(2017-11-09) Now Its Democrats Who Feel Their Values Threatenedand Are Voting

Now It's Democrats Who Feel Their Values Threatened—and Are Voting

In Karen Stenner’s penetrating 2005 study of the forces that tear societies apart, she explains that some people strongly prefer diversity, dynamism, and difference (Dynamist), while others have a powerful, possibly innate need for oneness and sameness (Stasist). Politicians can exploit the latter predisposition, as Donald Trump did.

At the other end the political spectrum are her “libertarians,” so-called because they are not merely anti-authoritarian, but ascribe a positive value to diversity and difference

Stenner’s “libertarians” were awoken by his victory. They took to the streets in protest

Gillespie, who needed to appeal to the authoritarians in Trump’s base to win over the president’s coalition; and he appeared to win those voters, but in doing so, he guaranteed a backlash populated by those suddenly-invested libertarians.

A “debilitating culture war” ensues

Triggering authoritarians was probably the only way Trump could have won the White House. But that change may yet fuel a backlash that costs Republicans much more.