They are the two competing American political belief systems, period.

[phantom power]

This isn't a childrens game despite the efforts of these idiotic Villagers who are determined to pretend that there is an easy answer to the huge ideological gulf between the left and right in this country. These aren't two "extremes" of some mythical middle. They are the two competing American political belief systems, period.

People who vote for Republicans know very well that they are voting for low taxes for everyone, including the wealthy, and they believe sincerely that everyone would be better off if they fended for themselves and let capitalism sort it all out. (How that plays out in their own lives is different, of course, but they are persuaded that most of their tax dollars are wasted on people who don't deserve it and they aren't going to change their minds.) Democrats believe that taxes are a price you pay for a secure, upwardly mobile society and that the wealthy can easily afford to pay more for the privilege of of living in a stable country with a strong middle class. Republicans are hostile to social security, medicare and all government programs designed to help the less fortunate. They simply do not believe it's an appropriate or moral thing to do because it makes people dependent and lazy. Democrats believe in egalitarianism, social justice and social welfare.

However hypocritical these people are as individuals (and they most certainly are) they vote on the basis of competing worldviews that are not reconcilable by a bunch of accountants hashing out a compromise. Those differences are real and they're not "childish."* These are very distinct ideas about what government should do and how it should do it. What's childish is pretending that isn't so and insisting on some kumbaaya magical thinking that we can work it all out if "the extremes" would just stop being so unreasonable.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/begging-for-grown-ups-village-thinks.html

[kristopher]

1. How do you reconcile that belief with this study?

Building a Better America – One Wealth Quintile at a Time

Michael I. Norton Harvard Business
Dan Ariely School Duke University
Forthcoming in Perspectives on Psychological Science


Abstract
Disagreements about the optimal level of wealth inequality underlie policy debates ranging from taxation to welfare. We attempt to insert the desires of “regular” Americans into these debates, by asking a nationally representative online panel to estimate the current distribution of wealth in the United States and to “build a better America” by constructing distributions with their ideal level of inequality.

First, respondents dramatically underestimated the current level of wealth inequality.

Second, respondents constructed ideal wealth distributions that were far more equitable than even their erroneously low estimates of the actual distribution.

Most important from a policy perspective, we observed a surprising level of consensus: All demographic groups – even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy – desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo.

[drmeow]

3. Republicans believe

that low taxes overall will create a more equal distribution of wealth - that's what it means to have bought into the trickle down economics myth. Democrats recognize that the only thing that helps create a more equal distribution of wealth is a progressive tax structure.

[stray cat]

2. And most of the problems require more thoughtful analysis than either rigid belief

Is capable of attempting to comprehend

[DoctorK]

4. world views are defintely different

I think the big difference is the conflation of government and society in the minds of Democrats vs. Republicans.

Both sides are guilty of using the government beyond protecting individual rights to trying to establish the type of world they wish existed.

e.g. War on Poverty, War on Drugs, etc.

[Kingofalldems]

6. I see you are gone.

You can fool some of the people.......

[alanquatermass]

5. Sorry, stray, but it really IS that simple...

You can accuse me of being guilty of simplistic thinking or bitterness or class envy if you want to -- feel free -- I've been accused of far worse -- but my feeling is that the rich have too much fucking money right now and we need to take it away from them.

Most of it, anyway.

And yes, I am VERY familiar with Margaret Thatcher's famous observation that, "The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people's money."

To which I reply --

BULLSHIT!

We aren't talking about "Socialism" here, we are talking about FAIRNESS.

That is all.

[pokercat999]

9. The rich want to paint controlled capitalism as socialism. When

what they want is uncontrolled capitalism that they've turned into fraud and theft.

[raccoon]

7. Rec'd--I'll bookmark this for later reading. nt

[ixion]

8. There are many competing points of view... it's not a binary issue

in my opinion.