But are voters really voting against their self-interest when they vote for candidates who share their values? Loyalty, respect for authority and some degree of sanctification create a more binding social order that places some limits on individualism and egoism. As marriage rates plummet, and globalization and rising diversity erodes the sense of common heritage within each nation, a lot of voters in many western nations find themselves hungering for conservative moral cuisine.
....The left typically thinks of equality as being central to fairness, and leftists are extremely sensitive about gross inequalities of outcome – particularly when they correspond along racial or ethnic lines. But the broader meaning of fairness is really proportionality – are people getting rewarded in proportion to the work they put into a common project? Equality of outcomes is only seen as fair by most people in the special case in which everyone has made equal contributions. The conservative media (such as the Daily Mail, or Fox News in the US) is much more sensitive to the presence of slackers and benefit cheats. They are very effective at stirring up outrage at the government for condoning cheating.
...
In sum, the left has a tendency to place caring for the weak, sick and vulnerable above all other moral concerns. It is admirable and necessary that some political party stands up for victims of injustice, racism or bad luck. But in focusing so much on the needy, the left often fails to address – and sometimes violates – other moral needs, hopes and concerns. When working-class people vote conservative, as most do in the US, they are not voting against their self-interest; they are voting for their moral interest. They are voting for the party that serves to them a more satisfying moral cuisine. The left in the UK and USA should think hard about their recipe for success in the 21st century.
Our previous discussion on this topic here (read the comments). More on this tomorrow, with another view.
3 comments:
The link in the final paragrapg to the previous discission is not working for me.
Fixed
Good Frank Bruni in today's N.Y Times, "Your God and My Dignity: Religious Liberty, Bigotry and Gays." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-religious-liberty-bigotry-and-gays.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
It starts:
"I've been called many unpleasant things in my life, and I've deserved no small number of them. But I chafe at this latest label:
"A threat to your religious liberty.
"I don't mean me alone. I mean me and my evidently menacing kind: men who have romantic relationships with other men and maybe want to marry them, and women in analogous situations. According to many of the Americans who still cast judgment on us, our 'I do' somehow tramples you, not merely running counter to your creed but running roughshod over it.
"That's absurd. And the deference that many politicians show to such thinking is an example not of religion getting the protection it must but of religious people getting a pass that isn't warranted. It’s an illustration of religion’s favored status in a country that's still working out this separation-of-church-and-state business and hasn’t yet gotten it quite right.
"We're at an interesting crossroads, brought about by the rapid advance of same-sex marriage. It's now legal in 36 states, including, as of last week, Florida. Equality is increasingly being enshrined into law, and one response from those opposed to it is that the law shouldn't apply to them.
"Why? Because it contradicts their religious beliefs, which they use as a fig leaf for intolerance."
It's well worth reading to whoe thing.
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