My section of this blog will detail how U.S. politicians and media use hope and fear, the idea of utopia and supposed 'traditional' values to build consensus. Today I'll look at the latter. A good piece that outlines how these two groups view the world is Nicholas D. Kristof's article Would You Slap Your Father? If So, You’re a Liberal (New York Times Published: May 27, 2009). In this article he discusses how people who identify themselves as conservative are more likely to to base their decisions on disgust for things they see as contaminating society and respect for authority, whereas, according to the article, liberals' morality is rooted in fairness. While elements of this are obviously biased toward a liberal point of view, there is some truth to it too.
An extreme example of how conservatives seek to restore 'purity' and shun what they perceive as contamination is the conservative bible project which is attempting to remove liberal bias and promote conservative values (such as hell and free market capitalism) by rewriting the bible. Another would be the 'birther' movement which seeks to remove president Obama from office based on the unfounded suspicion that he was born in Kenya. An article on it's main proponent Orly Taitz can be found here
To someone who hasn't lived in American this could seem like the same kind of crazy rubbish that exists on the fringes of every society but according to a Pew research poll 41% of Americans have heard something about the birther debate with 28% of them believing that it is under-reported. These are significant trends whose emotional content effect the direction of center politics and ones that the media (to sell advertisements) and politicians (to guide political discourse) are not reluctant to use.
Moore Turon
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