Conservatives are having a really tough time with the election results. From the likes of Donald Trump who felt the need to have a public temper tantrum all over Twitter on election night to pundits all over the news who are blaming the voters for the fact that the country is now on a bullet train to Hell to people who are calling themselves patriots at the same time that they are submitting petitions to secede from the Union.
Secede.
Seriously?
Apparently so. Why has the conservative response to the election been so over-the-top? Why are conservatives wailing and gnashing their teeth in sackcloth and ashes? Why do so many people prefer ripping the country in half (regardless of the actual military and logistical and political and Constitutional nightmare this would be) instead of going back to the drawing board, and taking the time to evaluate what can be done to elect a Republican to the White House?
Because, in my opinion, the two major political thought processes at work today in this country operate a lot like parental stereotypes, as this article also hypothesizes. Each parent, out of love, cares for their children in different ways. To simplify this idea, I’ll call conservatives the Tough Love parent and liberals the Empathetic parent. Both parents want “the best” for their children. They just differ on what “the best” actually means.
The Tough Love parent wants more than anything for their child to be self-sufficient, for them to never need to depend on anyone else. They want strong independent children who can both meet every challenge and duty of life with honor, and be victorious. They want their child to both discover and utilize their full potential, to never flinch in the face of adversity, to meet their responsibilities (both moral and economical), to meet their duties to their fellow-man, defend the good and the right, to make their mark on the world, and be rewarded for their talent and character.
So, often, the Tough Love parent is seen as very harsh, and when the child appears to be weak in any way, the Tough Love parent doubles down on their hard-line stances. Perceived lapses in judgment are seen as weakness, and the weak won’t succeed. Therefore, the Tough Love parent often sees their only option is to dig in deeper, be tougher, be harder, in order to force the child to man up and do the right thing. Politically, this is exemplified in the submission or signing of a petition to secede.
How Liberals view Conservatives
The Empathetic parent wants more than anything for their child to be happy and fulfilled, safe and free to express themselves. They want loving children who place the needs of others ahead of their own, but at the same time, they want their children to experience as much freedom and joy as they can.
So, often, the Empathetic parent is seen as very soft. Perceived lapses in judgment are seen as moral failures, most often selfishness, especially if they infringe on the happiness of the child and others. The empathetic parent seeks to teach the child all sides of difficult decisions so the child might understand why something is considered “right” or “wrong.” Or why it could possibly be both.
How Conservatives view Liberals
Politically, each voter can be seen as the child who favors one of these parents: either the tough-love parent or the empathetic one. (Obviously, this is a messy picture painted with a broad brush.) Watching this mess unfold, my husband observed that our country, of late, is behaving like a divorcing couple fighting for full custody of the children. The Tough Love side was just dealt a huge blow in the recent election, and their response has been predictable: they, with very few exceptions, refuse to compromise (and those who even mention it have been vilified), they refuse to back down from their positions, in fact, they dig in deeper, in order to prove they are right. The major voices are louder and more extreme as they vent about the cliff the country is careening toward. They yell that the President is a murderer, a traitor and a socialist who took away their Twinkies, that illegal aliens will ruin the economy and the culture, the election was tainted, the moral ineptitude of evil liberal policies will be punished by God. In their desperation, they have even gone so far as to yell, “Secede!” They believe that yelling louder warnings will make the nation turn around. They believe this will make the child return to the Straight and Narrow way. They think their cries during this dark night are like Paul Revere’s. They think they must yell and ride to save their beloved child and keep her free.
…not really so different after all.
The problem with this analogy is this: we the voters are supposed to be adults, not children. Our government was never intended to parent its citizens, and yet as it has evolved and grown beyond all possible boundaries, that is precisely what it has done. Both sides have so muddled the idea of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” that We the People have become We the Progeny.
Which is really tragic, especially for people like Henry.