IRRATIONAL POLITICS

How do Republicans see themselves? I spend a lot of time thinking about how Republicans think and giving my interpretation of their thoughts but I have no real understanding of how they rationalize behavior that seems so irrational to me. It seems consistent, therefore, not erratic or idiosyncratic. Of course, this is against a background of evolutionary psychology, which suggests all human behavior has a bestial even more primitive origin. I often associate the Republicanism end of the political spectrum with greed and use the words ‘greed’ or ‘selfish’ and say things like, “children are greedy and have to be taught to share”.  Unfortunately, those terms have a pejorative connotation, when they are a trait found in not only all people and animals but in all biota. If all people are greedy, not in the pejorative sense, then Republicans seem to have more strength of character in this regard then do Democrats. All of this refers to the fundamental biology of human behavior. What I have trouble understanding is the Republican attitude toward something like environmental protection.

Invariable when attacked for not protecting the environment, they will claim to want to protect the environment. When attacked for not wanting regulation of enterprises, they will invariable admit they have to have some regulation but refuse to say what or how much. When accused of not wanting to pay taxes, they know they have to pay “some taxes” but only for what they want to pay for such as the army, which is the most common example. We accused of being hard hearted when it comes to welfare they claim, in the words of George W. Bush, to be “compassionate conservatives”.  They accept all of these provisos but absolutely refuse to budge on any of them.

A friend on a public media site posted a link to the Republican Congressional Committee. The message is clear; they want my help for them to gain control of the senate of the United States to do all the things that everyone agrees they should not do. What seems so irrational is that they agree it is wrong to do all of these things but do they anyway. There is natural gas under ground in North Carolina and they see no reason why they should not get it and sell it. They see a forest and see no reason why they should not cut the trees and make money. They burn coal, reap the benefits from the energy they produce and see no reason why they should not have the freedom to dump the coal ash whereever that want, and at no cost. When they have a coal ash spill and contaminate a river, they see it as just good business to have the people who buy “their” energy clean up “our” mess. They see nothing wrong with transporting tar sands oil from Canada across the United States, refine it in Texas, and ship the product to China leaving oil spills and air pollution from refineries in our country. They see nothing wrong with raising taxes on workers and lowering them on industries, destroying unions to force reduction in wages, forming monopolies, and fixing prices to increase profits. When confronted with the “errors of their ways”, they will readily admit these things are not good but go right ahead and do every one of them to excess and do them with impunity. It seems as if their innate greed is dominating their own learned behavior.  How can they think it is rational for me to want to “help the shape the future” they want.  No, I will not help them. In fact, I will do everything I can to prevent their innate greed from hurting me—and themselves.

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