonder why things haven’t changed yet. You feel compelled to push hard and look for immediate results.As you get older, you realize you’re part of one section of fabric, in the long mosaic of human history. As movements appear to have stalled, or have achieved partial results, it’s understandable for a liberal to feel defeated.What’s going on from the perspective of a higher altitude is the seeds of change are planted. Sometimes change is fairly rapid. Other times, it appears to not be going on, at all.Bill Clinton enacted “don’t ask, don’t tell”, as a way for gay people to serve in the military. The rules were unchanged, but the policy was a massive change from what had been before, and Clinton caught a lot of heat for it. 25 years later, Barack Obama eliminated what had become the anachronism of “don’t ask, don’t tell”.The nation was in no way ready for full gay rights in the military, in the 1990s. But this change occurred very rapidly, if you look at how things have changed, historically. When you include the Supreme Court supporting gay marriage, gay rights have occurred extremely quickly.Example: In 1688, a century before the US was formed as a nation, four Quakers in Pennsylvania wrote their opinion that slavery was wrong. The US Constitution was created in large part because of 3/5 Compromise, something we today view as a horrible action, but without that compromise, the US would not exist. Abraham Lincoln became the hated enemy of the South because he defeated the Confederacy and ended slavery. It took another 100 years for African Americans to fully get the right to vote. (Obviously, as a nation, we’re still wrestling with the issue of race, or at least the persistent effects of the past.)An old liberal sees how things change, over the longer course of time. A young liberal sees what needs to be fixed, today.