The Republicans are Insufferable

[Emit]

Obama has an authoritative style, believing that by listening carefully and appealing to reason he can bring people together to get results.

What he fails to understand is that the current players in the GOP cannot be reasoned with. That being said, imho, I think he handled matters well, employing incredible patience and savvy mediation techniques.

I know this has been posted before, but I am reposting this as a reminder as to how unreasonable these folks are.

From: Rightwing Authoritarianism and Conservative Identity Politics

Rightwing authoritarianism (RWA) is one of two attitudinal constructs ... that combine to account for a majority of group prejudice, which in turn is a major aspect of group identity politics. Both also correlate significantly with political conservatism. RWA is defined as the convergence of three attitudinal clusters:

:graybox: Authoritarian submission: A high degree of submission to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives.

:graybox: Authoritarian aggression: A general aggressiveness, directed against various persons, that is perceived to be sanctioned by established authorities.

:graybox: Conventionalism: A high degree of adherence to the social conventions that are perceived to be endorsed by society and its established authorities.

The construct was developed empirically by Canadian researcher Robert Altemeyer, who started by examining the more elaborate, Freudian-based construct presented in The Authoritarian Personality, which contained nine factors. ...

Altemeyer explains that "right-wing'" means a "psychological sense of submitting to perceived authorities in one's life," and is not identified with a specific political ideology. In the Soviet Union, "right-wing" meant a sense of submitting to communist authorities, and Altemeyer presented research showing this was so. This is what his RWA (right-wing authoritarianism) scale measured. It is obviously related to the perpetuation of hierarchy, and the use of force to impose "order."

Obama is NOT the Republican's perceived authority, and the disdain and contempt they show for him is palpable.

In A Quick And Dirty Guide To RWA we are reminded of the basic traits of the RWA: their fear and hostility toward 'outgroups' (of which Obama is a member); their "Not-So-Healthy Ingroup Cohesion"; and their remarkable capacity for "Faulty Reasoning", among other things:

Table 2: Not-So-Healthy Ingroup Cohesion

RWA's are more likely to:

:graybox: Strongly believe in group cohesiveness and `loyalty.'

~snip~

:graybox: Trust leaders (such as Richard Nixon) who are untrustworthy.

~snip~

Table 3: Faulty reasoning

RWA's are more likely to:

:graybox: Make many incorrect inferences from evidence.

:graybox: Hold contradictory ideas leading them to `speak out of both sides of their mouths.'

~snip~

:graybox: Accept insufficient evidence that supports their beliefs.

:graybox: Uncritically trust people who tell them what they want to hear.

:graybox: Use many double standards in their thinking and judgements.

One logical flaw which reflects both on misunderstanding of others and themselves, is RWAs elevated tendency to commit what's called the "Fundamental Attribution Error" (FAE)--over-explaining others' actions in terms of personalities and under-explaining them in terms of situational factors. This (is) what lies behind uncritically trusting people who tell them what they want to hear--they believe what the person is saying is a true expression of how they feel, and ignore the contextual evidence that they are simply pandering. This also helps to explain why they trust unscrupulous leaders, such as Nixon and Bush.

~snip~

Lastly, we are reminded of their "Profound Character Flaws":

RWA's are more likely to:

:graybox: Be dogmatic.

:graybox: Be zealots.

:graybox: Be hypocrites.

:graybox: Be bullies when they have power over others.

:graybox: Help cause and inflame intergroup conflict.

:graybox: Seek dominance over others by being competitive and destructive in situations requiring cooperation.

A final note:

Concerning RWA and politics: Altemeyer found that RWA becomes increasingly significant the more involved one is politically. ... the Republican Party as a whole scored dramatically higher on the scale, and showed far less variation than the Democrats did. In addition, the spectrum of American politics was higher on the RWA scale than the Canadian spectrum. That's not to say there was no overlap, but the difference was striking, nonetheless.

~snip~

These findings strongly suggest that RWA reflects something very fundamental about American politics, which cannot simply be overcome by wishing it away. It must be faced head-on and dealt with at a very fundamental level. Conservatives and the GOP are more unified, because they see the world more similarly--albeit not more accurately. It seems only logical to assume that this both reflects and reinforces the basic fact that their foundation is a form of identity politics, an expression of a shared identity, as opposed to the Democratic Party, which is openly and avowedly a coalition.

[NoSheep]

1. Excellent post. Bookmarking to read in its entirety.

[my2sense]

2. K & R

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Great post. Thanks. There are some Dems in DC who need to read it.

[Lil Missy]

4. If you think the points about repigs you make would be news to Obama, you're very naive.

[Emit]

8. Oh, don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for what Obama did

and have no doubt he knows what and with whom he is dealing.

I was merely pointing out for the sake of discussion that there is a label for these RWAs.

Obama's continued attempts at bipartisanship lead me to believe that he does expect, though, to be able to reason with these RWA Republicans ~ what intelligent, sane person wouldn't believe that reason and logic can be applied with positive results?

I was left with the impression yesterday, however, that his intent with this Summit was ultimately greater than just another attempt to reason with the Republicans. It seemed more an effort to display to the American people that he and the Dems have attempted, over and over again, to no avail, to reach out to Republicans. I read somewhere that the Dems have had over 100 meetings with Repubs with regard to Health Care/Insurance Reform.

[Lil Missy]

10. I too believe Obama is exposing them for being impossible to deal with.

[NoSheep]

5. To add: Thank you so much for posting this.

So many times I think it is one's frustration with these "INSUFFERABLES"
that causes this community to flare up. "WE" start blaming Obama and everyone else in sight. Look at what we are
dealing with! It's unreal. You simply cannot compare anyone in the right wing to anyone who is seriously committed to social justice and ethics. It just can't be done. :shrug:

[Emit]

11. You're welcome, NoSheep. Altemeyer's work sure does a great job explaining

who or what we are dealing with.

[backscatter712]

6. Obama understands the GOP just fine.

He painted them into a corner and gave them two choices. Either reason with Obama as he's offering, or be shown to the nation as intransigent assholes. They chose to let themselves be shown to be intransigent assholes. Now they get to deal with the consequences.

[Bryn]

7. "Small Government"

What is "small government" exactly? When I was changing channels on TV looking for Olympic games I caught Sarah Palin on Fox News saying "we want small government...to keep them out of our businesses..."

GOP people are forever talking about "small government". This sounds too dangerous for a huge place like America, wouldn't it?

Great post, by the way! K&R

[Emit]

9. It's just a fraud, Bryn

Glenn Greenwald nails it here:

This is what Republicans always do. When in power, they massively expand the power of the state in every realm. Deficit spending and the national debt skyrocket. The National Security State is bloated beyond description through wars and occupations, while no limits are tolerated on the Surveillance State. Then, when out of power, they suddenly pretend to re-discover their "small government principles." ...

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/21/libertarianism/index.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7798928

edited to add links