My Goodness, Your Badness
CEASER, JAMES W.
My Goodness, Your Badness Moral judgments and partisan polarization. BY JAMES W. CEASER Social science has confirmed what political observers have been telling us for months: There is a...
...And which party is that...
...minded...
...But Republicans were more willing to ascribe moral defi ciencies to Democrats than Democrats to Republicans (by an average rate of 50 percent to 47.5 percent...
...Feeling good about members of one’s own party, even in this excessive way, probably poses no direct challenge to “getting together to compromise...
...If the same kind of characterization that is used for an individual person can be applied to a collectivity, both groups of partisans can safely be pronounced insufferable...
...Or does one party carry a dominant and the other a recessive trait, such that miscegenation actually works to the partisan advantage of one party...
...Interestingly, large numbers of Democrats and Republicans were in full agreement on describing each other as possessing the same moral deficiency: hyprocrisy...
...They judged fellow Republicans just as positively, indeed slightly more so, awarding themselves an average virtue response score of 54...
...If an unbiased answer is sought, it might be better not to poll the partisans themselves...
...And might they not, if given the chance to judge independents, join in describing them as weak, vacillating, unfaithful, and supercilious...
...A shortcoming of the survey is that while it allowed independents to sit in judgment of partisans, it denied the same privilege to partisans...
...Republicans are no different...
...Could it be that Democrats and Republicans, despite their animosity, nevertheless have a grudging respect for each other for at least having the courage of their convictions...
...What can account for this relaxed attitude...
...He is the author, most recently, of Nature and History in American Political Development...
...These accounts are usually no more than a form of pandering designed to cast partisanship in an unfavorable light, but in this case the independents do seem to hold a more balanced view of their fellow Americans...
...It is found in highly charged attitudes of Democrats and Republicans about the moral qualities of fellow partisans and opponents...
...But the two groups are insufferable in slightly different ways...
...Democrats fl atter themselves above all for being openminded, while Republicans think that being honest is their hallmark...
...The other two were intelligence, a positive quality but not a moral one, and patriotism, which most consider admirable but about which some probably have certain reservations...
...Less than a third of both Democrats and Republicans reported that they would be “upset” at this prospect...
...This sentiment has found a special home among independents and moderates for whom the act of “reaching across the aisle” seems to have the status of a holy rite...
...For it is surely no small thing to introduce into one’s household a son- or daughter-in-law who fi gures to be hypocritical, closedminded, mean, and selfi sh...
...They describe Democrats as having greater virtue than Republicans, but also as having more moral defi ciencies...
...Finally, the authors of the Hoover/ Economist survey deserve the gratitude of all social scientists for venturing into hitherto forbidden territory, exploring the deepest fears and taboos of the partisan psyche...
...No more than 6 percent of Democrats could fi nd it in their hearts to say that Republicans should be described as possessing any of the virtues...
...Surprisingly, respondents did not object to partisan intermarriages in nearly the degree that one might expect...
...Neither one thinks the other is going to heaven, or anywhere close to it...
...Is the progeny of mixed-partisan mating likely to be a pure independent...
...Absent further data, we can only speculate on the reasons...
...They see hardly a glimmer of virtue in their opponents and much moral defi ciency...
...Republicans must have especially relished the opportunity to describe Democrats as “closed-minded,” while many Democrats no doubt rejoiced at checking “mean...
...Respondents from each party were directly asked, without any soft pedaling, how they would feel if their son or daughter actually married one, meaning a partisan from the opposite party...
...Those who boast so much of their moral perfection practically invite being charged with this vice...
...A more plausible explanation, however, relies on sound anthropological research, which has shown that groups of human beings from very early on came to appreciate the importance of exogamy as a way to avoid the ill-effects of inbreeding...
...And equally so...
...Thus, Democrats described other Democrats as possessing in good measure the three virtues: 73 percent of Democrats selected the term “openminded” to apply to fellow party members, 49 percent “generous,” and 37 percent “honest,” for an average virtue response of 53 percent...
...And they thought no more ill of themselves, either...
...Oh yes, and both groups also described their fellow partisans as being intelligent and patriotic, with Republicans especially celebrating their love of country...
...Senator Barack Obama achieved great success early in his campaign by tapping into this feeling, promising to inaugurate what his supporters called a new era of “transpartisan” politics...
...The diffi culty for achieving the transpartisan dream comes when this positive self-assessment is coupled with a dim view of one’s opponents, which, unfortunately, is exactly what the data show...
...Are Democrats, for example, closedJames W. Ceaser is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of politics at the University of Virginia...
...Just 4 percent of Republicans described other Republicans as “mean,” 5 percent “selfi sh,” 6 percent “hypocritical,” and 13 percent as closed-minded, yielding a moral defi ciency average of 7 percent...
...One conclusion that jumps out from the data is just how highly each group of partisans regards fellow party members...
...For both groups the bottom line is the same...
...Independents were let off, as they usually are, scot-free...
...The same holds in the case of the other three fl aws, with the average response for the moral defi ciencies being a paltry 4.5 percent...
...At issue here, of course, are highly sensitive matters relating to the genetic consequences of interpartisan breeding, about which little, unfortunately, is known at present...
...One possibility, which is the least favorable to any comforting notions of tolerance, is that respondents thought that their own children could be trusted to fi nd that most rare of creatures: a decent Republican or Democrat...
...Three of these attributes were obvious virtues (openmindedness, generosity, and honesty), and four were clear moral defi ciencies (hypocrisy, closed-mindedness, meanness, and selfi shness...
...Advocates of transpartisanship tend to have a special place in their hearts —or at any rate in their rhetoric — for independents, whom they laud as honest brokers able to exercise impartial judgments...
...Respondents could check as many as they wished...
...A recent survey sponsored by the Hoover Institution and the Economist showed that seven in ten Americans wish for party leaders who will “come together and compromise...
...Despite their self-descriptions as being generous, Democrats and Republicans both display very little charity in characterizing their fellow human beings from across the aisle...
...In light of the previous fi ndings, the importance of posing so frank a question can now be appreciated...
...Familiarity is supposed to breed contempt, but evidently not in this case...
...Besides this fi delity to political principles, the Hoover/Economist survey provided evidence of another obstacle to any quick realization of the transpartisan dream...
...Only 4 percent of Democrats think so...
...Over a third of the Democrats (35 percent) and almost half of the Republicans (46 percent) had the audacity to insist that their party leaders should “stick to their principles even if that means that nothing gets done...
...Overall, independents describe partisans as having slightly more defi ciencies than virtues, which is probably a fair assessment of humankind...
...Yet for all the public pressure to embrace this ethos, some convinced partisans have expressed reservations...
...Political confl ict has spilled over into the realm of ethical assessment...
...For what it is worth, psychologists in our hyper-therapeutic age generally insist that high self-esteem is a precondition for relating positively to others...
...Respondents in the Hoover/Economist poll were asked to select, from a list of nine basic human qualities, which ones described “people who are Republicans” and “people who are Democrats...
...More striking, few Democrats judged other Democrats as having any moral defi ciencies...
...As for their judgment of the relative merits of those in our two parties, independents pronounce a split decision...
...Republicans were a bit kinder, with an average 13 percent naming a virtue...
...BY JAMES W. CEASER Social science has confirmed what political observers have been telling us for months: There is a clamor in America to dampen the spirit of intense partisanship that prevails in Washington...
...What many partisans want is not so much compromise itself as compromise on their terms, in which members of the other party break ranks and join the side of light in exchange for nothing more than praise for “taking the higher ground” and “acting responsibly...
...They think less well of each group of partisans than it thinks of itself and not as poorly as each group thinks of the other...
...This is not surprising...
...If he who is without fault may cast the fi rst stone, then Democrats—in the judgment of Democrats—should be ready to fi re away...
Vol. 13 • June 2008 • No. 36
