How People Choose Political Philosophy
Since my mid-twenties I have been interested in national politics. I have often wondered what motivated a person to become a partisan member of either the Republican or Democrat party.
For some time I looked for a distinction between “world views†to explain why someone chooses Party A versus Party B. At one time I thought I had discovered these contrasting views which led to the choice. Some people tended to be “absolutist†while others tended to be “relativistâ€.
To give you an idea what I mean by the two views I will use a description in educational philosophy. Some advocate the educational policy that a child should be indoctrinated with a set of values. The other side takes the view that a child should be taught how to reason properly (how to analyze facts and to draw logical conclusions based upon those facts) and fortified with this ability the individual will make the proper value decisions throughout life.
A Catholic school education goes the indoctrination route, the absolutist rout, while the “liberal†education school takes the rational, relativist view. The view that there are absolute truths versus the view that there are not absolutes but that one can only approximate truth. Obtaining absolute truth is an illusion. I think that this absolutist versus relativist theory has some degree of validity as a state of mind that leads one to a political party but have decided that it was insufficient to explain the matter completely.
I have finally decided (reserving the right to change my mind later of course) that the answer is more mundane than this world view idea. I suspect that the conclusion I am about to describe is one people in the know have always known and that my conclusion is new only to me. Nevertheless I will give you my conclusions.
There are several issues that I will call polarizing issues; polarizing because they are issues which a significant number of individuals find to be important enough to them that they cannot support a political party which does not agree with their position on that particular matter. I suspect that these polarizing issues are; abortion, guns, taxes, and race.
In the case of abortion I think that the anti-abortion person is the side most motivated. The anti-abortion individual chooses a party based upon this one issue. The pro-choice voter can tolerate belonging to either party but the anti-abortion cannot. In the case of guns the person who cannot condone any gun regulation is the single-issue voter. On taxes the single-issue side is the person who feels that a tax cut is an end in itself. A tax cut is a good in any situation. As regarding race I suspect that both poles of that position are equally adamant.
Antiabortion is a particularly potent polarizing position because it is a position taken primarily for religious conviction. The religious person often has strong feelings regarding many other issues such as, school prayer, education theory, separation of church and state issues, matters of law and order, and others. Thus the community of religious persons creates a force for taking positions on other issues which in turn attract others to the party.
After becoming attached to Party A one begins to treat that attachment much like a sports fan might. Party A can do no wrong and I become very emotionally involved in the success of the party. Every issue supported by Party A is now my issue.
I think there is one other strong influence for choosing a Party and that is what I call milieu. One often chooses Party A because most of the people in the surrounding area are members of Party A.
In my opinion each person must recognize that schooling has not prepared any of us for becoming intellectually mature adults capable of navigating his or her own independent course through life. When we finally recognize that our schooling has not prepared us for life we must then ask the question. How do I prepare myself to become an intellectually mature adult? The answer I have discovered is that each individual must become a Critical Thinker. The details for accomplishing that are completely in the hands of the individual. Intellectual maturity does not come automatically with age but must be discovered.
I think that a good place to begin learning CT is: bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm.