The Psychology of Democrats and Republicans
March 6th, 2008I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I can’t stand either of them, and this is why.
The Democrats
The Democrats want to be your Mom. They know what’s best for you, and want to tell you what’s best for you whether you want to hear it or not. They love to nag. They love safety nets, and they’d punish the strong to take care of the weak. They’re obsessed with equality and see injustice everywhere. The world’s not fair, but they want to make it fair, and anyone who stands in their way be damned. They hate prejudice in all forms, but deep down inside, they’re the most prejudice people you’ll ever meet.
In extreme cases, they’d make all guns illegal, make anyone who ever spanked a child go to jail (I’m not joking, I’ve known people like this), make eating meat illegal, ban both heavy metal and rap music, tax anything that could possibly be dangerous, impose stiff fines on anyone caught without a bike helmet, zombify any boy who shows any sign of masculinity with Ritalin, and monitor you 24 hours a day to make sure you don’t do anything that is bad for you. Of course, it’s in your best interest that they watch out for you, because you cannot watch out for yourself and you have no idea what’s in your own best interest.
The Republicans
The Republicans want to be your father. They want you to work hard and be a good little boy or girl. If you don’t work hard, you won’t be rewarded. They accuse you of spending too much, but then because of their mismanagement, you’re in heavy debt. So keep your nose to the grindstone and don’t do anything that would get you in trouble, because they’re not only your father, they’re your uber-father you’re glad you never had.
In extreme cases, adulterers would go to jail (I’m not joking about this one either, I’ve heard it said), there would be hundreds of things that merit capital punishment, doctors who perform certain procedures would be lined up against the wall and shot, there would be absolutely no safety nets, because if anything bad happened to you, it’s because you didn’t try hard enough, and we’d be at war everywhere because the world trembles when they rattle their sabers.
Then there’s me
As for me, I want to make my own decisions, and I’ll deal with the consequences. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. After all, we are supposed to be a free country, right?
We have a Constitution. It would be nice if those two ass clowns of parties followed it. Within reason, let adults make their own decisions. If it doesn’t affect you, it’s none of your business.
The problem with this POV is that it quickly takes on a social Darwinist stance of “only the strong shall survive” which is fine in the “natural world” but when it comes to people it doesn’t work. Why? Because society isn’t “natural” - we create it. Whoever makes the rules of society benefits from them. There will always be people at systematic disadvantages because of social inequalities. That is why we NEED safety nets for those who, no matter how hard they work, will always be poor. There are some exceptions, as people who have succeeded like to point out. But the reason they’re exceptions is because they don’t represent the common occurrence. That is why we NEED the government to sometimes step in and say “hey, rednecks! Jim Crow is wrong, cut it out” or say “Hey, homophobes, gays deserve equal opportunities” or say “Hey, misogynists, women can work just as hard as you”.
In my view, minimal government always equates to the already powerful class becoming more powerful because it was they who set up the rules to begin with.
Good government should strive to improve the lives of all its citizens, and that sometimes involves deciding what is right and what is wrong for the betterment of not just some, but all.
In the end, achieving equality in an unequal society ultimately means taking away some of the privileges of the most powerful to even the playing field.
I’m not for no safety nets. Not at all. That’s one thing I make fun of with extreme Republicans. These guys keep bringing us into wars and then turn a blind eye to wounded vets.
And yes, government does the right thing sometimes. For example, as you mentioned enforcing voting laws and equal rights laws that were already on the books.
I believe in Freedom of Opportunity. It’s what we do with that opportunity that makes us unique. Some folks do wonderful things with it while others squander it.
There are plenty of laws create opportunity. If you’re poor, you can get all kinds of grants and loans to go to college. I was aware of this and took advantage of it. Unfortunately, some folks aren’t aware those opportunities are there. College isn’t for everyone, I realize that, so there are trade schools as well that have grants and loans for them.
I don’t believe in a redistribution of wealth, but rather equal opportunity for all. Folks who squander other people’s opportunities are the ones I’d go after, like the ones who employ illegals over Americans or send American jobs overseas. They’re destroying American opportunity.
Which is worse?
I think you need to have a third or even fourth party.
Zombie: Redistribution of wealth, to a certain degree, is necessary to truly achieve equal opportunity though. Take public schools. Does a poor child, going to a poorly funded school with old books, run-down facilities, and a vocational curriculum have the same “opportunity” as a rich child going to a well-funded public school, with new books, new science labs, and college-level curriculum? In the current system where schools are funded by local property taxes, we ensure that the rich kids get the best resources. However, if we pooled all the educational funding for a state and redistributed it according to need so that all schools were equally funded - well then that would be a much more level playing field (discounting for other social factors such as poverty).
Miladysa: Amen.
well, that just about sums it up doesn’t it….and don’t forget to add the extreme corruption of both parties.
in response to your comment about creating wars and then ignoring wounded vets…oooh, i could rant at length.
i am of the opinion that if you’ve served our country in combat you should be very well cared for for the rest of your days. if you’ve been wounded you should be getting the finest medical treatment available. if you’ve been disabled you and your children should be provided for. if you gave your very life, your survivors should be well cared for and educated.
thus sayeth me.
JJ - Depends.
Miladysa - I like the idea of 4 parties. 4 choices are so much better than 2.
Laura - A school is a school. You can be educated anywhere, as I’ve learned. I went to a JC for 2 1/2 years then a State U for 1 1/2 years for my Bachelors and got the same education the rich kids at UC Berkeley or any other top school got. Sure, the rich kids had better funding, better science labs, better equipment. But the thing is, I had the will to learn and I guarantee you I learned more than most rich kids, because I took it seriously.
It’s the student, not the school. American schools are excellent. I have found so many kids are unwilling to learn. Sure, their parents suck and that’s why, but if you have the desire, you can learn from anywhere.
That includes lower levels too, not just college. We used to hate the rich kids’ football team that would come in and play us every year. We knew they had better teachers, better equipment, they had computers, and more foreign language teachers, better workout equipment, and better everything than we did. But we had heart. And heart trumps money.
I do believe your heart is in the right place. I do see inequality in education. I’m not at all trying to cover that up. But what I’m saying is from my personal experience. I’m from a refinery town with lousy schools, but I always wanted to be better, so I made myself better.
Ironically, the advantage the rich kids have is not just better schools, but connections when they graduate. I didn’t have a rich father who was a VP of some corporation who had a job waiting for me when I graduated. That’s what the rich kids get. Look at Bill Gates for example. His father was a VP at IBM. How do you think Windoze became a monopoly? His father was a millionaire already, so whenever I hear about Bill Gates struggling, I want to slap that person upside the head.
Lime - Please, do that post. I want to hear more people go off on that rant. I’m so sick of sending Americans to war then turning a blind eye on them when they come home. This one hits home because I got too many friends and relatives like this.
You’re right about the social capital - who you know does make a huge difference. But a school is not a school - especially not in a large city like Chicago. Check out Jonathan Kozol’s book Savage Inequalities. It’s a great book that points out the weaknesses of your argument. Better funded schools don’t just have better faciilities, they also get better and more highly paid teachers, they have less outside problems to deal with like poverty and violence. They also have - and THIS is the key: fewer kids to a class. Chicago public schools have an average class size of 35 kids to a class. All they can do with that is teach minimum basic skills. You can’t have classroom discussions and teach critical thinking with classes that big. Well funded suburban schools have more teachers and fewer kids to a class. This allows greater growth for the students. Education is not simply the accumulation of facts and scantron tests. There are schools here in Chicago that don’t even offer higher-level classes for the kids who could be in them. The current system merely seeks to maintain and reinforce the current class system. There are a few (exceptions to the rule) who make it out. Some, like yourself, are quick to pull up these exceptional examples as an argument for if the poor schlubs just tried harder (i.e. blame the victim). The problem is that there are far more people who succumb to the system than break through it.
Laura - Excellent points.
Whereas it appears I am disagreeing with you, I’m really not. I think our perspectives are very different though. You’re coming from an educational perspective (a teacher) whereas I’m coming from a student and later a parent’s perspective.
The problem with poor schools are many. 1) you have large student to teacher ratios, 2) you have violence, 3) you have cynicism and/or burn-out among the older faculty, 4) most importantly, you have parents who simply don’t care and are going through the motions instead of inspiring their children to success.
Growing up in a refinery town was one thing, but sending my son to a ghetto school was a whole different ballgame. They’re bad, really bad. You have teachers who don’t care, administrators with their head up their asses, and fellow students that are on a one-way path to jail. It’s just not a good learning environment.
How to fix it? Well, we said screw it and saved up enough money to get out of the ghetto and into the middle-class. I have nothing but horror stories from that school. You have racial hatred, race envy, race self-hate, indifference, and burn out.
We had a few teachers who genuinely cared but the learning experience was so bad we just said screw it and homeschooled our son until we saved up enough money to get out of the ghetto.
Several things need to change:
1) you need to get the parents to teach their kids to respect other kids. Would help if their parents gave a damn, but they don’t.
2) you need the administrators to step up and knock out the violence instead of denying its existence or saying you’ll fix it then doing nothing.
3) you need to kick out the kids who aren’t there to learn
The thing is, the teachers who cared were every bit as good as the teachers in the rich kids’ schools. I really think you can learn anywhere, but you need to have an environment where learning comes first and you have to fill a school with people who want to learn.
Public schools don’t kick out shitty kids until they practically murder someone. That’s a huge problem in ghetto schools. Kick the kids out so the kids who want to learn can learn without the intimidation, without the drugs, and without the gangs.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I’ll check it out.
A personal update, we’re now sending our son to a “rich kid’s school.” No, we’re not rich. We’re just making a few sacrifices so we can rent in an area that allows him to go to that rich kid school.
The differences are huge. The kids want to learn. The parents actually show up to parent/teacher conferences. The teachers email you when your kid misses an assignment. The whole community is involved in their educational experience, even people who are long out of high school.
Everyone shows up to the sports meets. When the school needs money, everyone in the community donates.
This is why the rich stay rich. They put education first.
Sure this sounds like blaming the victim, but I’m seeing it from a parent’s perspective.
I can’t believe how good this school is. I wish I went here. The whole community cares about the school. This morning, the school had a fundraiser and it seemed like everyone in the entire community came out. I saw several people from my work and dozens of students volunteered to be everything from cashiers to people helping out people buying stuff and helping bring stuff to the car.
A community that puts education first will be more successful than a cynical community that beats itself up.
True. I hate them both!
Kate - Me too. Although I do like Ron Paul, but he’s so far away from today’s Republican Neo-Con artists.
In regards to the school issue, I was a dumb kid. I was heavily into partying and I could count on one hand, (even if I cut off four fingers) how many days I was not stoned, drunk, or both. So I didn’t do much better than a C average.
However, my father instilled in me, although it took a long time to grow to fruition, some decent morals and work ethics.
When I joined the military I traveled all over the world, AND I MEAN ALL OVER! I learned that America may have its problems, and they are getting worse by the day, but it still is the best place in the world to live.
I also realize that our kids are being robbed of a decent education. Sure they may be taking the math and science classes, but how many of them could tell you much about the history of our nation in any great detail? How many of them know of the Federalist Papers, the Declaration and the Causes of the Necessity of Taking Up Arms, or how many could recite Patrick Henry’s Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death speech in its entirety? I had to do that in the 5th grade!
People have to realize the principles upon which this country was founded. Sure education is important, but it IS NOT the function of the federal government. That duty rests with the states, and if the states gave one hoot in hell about their economy and the ability to produce highly educated youths the states would make sure that we all got the best education available.
Would there be inequality between the states and even communities within the states? Sure there would, but to suggest that government be responsible for ensuring each child gets the same education is bordering on communism. Not only that, not all kids are capable of learning at the same level.
So the federal government should keep its nose out of areas that are not clearly defined in the Constitution.
Sorry bout the rant Zombie….
Neal - Interesting concept. I haven’t thought of that before. If the States had to compete by brains, maybe they’d give more a dang about their education. It would probably be a heck of a lot more efficient than the Federal government.
Interesting discussions here. I generally agree with Laura, however, my school had a high student to teacher ratio (at least 35 to 1, higher in grade school) and I got a damn fine education, but it was a Catholic school, so perhaps that’s the difference. Teachers were there because they wanted to teach and certainly not for the money. I can’t even imagine what my teachers made back in the 70s, considering when my friend graduated in the late 80s and became a teacher in a Catholic school she only made $12,000.
If you want to learn, you will learn regardless of the circumstances, but if you’re not interested in an education you won’t learn even in the best schools.
If you want to learn, you will learn regardless of the circumstances, but if you’re not interested in an education you won’t learn even in the best schools.
That’s key. So yes, I seem like I’m blaming the victim, but from my experiences, that’s what I’ve found.
There is plenty of truth in what Laura is saying too, but people have to take responsibilities for their situation and do accordingly. You can’t have government rescue everyone.