Are Republicans always wrong, or just never right?

Answer 1

There has actually been research on this showing that the twenty years of propaganda and fear mongering have produced a major mental Illness that causes them to have a very warped sense of reality.

A Quick And Dirty Guide To Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA)

Table 1: Hostility & Fear Toward Outgroups

RWA’s are more likely to:

* Weaken constitutional guarantees of liberty, such as the Bill of Rights.
* Punish severely ‘common’ criminals in a role-playing situation.
* Admit they get personal pleasure from punishing such people.
* But go easy on authorities who commit crimes and people who attack minorities.
* Be prejudiced against many racial, ethnic, nationalistic, and linguistic minorities.
* Be hostile toward homosexuals.
* Support ‘gay-bashing.’
* Be hostile toward feminists.
* Volunteer to help the government persecute almost anyone.
* Be mean-spirited toward those who have made mistakes and suffered.
* Be fearful of a dangerous world.

Table 2: Not-So-Healthy Ingroup Cohesion

RWA’s are more likely to:

* Strongly believe in group cohesiveness and ‘loyalty.’
* Insist on traditional sex roles.
* Use religion to erase guilt over their acts and to maintain their self-righteousness.
* Be ‘fundamentalists’ and the most prejudiced members of whatever religion they belong to.
* Accept unfair and illegal abuses of power by government authorities.
* Trust leaders (such as Richard Nixon) who are untrustworthy.


Table 3: Faulty reasoning

RWA’s are more likely to:

* Make many incorrect inferences from evidence.
* Hold contradictory ideas leading them to ‘speak out of both sides of their mouths.’
* Uncritically accept that many problems are ‘our most serious problem.’
* Uncritically accept insufficient evidence that supports their beliefs.
* Uncritically trust people who tell them what they want to hear.
* Use many double standards in their thinking and judgements.


Table 4: Profound Character Flaws

RWA’s are more likely to:

* Be dogmatic.
* Be zealots.
* Be hypocrites.
* Be bullies when they have power over others.
* Help cause and inflame intergroup conflict.
* Seek dominance over others by being competitive and destructive in situations requiring cooperation.


Table 5: Blindness To Own Failings

RWA’s are more likely to:

* Believe they have no personal failings.
* Avoid learning about their personal failings.
* Be highly self-righteous.
* Use religion to erase guilt over their acts and to maintain their self-righteousness.
Table 6: RWA’s Political Tendencies

RWA’s are more likely to:

* Weaken constitutional guarantees of liberty, such as the Bill of Rights.
* Accept unfair and illegal abuses of power by government authorities.
* Trust leaders (such as Richard Nixon) who are untrustworthy.
* Sometimes join left-wing movements, where their hostility distinguishes them.
* But much more typically endorse right-wing political parties.
* Be conservative/Reform party (Canada) or Republican Party (United States) lawmakers who
1. have a conservative economic philosophy;
2. believe in social dominance;
3. are ethnocentric;
4. are highly nationalistic;
5. oppose abortion;
6. support capital punishment;
7. oppose gun-control legislation;
8. say they value freedom but actually want to undermine the Bill of Rights;
9. do not value equality very highly and oppose measures to increase it;
10. are not likely to rise in the Democratic party, but do so among Republicans.


What About Leftwing Authoritarianism?

Altemeyer went looking for it. He didn’t find it. He didn’t find anyone who scored over 50% on the LWA scale he developed, which was a direct reflection of the RWA scale. In contrast, he has found numerous people scoring close 100% on the RWA scale. He concluded that LWAs are “as rare as hen’s teeth.” He did, of course, find authoritarianism among people on the left in the Soviet Union, as noted above. But this was due to their social conformity to the existing authorities in their society. And that’s what RWA is.

Answer 2

I don't see how we Republicans "let the U.S. auto industry fall to Japan," other than the crappy @ss unions that bankrupted the US auto industry and the exceptionally well made Japanese cars. We were greeted as liberators. The fall of Saddam's statue should be permanently etched on any American-loving American's brain. Torture is a relative term and it is not universally agreed upon that water-boarding, a technique which does not cause serious bodily harm or death is torture. Contrast this technique with the beheading of non-combatant citizens they enjoy video-taping. You do not raise taxes in a recession.

Answer 3

Republicans are right about some things sometimes, just not a lot. It is divisive to claim they are always wrong, as though they are unpersuadable fools who need only to be fought or controlled. Much as I disagree with them on lots, they do represent a lot of people who think the way they do, don't like government and taxes, want to legislate morality, believe a robust or violent defense policy is most effective and that the death penalty is just and effective. I don't agree with a lot of that, but people get to have their ideas and to vote whom they want in and sometimes, they get things right. Sometimes they get rid of a program that is a corrupt shambles; sometimes they lower a tax that is too high. And they are persuadable. McCain is a seriously right-wing guy whom I don't want for president, but he has been visionary on climate change and is helping shift the Senate.

So we shouldn't be like that to Republicans.

Of course, another answerer asks "When did politics suddenly become like football?" with people cheering when the other side takes a hit. Well, he should ask Limbaugh, whom I heard on the radio yesterday telling a conservative caller something like "We're not going to do this by persuading Democrats or making them see the light. We can only do this by beating them." There's debate for you! I believe our politics went from occasional barb to full-time demonization of supposed enemies when the AM band went over to full-time, multi-channel right-wing slander.

Answer 4

Sir in logic we would call that the "either, or" argument. You are saying that they are one or the other. Invalid question. But getting to what I think your saying. Republicans are right and they are wrong. For instance I disagree with the President on his idea about Embrionic stem cell reserch. I disagree with Al Gore on his point about Global Warming. As an under age Republician I agree that Republicans have been wrong as have the Democrat liberals.

Answer 5

The Right needs a voice in the US, but the workers and the middle class will eventually control politics if the Right abuses them (as they have)...there will always be a place for the Right, but it will be with the consent of the middle class...what amazes me is the Right doing things in such an obvious, self-serving way. The bad thing is that we need a reasonable Right to temper the Left and it looks like they have cut their own ca-hones off to spite the rest of us

Answer 6

Republicans are always right. That's why we are called the right.

Answer 7

Are Democrats always hypocrites, or do they just twist the facts to fit their current ideals?

Answer 8

Republicans are always wrong when they don't stick to their Conservative base values. When they take on liberal values, they are always wrong. I agree with you .

Answer 9

Like your "Question," you are so incredibly (and I use that term literally) confused. Go back to school and try opening a book this time.

Answer 10

How are we wrong? I personally would rather listen to republicans than a bunch of hippie duche bags

Answer 11

Now, that kind of question isn't going to help anyone. If our country loses its ability to debate without each side refusing to even consider the other side's arguments, then we might as well turn in our Democracy caps.

Many of them have just been wrong a lot *lately.*