The Moral Politics of Donald Trump

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

i wanted to get your opinion on george lekoff's book which was an eye-opener for me now i don't read a lot of political philosophy but uh his book was moral politics how liberals and conservatives think. His political metaphor is the nation as a family with conservatives as a strict father family and liberals as a nurturant parent family. The good citizens are the discipline ones those who have already become wealthy or at least self-reliant while social programs meanwhile spoil people by giving them things they haven't earned and keeping them dependent.

The democratic ideal demands that the citizenry think critically about matters of public import. Yet many Democrats and Republicans in the United States have fallen short of that standard because political tribalism motivates them to acquire, perceive and evaluate political information in a biased manner. The result is an electorate that is more extreme, hostile and willing to reject unfavorable democratic outcomes.

Shermer and Redmond discuss: why we have political duopoly (Duverger’s law) • parties vs. policies • Are we living in a post-truth, fake-news, alternative facts world? • How do we know political polarization is worse now than in the past? • acquiring, perceiving, and evaluating political information • evaluating: false political information, political numbers and arguments, claims of rigged election • whataboutism • cognitive responsibilities of citizenship • cognitive biases • political polarization • myside bias • numeracy vs. innumeracy • solutions to the polarization problem.

Timothy J. Redmond received his PhD in political science from the University at Buffalo. He is an award-winning educator and author of over one hundred articles on critical thinking and politics. He is a professor at Daemen University where he teaches a political science and history course for education students.