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I’ve always thought the great divide was that well-intentioned Republicans think that people/coporations/the market etc. will naturally take care of those less fortunate in our society and don’t need government intervention to “tell them what to do.” And, I believe the liberal philosophy is that human beings/corporations, etc. (unfettered and subject to greed and the profit motive) will not. I think history has shown us, and continues to by the recent banking debacle, that greed is ingrained in us all. The profit motive (which is what the capitalism is based on) without any protective policies for the greater good of society is a dangerous and destructive force. Trying to ignore greed as a force in human nature is like trying to ignore the drive to eat, sleep or any other all too human function. I don’t believe that all the executives at banks who led us to this current state of affairs are bad or evil people. I blame the system that allowed and encouraged them to act as they did. People in great positions of corporate power, with great potential to enrich themselves (and with nothing to stop them) aren’t inherently different than you or me. They are people who are coddled and removed from the everyday world most of us live in and usually surrounded by synchophants and others who think they deserve what they are getting. That example is reinforced by the huge growth in CEO salaries (which are governed by other CEOs making the same kind of money). They really don’t think it might be unfair to reward another CEO with a 50 million dollar golden parachute while opposing an increase in the minium wage, because they are only looking at the bottom line, not people. And they unburden any guilt they might have by dropping an occasional 10K to a charity (for which they get a tax write-off). In today’s business world, the mantra is “it’s not personal, it’s business.” So if the choice becomes cutting workers (to make the bottom line) they rarely look at other ways they might achieve the same results. And they don’t see people, they see numbers on a spread sheet, so indeed, it’s not personal. The recent example of the president of Brown (who was making almost $500K serving on a banking board) is a great case of the blinders this kind of thinking can create. Among her peers on the boards she was serving on, 500K is a pittance. So, surrounded by that kind of thinking, she lost site of reality.
I believe that many Republicans, especially of the old school, are hopeful, optimistic people who believe that the economy will always grow, house prices will always move upward and people will take care of each other because it’s the decent thing to do.
But, what is especially troubling about the extreme right wing of the Republican party is that they don’t appear to be bothered or troubled about anything but what’s good for themselves.