Why Authoritarians Now Control the Republican Party

Findlaw.com ^ | 9/21/07 | John Dean

[imd102]

Excerpt: In addition to being especially submissive to established authority, Altemeyer's research revealed that those he calls right-wing authoritarians also show "general aggressiveness" towards others, when such behavior is "perceived to be sanctioned" by established authorities. Finally, these people are always highly compliant with the social conventions endorsed by society and established authorities. These basic traits, submissiveness to authority and conventionality, are the essence of those Altemeyer describes as right-wing authoritarians. If these traits are not present in some significant (albeit varying) degree, he does not consider the subject to be a right-wing authoritarian. However, these people can, and often do, consistently reveal they have many other interesting traits as well.

Based on Altemeyer's study, as well as those of other social psychologists, I prepared a list of the additional traits that these personalities [Republicans], both men and women who test high as right-wing authoritarians, often evidence: highly religious, moderate to little education, trust untrustworthy authorities, prejudiced (particularly against homosexuals, women, and followers of religions other than their own), mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, uncritical toward their chosen authority, hypocritical, inconsistent and contradictory, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, moralistic, strict disciplinarian, severely punitive, demands loyalty and returns it, little self-awareness, usually politically and economically conservative/Republican.

[imd102]

What do you think?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I didn’t see the link to global warming.

It’s obviously false.

[VR-21]

I think John Dean presents an interesting study on the longevity of cockroaches.

[JennysCool]

John Dean’s a senile old grouch.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

John Dean calling somebody else an "authoritarian."

Curiouser and curioser.

[imd102]

” mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, uncritical toward their chosen authority, hypocritical, inconsistent and contradictory, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, moralistic, strict disciplinarian, severely punitive, demands loyalty and returns it, little self-awareness”

Sounds like he is describing Hillary to me?

[stinkerpot65]

We’re seeing lots of stories like this lately, for the purpose of defining conservative beliefs as a mental illness.

[puroresu]

The reason Olbermann has John Dean on his show so often is that Dean’s the only person who can make Olbermann appear intelligent by comparison.

[chrisser]

What do you think?

From the little I read? Even at today's historically inexpensive rates, its a waste of bandwidth.

To wit: "Today, the Grand Old Republican Party is controlled by authoritarian conservatives. (As I mentioned in my prior column, the first in this three-part series, to my knowledge no person in the GOP has ever denied that fact - and they are well-aware of my book.) "

The juxtaposition of these two sentences would seem to infer that the author believes his assertion is true simply because he has no knowledge of its denial.

By that logic, I'm the President. I wrote it down and sent it to the White House, and since they didn't deny it, it must be true. Cue "Hail to the Chief"...

[Al Gator]

Actually, he was looking in the mirror when he wrote that.

[ctdonath2]

With only the most minor tweaking for fairness:

I prepared a list of the additional traits that these personalities often evidence: passionate about their religious views, moderate to little education, trust untrustworthy authorities, prejudiced, mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, uncritical toward their chosen authority, hypocritical, inconsistent and contradictory, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, moralistic, strict disciplinarian, severely punitive, demands loyalty and returns it, little self-awareness, usually politically and economically self-enforcing.

Pretty much describes anyone's sociopolitical opposition, doesn't it?

[dighton]

What do you think?

I think this sort of thing should be done in private.

[lesser_satan]

[bmwcyle]

John Dean help plan Watergate and then blamed everyone else. John is a piece of crap.

[Spok]

John Dean has dedicated his entire post-Watergate existence trying to justify his disloyalty and cowardice.
He is a spineless girlie-man who finds comfort hiding among the spineless girlie-men of the left.

[Al Gator]

According to the “G” Man, John Dean is low down, dirty rat.

[VaBthang4]

I thought that the Neocons ran the republican party.

[wideawake]

I think that a man who is a documented jailbird, liar, arranger of bribes and most famous for selling out his patron and boss in exchange for special consideration would have a deep dislike for people who take divine and human laws seriously.

[MissMagnolia]

I think this is vile enough to justify a ‘BARF’ Alert.

[rhombus]

I have an advanced degree in the social sciences and my opinion is that this stuff is based mostly on junk science... Rigged studies done on college freshman that have little external validity in the real world, let alone internal validity for the experiments themselves. Lies, damn lies and statistics.

Ask Joe Lieberman about left-wing authoritarianism and check to see how many liberals “just go along” with their leaders at protest rallies.