Progressives are stumped. They keep asking the same two questions over and over again on social media, TV, and radio:
1. Why don’t Trump supporters turn against Trump even though he is doing things that hurt them (like taking away their health care)?
2. Why do Republicans hate the Affordable Care Act and why are they so transparently acting to give wealthy people a tax break by making health care unaffordable?
Here is the short answer: All politics is moral. Supporting Trump, and gutting public health care resources in order to provide tax cuts for the wealthy, fits perfectly within the strict conservative moral worldview, which is hierarchical in nature. Voters don’t vote their self-interest. They vote their values.
The longer answer requires a deeper explanation. Let’s start with the place where all ideas and questions originate: the brain.
Most thought (as much as 98 percent by some accounts) is unconscious. It is carried out by neural circuitry in our brains. We have no conscious access to this circuitry, but it’s there. This is basic neuroscience. When it comes to politics, progressives and conservatives essentially have different brains. The unconscious beliefs conditioned in their brains are nearly exact opposites.
Here are two statements you will almost certainly agree with if you’re a progressive:
1. In Lincoln’s words, the American government should be a government of, by and for the people.
2. Citizens care about other citizens, and work through their government to provide public resources for all—resources required for the well-being and freedom of all.
These imply just about all of progressive policies.
With a government OF the people, those in the government are not separated from those outside. There is two-way communication and transparency, and response to the people’s concerns.
With a government BY the people, those in the government have the same basic experiences as those outside. The government therefore responds with empathy to the basic needs of its citizens.
A government FOR the people cares for its citizens and gives necessary help as a matter of course. There is no democracy without care.
The second principle — the need for public resources — has been essential to American democracy from the start. From the beginning, the private depended upon public resources.
Public resources — including roads and bridges, public education, a national bank, a patent office, courts for business cases, interstate commerce support, and the criminal justice system — are necessary to have private enterprise. These public resources include protection; not just a military and police, but protection from harm by unscrupulous corporations either by poisoning products, the air or the water by unscrupulous banks, mortgage holders and investors. These protections are carried out by “regulations” — protective laws and agencies.
Over time, those resources have included sewers, water and electricity, research universities and research support, and technologies like computers and satellite phones.
Private enterprise and private life utterly depend on public resources. These public resources provide freedom: freedom to start and run a business, and freedom in private life.
You’re not free if you are not educated, because your possibilities in life are limited.
You’re not free if you have cancer and no health insurance.
You’re not free if you have no income or not enough for basic needs.
And if you work for a large company, you may not be free without a union. Unions free you from corporate servitude. They free you to have a living wage, safety on the job, regular working hours, a pension, health benefits, dignity.
If you’re a progressive, you most likely agree with these ideas. If you’re a conservative, you may be apoplectic by now.
It should be clear that most progressive policies follow from these basic, largely implicit and unconscious principles. When we state them consciously and overtly, we can see where questions 1) and 2) come from.
Why should Trump voters support him when his government does not supply necessary care, when it can hurt them deeply, threatening their health and possibly their lives by, say, taking away their health care? Why should Republicans — who are Americans, after all—hate the Affordable Care Act, which was for the people, and which supplies care of the most essential kind for tens of millions of Americans?
From a progressive point a view, questions 1) and 2) are mysterious, especially when you ask them together. What do they have to do with each other — support for a Trump who harms them and hate for government care?
One answer to both questions: Moral politics
All politics is moral. Progressives and conservatives have opposing moral worldviews. When a political leader proposes a policy, the assumption is that the policy is right, not wrong or morally irrelevant. No political leader says, “Do what I say because it’s evil. It’s the devil’s work, but do it!” Nor will a political leader say, “My policy proposal is morally irrelevant. It’s neither right nor wrong. It doesn’t really matter. Just do it.”
Everyone likes to think of him or herself as a good person. That means your moral system is a major part of your identity. To vote against your moral identity would be to reject your self.
What are conservative moral values?