The ‘liberal gene’ reconsidered

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How can liberals, for example, refer to the GOP as the “party of greed”? Republicans give more to charity, on average, than Democrats (30 percent more). It may be that liberals are less interested in giving and more interested in forcing others to give — a disposition easily explained by reverse-engineering the Stone Age mind. But then again, it could be groupthink; it could be ignorance; it could be philosophical differences. But as economist Donald Boudreaux writes:

To the ‘Progressive’ brain, I’m smart and kind if I am enchanted by half-baked schemes to herd and prod and tax my fellow Americans, but dumb and mean if I question the wisdom of all such collectivist plots.

What sort of evolutionary forces forged such a brain? Likewise, what sort of forces forged the minds of traders? Crusaders?

There are other reasons to be skeptical of this type of study. And yet I think we can express skepticism without saying all such research is meaningless. Indeed, Fowler is probably right about some of our social and cultural predilections — even if his assumptions miss the mark in other areas. And give Fowler credit for a great quote: “If it made sense for us all to be liberal, natural selection would have made us all liberal.” Amen. And while there is no Great Standard in the Sky by which to measure all our political dispositions, at least we have this pluralistic project called America to keep us all in check — and evolving.

Max Borders is a writer living in Austin. He blogs at Ideas Matter.