Considering America's Tea Party Members As Karmic Conservatives

HopeTracker| In a provocative observation for The Economist, Jonathan Haidt, ‘a trailblazer in the scientific study of the psychology of moral sensibility and judgement’, says that American Conservatives believe in karma, and that the New Deal upset the moral order of America.

The short piece doesn’t introduce the belief in a punishing God, embraced by Conservative men probably more so than Conservative women who embrace the strict morality code but see God as more forgiving. (See New Book | Americans Maintain Four Different Views of God)

Mr Haidt goes on to argue that, as conservatives see it, since the New Deal, liberals in power have been trying to suspend the karmic laws of cause and effect, insulating individuals from the injurious effects of vice and poor judgement. Birth control and abortion detached sex from it’s natural consequences, welfare rewarded indolence and illegitimacy, and so on.  via The Economist

Conservatives believe that we’re not created equal, and that inequality is created by human’s lack of ill and industry, the choices we make about how to lead our lives.

For the Tea Party members, Federal activism is a moral insult, a way of bailing out sinners, whether they are illegal immigrants or Wall Street financiers.

Mr Haidt’s perspective is an interesting one that rings true, from our perch on American values and political parties.