A liberal can become a conservative; never the other way around

[Spatula City]

Originally Posted by Ferd

I did see a study not long ago that suggests that Conservatives can understand the liberal viewpoint, where liberals have a very hard time understanding the conservative viewpoint. the study was done by a liberal. it was quite interesting.

His study also found that conservatives have more respect for authority while liberals are more likely to challenge the norms.

I'm not sure that he's talking about liberals in the same way that the people on this board are.

Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives | Talk Transcript | TED.com

[Smash255]

Originally Posted by biscuitmom

I agree.

DH was a staunch conservative when we married. 37 years later, he's one of the most liberal people I know. He's fond of saying that the best thing I ever did for him was prevent him from voting for Reagan. I was pregnant at the time and on Dr. ordered bedrest; I told DH if he voted for Reagan I'd climb out of bed and vote for Carter to cancel out his vote. So we both sat out that election.

It was the "religious right" movement that initially soured him and as that fundamentalist moralistic attitude has deepened in the GOP, DH has reacted by shifting even farther left.

FWIW, we're white protestant Christians, have a more-than-comfortable income, and live in an affluent gated suburban community in a red state.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, that is quite similar to my dad (though he was never quite a conservative and more of a moderate)

He use to pretty much vote for both parties equally, now he pretty much votes 90% Democratic. He never was a fan of the religious right, but the religious right having more influence within the GOP, really started to push him more liberal and Democratic over the past decade/ Then as he retired a few years ago, my parents moved from Long Island to South Carolina (Charlotte suburbs) The GOP is considerably further to the right there (especially socially) and he moved more and more to the liberal and Democratic side since moving down there (he is in his late 60's non-practicing Catholic- middle class- worked for a bank in Manhattan)

[Ferd]

Originally Posted by EinsteinsGhost

As I've grown, I've become more liberal/progressive. But, I'm opposed to extremism of any kind, right or left.


It would be even more amusing to see that "study".

Here you go! Have fun!

Jonathan Haidt
Who is a self-described secular liberal — talks about how our moral intuitions inform our worldview far more than does reason.

Here is the link to his book The Righteous Mind:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Righteous-Mind-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777


you can access his TED Talk here
http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind

In his book (p. 287) Haidt reports on the following experiment: after determining whether someone is liberal or conservative, he then has each person answer the standard battery of questions as if he were the opposite ideology. So, he would ask a liberal to answer the questions as if he were a “typical conservative” and vice-versa. What he finds is quite striking: “The results were clear and consistent. Moderates and conservatives were most accurate in their predictions, whether they were pretending to be liberals or conservatives. Liberals were the least accurate, especially those who describe themselves as ‘very liberal.’ The biggest errors in the whole study came when liberals answered the Care and Fairness questions while pretending to be conservatives.” In other words, moderates and conservatives can understand the liberal worldview and liberals are unable to relate to the conservative worldview, especially when it comes to questions of care and fairness.



I came to this via the American Conservative but looked at the underlying information to insure what I was reading represented the author fairly. I think it does. This is a great article. One worth reading no matter your political viewpoint.

Here is the link to the article.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/jonathan-haidt-can-explain-the-liberal-hobby-lobby-freakout/