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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (8692)	12/2/2010 8:47:33 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Respond to of 10087

Well said.

To: Lane3 who wrote (8692)	12/2/2010 9:44:01 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 10087

On libertarians, ran across this on them: Voir Dire Strategy: Who’s the Libertarian? Wednesday, November 17, 2010 posted by Rita Handrich Concepts like authoritarianism have been studied intently for decades. But what about Libertarianism? We think we know about Libertarians from examining the writing of libertarian intellectuals and politicians—but that isn’t very scientific or reliable. Recently Iyer, Koleva, Graham, Ditto & Haidt (2010) published a paper that surveys the issues thoroughly. Here we summarize a few of the highlights from the entire paper (which is certainly worth your time to review). Our American societal stereotype since the 1950’s seems to be that Libertarians are conservative on economic issues but liberal on social issues. Given that Libertarians make up between 10 and 15% of the population with as many as 44% in the general population endorsing Libertarian ideals when presented separately from the label “Libertarian”—it makes sense that we learn as much about them as we can. Oddly enough, there have not been large-scale studies of Libertarians in the general populations. Until now. Fear not, gentle trial lawyer, thanks to Iyer, et al., we have a study looking at 152,239 citizens [of which 10,566 self-identified as Libertarian] to identify “the morality” of the elusive Libertarian potential juror. Much historical research has focused on the differences between conservatives and liberals. These groups are often presented as two ends of a political spectrum. Iyer, et al. attempted to explore just where on that continuum Libertarians would fall. What they concluded was that Libertarianism is not simply a point on the liberal/conservative continuum—but rather a group all its own with a “unique pattern of moral concerns”. So what does this mean for litigation-relevant attitudes? A lot. Here are specific findings of interest: Libertarians tend to be male. And they score lowest of any group on measures of empathy. “They are therefore likely to be less responsive than liberals to moral appeals from groups who claim to be victimized, oppressed, or treated unfairly.” “…libertarians look somewhat like liberals, but assign lower importance to values related to the welfare or suffering of others.” “…libertarian independence from others is associated with weaker loving feelings toward friends, family, romantic partners, and generic others… Libertarians were the outliers.” “…libertarians appear to live in a world where traditional moral concerns (e.g., respect for authority, personal sanctity) are not assigned much importance.” “Self-Direction was the most strongly endorsed value for all three groups, but for libertarians the difference was quite large. If libertarians have indeed elevated self-direction as their foremost guiding principle, then it makes sense that they see the needs and claims of others, whether based on liberal or conservative principles, as a threat to their primary value.” “…they care about liberty, and not just their own liberty. Like conservatives, they endorse a world in which people are left alone to enjoy the fruits of their own labor, and in which nations are not tied down by obligations to other nations. They also exceed both liberals and conservatives (but are closer to liberals) in endorsing personal or lifestyle liberty.” …libertarians will rely upon reason more – and emotion less – than will either liberals or conservatives.” The full paper is filled with illustrative charts and intriguing studies done on morality over the past 40 years. It’s a welcome addition to what we know about Libertarians—even when the sample is self-selected and cannot be said to be truly representative of the general population. It’s a terrific start. What we’ve found in our own pretrial research over the past decade and a half is that Libertarians are very unpredictable. What they say in discussion groups is often the opposite of what they write down on questionnaires and jury charges. Their take on case facts are often highly idiosyncratic and mediated by unpredictable perspectives. They may take a cause on and then continue arguing it even if they don’t really believe it simply “on principle”. Libertarians can be polarizing in a deliberation room. And that may be the most important information of all. There are times when you want a polarizing force in the jury room and there are times you do not. Choose carefully. But we caution you to not “bet the farm” on a self-identified Libertarian juror. keenetrial.com

To: Lane3 who wrote (8692)	12/2/2010 10:24:07 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10087

<<Simplistic definitions and simplistic bifurcation are beneath someone who professes to be on the side of logic. >> It is not simplistic at all. It is a matter of statistics. When 80% of scientists who are trained, like doc's, to use all their tools to check for truth and apply logic pick one party over another, there is a reason! 80% of scientists lean democratic and 12% lean Republican. That represents two "DISTINCT" populations to the .001 level of confidence. Any way you cut it there is not one liberal in the Republican party. There used to be liberal Republicans. But the true sub species of conservative ran them all out once they identified them. In fact they seem to be in the process of running all the moderates out as well until all that is left of the Republican party are Beck, Palin and Limbaugh and Angel, Paul and O'donnell, all of whom talk pure nonsense. Independents are simply confused, becasue they are not paying attention, IMO. They, like libertarians do lean right. Because the more right you move the lower accurate processing of information that takes place. Easy to see if you look.