Anticode t1_j7jt4hc wrote
Reply to comment by Techguyeric1 in George W. Bush morning jog on September 11, 2001 by hungHub
> As people get older they tend to start to vote more conservative
This is not necessarily true (anymore?). Studies are starting to find that 1) People actually become more liberal as they age; and/or 2) Views remain relatively stable throughout life.
[1] https://www.livescience.com/2360-busting-myth-people-turn-liberal-age.html
>If people really become more liberal as they age, why does common wisdom hold the opposite to be true?
>People might find an average 60-year-old to be more conservative than an average 30-year-old, Danigelis said, but beware of extrapolating a trend. The older person, for example, might have started off even more conservative than he or she is now.
[2] https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/706889
>Consistent with previous research but contrary to folk wisdom, our results indicate that political attitudes are remarkably stable over the long term. In contrast to previous research, however, we also find support for folk wisdom: on those occasions when political attitudes do shift across the life span, liberals are more likely to become conservatives than conservatives are to become liberals, suggesting that folk wisdom has some empirical basis even as it overstates the degree of change.
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All-in-all, it's pretty hard to track these sort of things since there's a ton of factors at play. Studies that occurred near the emergence of Trump onto the sociopolitical stage may have had their self-identification (rather than their beliefs) pushed left, now given an example of what right really looks like, for instance. It's hard to say.
In any case, I suspect that it's more generational than anything - specifically as a result of socio-environmental pressures. It's a bit much to get into this late at night, but I hypothesize that "conservativism" is a behavioral (mal)adaptation in the same way ADHD is a maladaptation to the flicker-frame-flashy-light modern world.
In the case of conservative behaviors, the symptoms emerge primarily in the amygdala, the part of the brain that controls for anger/disgust. If ADHD emerges to better handle the fast paced technological world (and subsequently results in failures to focus on more traditionally "slow" activities), then conservativism emerges in response to fear/chaos which subsequently results in failures to empathize with outgroups. You can think of it like a survival mechanism that switches on in response to war/conflict historically (and still responds to the illusion of danger).
Studies find that liberals and conservatives can be detected by brain scans alone and that's the part that's more heavily active in conservatives. It's why their responses to the world are so often based in fear or aggression (often both simultaneously).
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Re: Brain scans, etc. -- https://news.osu.edu/brain-scans-remarkably-good-at-predicting-political-ideology/
http://www.psypost.org/2017/09/inducing-anger-increases-economic-conservatism-study-finds-49580
thatc0braguy t1_j7lrcp9 wrote
Conservatism comes from money & ownership, generally. Money is the biggest indicator of where you will fall politically. (Celebrities being the outlier since their income comes from us giving them sales)
Because successive generations have less to conserve, they themselves are less conservative in general. As long as the economy continues to drive inequality, this will not reverse.
There's also the issue of medical complications where liberals are more likely to die earlier due to the stresses of poverty vs conservatives who can stay on top of their health through regular checkups. For example, republicans celebrated AIDS wiping out large demographics who were very anti-conservative.
Anticode t1_j7mg4x1 wrote
I think you've got the arrangement of the dynamic backwards. Red states are some of the poorest in the union. I suspect that the reason why so much of the wealthy elite are conservative is a combination of...
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The republican party is practically specifically geared towards policies that benefit the rich, obfuscated by social policies that revolve around things the voters are angry about.
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Those least concerned with equity, empathy, and fairness are those most likely to pursue extreme wealth - and to acquire it (via variously unethical means).
I also think that having wealth also inspires people towards paranoia and fear, as they've now compartmentalized themselves from the masses and/or recognize the disparity (subconsciously or otherwise).
Like another commenter pointed out, democrats raised more money than republicans during that period of time (if you ignore the big-big contributions).
That being said, I deeply agree with you that democrats are the 'default party' and that there is no liberal party.
(Which is why I like to say that republicans/democrats are the offensive and defense lines of the elite respectively.)
thatc0braguy t1_j7mk57s wrote
I wouldn't disagree with anything you've said.
I can't say for sure, but the "why" of the poorest states voting majority for the rich man's party is because those states don't see themselves as poor Laborers, they consider themselves "future millionaires" and vote accordingly.
Chewybunny t1_j7m02q3 wrote
To an extent - more money from the top 300 richest zip codes in 2013–14 went to Democrats than Republicans, by a significant but not overwhelming margin, if you set aside those contributions over $1 million made by wealthy individuals to their own campaigns.
This could be because the big four metro areas of in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. have the highest concentration of the 300 richest zip codes. The top 5% of the people living in those zip codes contribute to Democrats twice as much as they do to Republicans.
thatc0braguy t1_j7m199b wrote
Democrats are more the "default party" not necessarily liberal.
If anything I would consider the US has two conservative parties and zero labor parties.
TracyMorganFreeman t1_j7m0lnh wrote
I'd bet people becoming more liberal than age stems from a) a more polarized electorate and b) what it means to be liberal being expanded.
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