AMERICA: THE CONSEVATIVE FORTRESS

Starr, Alexandra (2004) “America’s Right Turn” BUSINESS WEEK, June 7, p.26-27.

Review of Mikelwait and Adrian Wooldridge (2004) THE RIGHT NATION: Conservative Power in America, (New York; Penguin Press) 450 pages.

If you want to know how to decide if a person is a Republican or a Democrat, just ask if they go to church every Sabbath. If they say “yes” they are Republican. Democrats have slowly been marginalized in religion and can only hear Republican sermons Sunday after Sunday. Leaving the church does not mean that they have left Christianity; it means that they worship by themselves.

Except for a short period in the 60’s and the Depression, America is the center of world conservativism. This new book describes the cultural underpinnings of a premiere conservative country.

About 50% of the USA votes, over half of the active voters are conservatives of some stripe. This is Reagan country. Other countries may vote along class lines, Americans vote by their values even if it may cost them their job. NON-Conservatives are like “identity” groups.

The authors gained access to some of the dominant conservative groups to watch them function. They are extremely organized. There are numerous think tanks, AM radio, local television outlets, and local newspapers that support the Right. Cable stations such as Fox News, Eternal Word Network, Christian Broadcasting Network, financial network, Bloomberg cable, and other stations make the Right’s position known to the voter. Add to that numerous weekly periodicals and the Sunday pulpit, and you have an incredible force.

If a Democrat is elected, they are forced to the center even if they were liberal before. The Right is that powerful. Additionally, the world market appears on their side. Investment capital can move almost anywhere and labor can not.

The authors are from the UK, but they write to both Yanks and Brits. They say:

The Right outthinks and out hustles the Left. 2. One third of Americans believe that they will be filthy rich in their life time. 3. 19% of Americans think that their income puts them in the top 1%. 4. Americans believe that the USA is exceptional to the point of superiority over all other countries. 5. Individually assume that they will be rich and thus support a fraying of the social safety net. 6. 95% of the National Rifle Association votes and the Labor unions members can’t match that or even stay alive. Only 13% of the workforce is involved in collective bargaining.7. They love their country and hate their government. Many (there are 230,000 gated or developed suburban communities) see themselves as a nation unto themselves. If they could, they would like to secede from the country.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN notes that 60% of Americans believe that the earth is 6,000 years old or less. Forty percent (40%) believe that the sun rotates around the earth, and 75% have the leap of faith that God loves America more than any other country. Thus, their cosmology and theology are conservative.

When a Republican loses an election, it is there’s to lose. They start with an edge, a financial train of money, usually a congress with the support of Southern Democrats, a Supreme Court, and powerful regulatory boards.

Voters have an unbridled love affair with laissez-faire capitalism unless a subsidy directly affects them.

There is a strongly belief in individualism (hard indeterminism) that any one with enough effort can make it to the top and few if any environmental considerations sullies one’s climb to the top.

We are a country of suburbs and the Right has the advantage. Other countries may have their untoward opinions of America, but they don’t have the military might.