JOHN DEAN'S BOOK

Conservatives Without Conscience is a nice introduction to the social science research done on authoritarian and social dominant personalities and the implications for politics in America.

In particular, Dean introduces us to the scholarly work of Robert Altemeyer, especially these two books:

Right-wing Authoritarianism

The Authoritarian Specter


I've written before that there seem to be about 25% of us Americans who blindly follow power, especially Presidential power. I based that upon my recall of Nixon's approval ratings. Altemeyer provides some support for this estimate:

"Probably about 20 to 25 percent of the adult American population is so right-wing authoritarian, so scared, so self-righteous, so ill-informed, and so dogmatic that nothing you can say or do will change their minds," Altemeyer told me. He added,"They would march America into a dictatorship and probably feel that things improved as a result. The problem is that these authoritarian followers are much more active than the rest of the country. They have the mentality of 'old-time religion' on a crusade, and they generously give money, time and effort to the cause. They proselytize; they lick stamps; they put pressure on loved ones; and they revel in being loyal to a cohesive group of like thinkers. And they are so submissive to their leaders that they will believe and do virtually anything they are told. They are not going to let up and they are not going away."

(Dean's book, page 184)

There are many such posters on AOL's political message boards. Here are a few statements from BadGranny68, a poster notable for once claiming that the U.S. government should be run strictly as a military establishment:

HEY, THAT SMART A** POSTER MIGHT BE TALKING DIFFERENT IF A NUKE HIT HIS HOUSE.

BUSH IS DOING WHAT ANY PRESIDENT UNDER THESE TIMES WE FACE SHOULD BE DOING. ... THE AMERICAN VOTERS NEED TO USE MORE COMMON SENSE IN THIS NEXT ELECTION THEN THEY DID THE LAST ONE.....WE ARE AT WAR.

Bush is undoubtably the strongest president we have had in a long time. ... When Bush says something he stands firm on it