The Polarizing Differences Between Democrats (Liberals) and Republicans (Conservatives)

18 min readOct 14, 2020

From my observations borne out in real-world social trends, Democrats (liberals) and Republicans (conservatives) have differing world view biases. I see the distinction between the Democrat and Republican ideologies as thus: Democrats tend to have what I call a Horizontal World View. Republicans tend to have what I call a Vertical World View. Imagine a graph in which the Y-axis (vertical) indicates priority on self interest relative to the general population. The X-axis (horizontal) indicates the scope of the timeframe within that world view.

Horizontal World View

As seen on the graph, a Horizontal World View plots low and broad. The Democrat’s low plotting on the Y-axis indicates far less prioritization on one’s self and immediate cohort, with a far broader range of concerns and interests with regards to society and world populace in general, such as altruistic efforts in Third World countries, concern for immigrants, preservation of natural habitats and resources, etc. This illustrates more prioritizing of interest outside the immediate cohort and greater interest, tolerance, and concern for everyone.

The broad X-axis indicates the tendency for a longer view held by the Democrats than the Republicans, projecting results and consequences that reach into the future. Such a perspective may include generations yet unborn, and inform the priorities, choices, and actions taken now, such as climate change.

The Democratic World View is about the Greater Good and its Future Sustainability. This can be interpreted as “egalitarian,” “open-minded,” and having a “long view.”

Vertical World View

As seen on this graph, a Vertical World View plots tall and narrow. The Y-axis illustrates a prioritizing of interest in self, immediate family and friends, within their social construct. The further outside this cohort and the greater the differences between them and the rest of society, the less their interest, concern or even tolerance. It’s a tall plotting on the graph indicating a strong emphasis on “self,” relative to the general population within that view.

The X-axis on the graph indicates a characteristic time element for the Vertical World View as well. The narrow width of the Republican plotting indicates greater interest in now, immediate concerns of theirs that effect them and theirs, with less regard or concern or — often — even awareness and acceptance of a longer view which looks to the future for results and consequences of action.

The Republican/Conservative World View is about Me, Mine and Now. This can be interpreted as “selfish,” “close-minded” and “short-sighted” when applied to people of means for whom these self-interests are not necessities for survival, and — to the contrary — effectively deprive the less fortunate of the qualities of life they are preserving for themselves. Examples include:

• The reduction of taxes for the wealthy but not the lower income classes

• Support of vouchers for affluent private schools while doing little to improve the public school systems

• Preference for “energy independence” through continued and expanded use of fossil fuels and the reduction of nature preservation, as well as contributing to pollution and climate change — benefitting big business energy concerns in the short term at the expense of the health and prosperity of the world populace in the long term.

• Suppressing economic opportunity and growth for the economic underclass by the perpetuation of racial bias.

What is a ‘Conservative’?

The term “conservative” implies that such an ideology prefers and strives to conserve something. What is it that they wish to conserve? It’s the status quo, the prevailing structure of society in which they feel comfortable and safe and empowered. Preventing changes to the economic structure that affords them the capital to continue to enjoy their personal resources dictates a fiscally conservative mandate. And that economic structure typically marginalizes and undermines the potential for economic success for others outside their cohort. It’s not their concern. Me and mine.

The prevailing social fabric might be highly polarized racially, and categorically unfair, unjust and marginalizing. But the conservative tends to like things the way they are, citing “the way it was,” “the good old days,” and “America was founded on these [WASP] principles.” They’re socially conservative — conserving a social structure that has served them well. And even if those principles included such things as racial segregation or slavery, so be it. The strata of society have, in their mind, sorted themselves out logically, and those who rose to the top (i.e., wielding power) deserve to be there and belong there.

They wish to conserve this structure. And these beliefs are clung to stubbornly and argued as right and just, even in the absence of supporting evidence, or even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. This is the breeding ground for conspiracy theories which, as has been proven in practically every example, to be a factually empty argument supporting some mysterious and insidiously clever plot that cites an enemy (whomever the conservative suspects might hope to undermine his familiar way of life) and a victim (the conservative himself and those within his cohort). When was the last time you heard of a positive conspiracy theory, featuring — rather than a villain — a mysterious benefactor?

While we all are guilty to a certain degree of confirmation bias — the tendency to confirm one’s own beliefs or theories by accepting as fact the information that supports one’s beliefs — the far right conservative will steadfastedly cling to almost any “fact” or story that supports and validates his worldview, regardless of how far-fetched and fabricated with malicious intent.

Trump: Trends, Tendencies, Intelligence

The Vertical World View informs a trend toward xenophobia, racial prejudice, exclusion, and anti-immigration policies. Excluding people of other countries from the United States runs contrary to the processes that populated and built this nation in the first place. Spreading fear of immigrants with unsubstantiated falsehoods and fomenting hatred for the “invaders” has deeply divided this country, and has been the underlying motives for the Trump administration’s egregious acts, such as the Muslim ban, separating children from their families at the Southern border and caging them, and encouraging and emboldening far-right racist fringe groups.

The mission to “protect” America and the “way of life” puts the sole emphasis on protecting the status quo of those in power, despite the absence of humanitarian concerns or long-term consequences. Nationalism, racism, and white supremacy, as demonstrated by President Donald Trump and his core supporters, verify this trend. A strong authoritarian undercurrent exists in the GOP, and Trump fulfills this desire of many to represent a strongman approach to maintaining the status quo.¹

Other authoritarian, autocratic leaders like Trump also have a strong tendency to suppress facts and evidence that, while clearly essential to the public’s well-being, might cast themselves in a bad light and therefore choose to suppress this information, deny and undermine the facts and science behind it, or — worse yet — fabricate lies that misleads the public and puts them in greater peril. These leaders shift blame to others in almost every case, yet take credit for any positive events regardless of the facts. Trump admires, cozies up to and models himself after authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping and Tayyip Erdogan, amongst others.

Trump’s downplaying of the COVID-19 peril right from the beginning jeopardized the health, safety and lives of millions of Americans; he saw it in his best interest to politicize the pandemic as a hoax by Democrats, and when that ploy was proven false, shifted blame to China. In the face of the pandemic, Trump’s failure to act decisively and responsibly represented a selfish measure that underscored his incompetence when the nation required a response of concern and best-interest for society at large, based upon science and the best factual evidence available. In the meanwhile, the rest of the world was stepping up and handling the crisis better than the wealthiest, most powerful country on Earth.

Putting all Americans in yet further danger by contradicting the medical experts and undermining science by stating masks and social distancing were not necessary made it clear that Trump’s chief goal was to maintain an appearance of strength to march to the election and win a second term, regardless of how many people died as a result of his selfish acts or inaction. No more profound or undeniable example could be imagined than his brazen disregard for the lives of the very people he took an oath to protect…and yet nearly half the citizens of this country continue to support Trump.

This illustrates how blindly the Republican/Conservative — or more specifically, the Trump supporter — has the tendency to embrace unsupported and even disproven “facts”, denial of science, and reject factual but inconveniently verifiable information. The Democrat, on the other hand, tends to embrace science, verifiable facts, and social responsibility.

Intellect as a Factor

There are several contributing factors to the attraction to Trump ideals, values, concepts and actions held by a large segment of the population.

First, we need to illuminate the fact that as a societal segment, conservatives have a roughly 12 percent lower IQ than the liberal segment. This is not to infer that all conservatives are less intelligent than all liberals or visa versa. But in several studies, the median difference was approximately 12 percent, and the reasons have been researched from many bipartisan studies and clarified, based upon evolutionary dynamics and tendencies, as well as attained levels of education.² This is not a partisan opinion; it’s supported by clear, verifiable, and repeatable research.

In defense of this, let’s look at one popular conspiracy theory in circulation right now, which maintains that the COVID-19 pandemic was intentionally planned and created by a cadre of very powerful people. Republicans are nearly twice as likely to believe this to be true as Democrats (34% vs. 18%). Roughly half (48%) of Americans with a high school degree or less believe this is true. Those with some college but no degree and believe this theory comprise 38% of Americans. The percentage drops to 24% with a bachelor’s degree and only 15% with a postgraduate degree believe there is any truth to this conspiracy theory.³

The numbers support the connection between the lower education level attained and intellectual level of the average Republican/Conservative, and their likelihood to believe in far-fetched and unsupported conspiracy theories.

The population with sub-median level of intellectual thought and critical thinking skills in America tends to find preference in maintaining the status quo (as explained above), which is baked into the views and values of the conservative party. As American society has evolved into a White, Anglo-Saxon, Patriarchal culture and monoracial ideology, those who fit this class find themselves in familiar territory, surrounded and supported by like-minded individuals. The thinking has already been done for them and the intellectually rigorous exercise of conceiving a different society is challenging, distasteful, and rejected. That concept infers giving up their comfort zone, security, and possibly their sway over “outsiders” such as people of other races, immigrants, etc. Supporting themselves and their own rather than others outside their orbit of familiarity is their natural response. They are driven by a Vertical World View.

Donald Trump has not only tapped into this ideology, he personally embraces it. Being a person of demonstratively lower intelligence and shallower knowledge base than previous presidents (as well as most others in politics in general), he therefore, speaks in very informal, simple language — linguistically juvenile much of the time — which is easily understood and non-challenging to his base of supporters. The oftimes soaring rhetoric of more educated and articulate politicians is “over the heads” of a large percentage of non- or under-educated Americans and confuses them, or even intimidates them. Trump speaks down to them; they recognize the simple, rough talk of one of their own and feel more a part of the process. Their lack of intellectual sophistication is not only validated, it’s celebrated in the Republican Party — and exploited as well. Hence, Trump’s childish penchant for name-calling of anyone who crosses him or disagrees with him. His base resonates with this. He’s “one of their own.”

The overall lower IQ of the conservative party is not a result of their embracing traditional Republican preferences and values (which do not always align with Trumpian values); they embrace these preferences and values as a result of their inherited and evolutionary-informed cognitive operating system that is wired to respond to familiar and non-threatening situations without having to resort to open minded, creative thought. When encountering the unfamiliar, the novel, or anything that challenges their status quo, their cognitive operating system is less capable of the creative thought processes necessary to deal with them in a logical and rational manner, or one that considers the bigger picture involving the consideration of other people and future consequences.

Hence, the default response to a familiar situation (such as providing for and protecting one’s self, the family and circle of close friends and allies) requires little or no creative thought — their response is obvious, innate and impulsive. Whereas being confronted by a new, novel or unfamiliar obstacle (such as people immigrating to America, “their” country, or those with conflicting cultures and preferences e.g., the LGBTQ+ community) tends to have them resort to a purely emotional response and one that supports the status quo, regardless of how inappropriate or unfair to the marginalized segment of the population that response might be.

Regarding Donald Trump supporters in particular, let’s look at the prevailing IQ of that group as a means of supporting this argument. A study was done based upon the results of the 2016 election and the school children of voters nationwide, for which there is ample scoring sampling (over 24,500 respondents) from which to extrapolate intelligence tendencies.⁴ This of course makes the assumption that children will reflect the intelligence level of their parents most of the time.

The results show a small but statistically significant difference: the median IQ of Clinton voters (liberal) was 104.4 and those of Trump voters (conservative) 101.6. This doesn’t mean all Republican voters are of lower intellect; but it does mean that there are more lower intellect Republican voters than Democrat. And those got Trump elected.

Supporting this view, let’s look at which ideology is more likely to support the following, all of which become increasingly adopted as IQ decreases:

Conspiracy theories: Republican
Denial of Science: Republican
Belief in Astrology, other Superstitions: Republican
Level of [claimed] religiosity: Republican

How Did Lower IQ Prevail in 2016?

Voting in America has historically leaned toward a process embraced by the more intelligent than the less educated and disenfranchised. The political process and mechanisms for change in America are very complex and fully understood by few. So less educated people have been less likely to understand the process. And this being the case, voter suppression — an issue of contention for decades — has recently escalated to a level previously unseen in this country, with the Trump administration using every method available to reduce the number of mailed-in ballots — the voting method of choice for more Democrats than Republicans — in the upcoming General Election. So those who have been misled and misinformed by the current administration and continue to support it will, as Trump hopes, outnumber those voting by mail who are not so easily fooled.

Trump appeared on the scene as a “Washington outsider” — a reality TV celebrity (the lower a person’s IQ, the more influential TV and film celebrities are on them), a brash, tough-talking businessman, and someone with a long history of getting his way and manipulating others through subterfuge, lying and repetition. While not the business success he touts himself to be (as recently proven through the release of his long-suppressed tax returns by the New York Times), he had much experience in manipulating the gullible, the vulnerable and the less intelligent.

The timing was perfect. He was running against Hillary Clinton, a much smarter but socially unpopular opponent.

He identified a disenfranchised segment of American society — the scared, angry working class white, Anglo-Saxon, Christian populace who never had a “champion” they could understand and who seemed to care about them. And he spoke like them.

Coupled with shockingly low morals, white supremacist values and a life mission to enrich himself and his family at the expense of others (the Vertical World View to an extreme), his skills as a latterday P.T. Barnum and snake oil salesman were exactly what was needed — it was a “perfect storm.”

His base showed up in numbers greater than ever before and just tipped the scales (still open to conjecture with regard to foreign influence, which has been strongly supported by subsequent evidence over the past several years), to the astonishment of not only the Democratic party — but to the Republicans as well. He became the “accidental president” nobody expected—himself included.

So What Does This Say About the Intelligent Trump Supporters?

It gets somewhat thornier here. While the argument above can in some way absolve those of lower intellect who voted for Trump, what explanation (or excuse) do the more intelligent have?

Gullibility: First, we must recognize that, while a Vertical World View does inform the Republican preference and values, it does not necessarily indicate a lower IQ. That said, having a higher IQ does not prevent a person from being gullible, easily manipulated and gaslighted by the repetition of lies that they — in any other context — would call out immediately as purely rhetorical garbage.

While it would be easy to list many of Trump’s outrageous and outright lies here (he has recently surpassed 20,000 lies since taking office, making him by far the least honest or trustworthy president in American history), one of the first — a harbinger of things to come — was when Trump announced to America that his inauguration crowd was “the largest in American history.” Aside the self-aggrandizement unbefitting any president, the facts and aerial photos of inauguration attendance told a very different story: Barack Obama 2009 (513,000), Obama 2013 (317,000), Trump 2017 (193,000). While it was obvious to all, he repeated the lie enough to gaslight his adoring supporters who then adopted it as fact.

While that lie caused no loss of life, many others he committed did, including his gross mishandling and incompetence in the COVID-19 crisis. And with well over 250,000 Americans already dead from the pandemic, he still maintains he’s doing a great job — and many otherwise smart people agree. His refusal to wear a mask — even at the Mayo Clinic where it is hospital policy for everyone — clearly illustrated his arrogance and refusal to comply with societal and medical standards in the fear it might make him appear “weak.” His infrequent wearing of a mask in group settings only came after intense pressure from his own inner circle, as even they could see his brazen arrogance and ego undermining his re-election chances — and, ultimately, their own grasp on power. And yet, even after contracting the virus himself and creating “super-spreader” events at the White House, he dismissed his duty to protect Americans and continued to display willful negligence in the effort to appeal to his gullible base and gain re-election.

Denial/Compartmentalizing/Willful Ignorance: Seeing Trump’s gross incompetence, self-serving and amoral words and deeds and yet wearing blinders to them because he’s a Republican (as they are), it’s more important to toe the party line than to honestly analyze and scrutinize the rampant corruption in the Trump administration. So they pretend they don’t see the profound failures of this presidency. If the situation was reversed, and it was a Democratic president and administration perpetrating the subversions and violations of tradition, rule of law and morals of a democratic society as the Trump administration has, the Republican Party would be screaming for impeachment and removal from office as well, not to mention incarceration for the president and his cabinet.

Ego: The Republican voted for him and, although it’s all too obvious to a smart person how inept and corrupt Trump is, admitting so would also be to admit that they made a mistake in voting for him, that they were a poor judge of character, and therefore they double-down on supporting Trump to avoid the admission of making a mistake. And so they repeat it.

Greed: A few people have benefited from Trump’s economic dealings — mainly large corporations for whom he reduced taxes. They make millions or billions more as a result. Despite their awareness of the Trump administrations absolute failure in every category, including humanitarian, social, environmental, economic, foreign policy, etc., the money is more important to them and they continue their support.

Racism: Donald Trump has been shown to be a racist, pure and simple. A white supremacist is the leader of our nation, with racist views, intent, rhetoric and agenda. And anyone who votes for him, knowing what his values are, is either described in one of the paragraphs above, or a racist themselves. If they do not consider themselves a racist but continue to support one, that makes them complicit. They support and condone Trump’s values with their vote and perpetuate the racial polarization in our country.

A Republican is Not Necessarily a Trump Supporter

Many Republicans are fiscally or socially conservative but fall short of the excesses displayed by Trump, and abhor his lack of morals, values, integrity, intelligent, compassion and competence to fulfill the job he accepted. They may consider themselves a Republican but certainly not a Trump supporter.

Examples include:

Mitt Romney, who had the backbone and moral integrity to be the lone Republican vote for Trump’s impeachment through the Senate. And admitted Trump is “unfit for the office.”

• Fox and Friends host Jedediah Bila who said “Trump is behaving like a third-grader — enough already!”

• Former Ohio governor John Kasich

A new Senate report undercuts claims by President Trump and his allies that Obama-era officials sought to undermine him while investigating Russia’s 2016 election meddling.

“For years, President Trump has derided the assessment by American intelligence officials that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to assist his candidacy, dismissing it without evidence as the work of a “deep state” out to undermine his victory. But on Tuesday, a long-awaited Senate review led by members of Mr. Trump’s own party effectively undercut those allegations. A three-year review by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously found that the intelligence community assessment, pinning blame on Russia and outlining its goals to undercut American democracy, was fundamentally sound and untainted by politics.” ⁵

• Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT)⁶

• Former President George W. Bush and Senator Mitt Romney won’t support Mr. Trump’s re-election. John McCain’s widow, Cindy and Colin Powell will vote for Joe Biden, and many other G.O.P. officials may do the same. ⁷

• The Lincoln Project, a political action committee founded in 2019 by Republican strategists who have long been critical of Trump, has made a name for itself for its creative anti-Trump ads. It has also brought on veteran Republican strategists like Stu Stevens, a top adviser for now-Utah senator Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. George Conway, the husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is also a co-founder of the group.

Over 70 former GOP National Security Advisors and Governors ⁸

All Trump supporters are Not Necessarily Republicans

There are many — including white supremacists, anarchists, high-level criminals, etc., who may otherwise be apolitical. They see Trump as one of their own, as he supports and validates them, enriches them, and enables them to corrupt the system with impunity.

Trump has commuted prison sentences for his friends who were convicted of federal offenses, both to reward them for their loyalty and to protect himself from their turning state’s evidence on him in his criminal activities to subvert the rule of law in America. Thus far he has commuted 25 federal convictions, including Roger Stone who was convicted of seven felony charges. This is beyond mere corruption; it’s being described as treason. These people can be counted on continuing to support Trump.

Where Do You Plot on the Graph?

My Vertical vs. Horizontal World View Bias Graph is a means with which to clearly illustrate certain tendencies of individuals and groups of people in our electorate, and can be applied universally as well. The plottings I illustrated are the extremes of those ideologies and certainly not categorically true of everyone, and there is a lot of gray area between those extremes where most of us will find ourselves. Where would you plot yourself on the graph?

In Summary

Even if Trump is not reelected, the presence of people in this country who supported him and his methods and values (or lack thereof) and their own Vertical World View will remain; the lid will be put back on the pressure cooker as a new administration with a more Horizontal World View brings back the mechanisms of democracy, the rule of law, and dignity to the Office of the Presidency, all of which have been subverted and undermined since 2016.

It will be more important than ever to reach out across the aisle, and to those who felt so disenfranchised and fearful that they were compelled to vote for Trump in 2016. The polarization this president and his administration has created and fostered is deep and dangerous, and there will always be greedy, racist, lawless and selfish people in this country. Those characteristics do not reflect the prescribed values upon which this nation was founded: values reflected in a Horizontal World View, most succinctly stated in Abraham Lincoln’s “…government of the People, by the People, For the People.”

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