Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
or
the past five years of the Obama administration Republicans have
marched in lockstep to oppose just about everything Obama and the
Democrats have proposed. Yet the Democrats rarely march together. Recently, for example, 22 Democrats in the House joined every Republican in voting to delay the individual mandate in Obamacare.
When Republican leaders tell rank-and-file Republicans
to call Obamacare's cost controls "death panels," or to say the rich
are "job creators," or the poor are "takers rather than makers," they
all repeat the same words. (Frank Luntz, their message consultant, once said:
"There's a simple rule. You say it again, and you say it again and you
say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and then again
and again and again and again, and about the time that you're
absolutely sick of saying it is about the time that your target audience
has heard it for the first time.")
Democrats never stick to the same message. They rarely
even say the same thing the same way twice. In fact, their messages
often conflict.
To be sure, the Tea Partiers in Congress have
challenged the GOP leadership. But that challenge is really about who
should have the authority to impose discipline over the Party. The
firebrands are bucking the old establishment with their own new
establishment. Democrats, by contrast, buck their leaders all the time.
And they do it as individuals, lone wolves and free agents.
Republican discipline and Democratic lack of discipline isn't a new phenomenon. As Will Rogers once said, "I’m not a member of any organized political party. I’m a Democrat."
The difference has to do with the kind of
personalities the two parties attract. People who respect authority,
follow orders, want clear answers, obey commands, and prefer precise
organization and control, tend to gravitate toward Republicans.
On the other hand, people who don't much like
authority, recoil from orders, don't believe in clear answers, often
disobey commands, and prefer things a bit undefined, tend to gravitate
to the Democrats.
In short, the Republican Party is the party of the
authoritarian personality; the Democratic Party is the party of the
anti-authoritarian personality.
In "Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics"
(Cambridge University Press, 2009), Jonathan Weiler, professor of
international studies at UNC Chapel Hill and his co-author, Marc
Hetherington, use statistical models to determine whether someone is a
Republican or Democrat. It turns out that the best predictor of party
affiliation is someone’s score on an authoritarian personality scale
that measures many of the traits I mentioned above.
This means Republicans will almost always be more
disciplined about voting and messaging than the Democrats. Which gives
the GOP an advantage in times like this, when the two parties are at war
with each other - and when so many Americans, angry and confused, are
looking for simple answers.
Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public
Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of
Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the
ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has
written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The
Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
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