King vs. Country

How the Radically Different Tribal Moralities of Conservatives and Liberals Explain the Current Crisis of Democracy

The fallout from Biden’s debate self-immolation and the MAGA justices’ recent coronation of Donald Trump reveal starkly divergent notions of political leadership. More specifically, they illustrate the disparate moral lenses through which those on the right and left make sense of the world and determine how it should be run. As I describe in my new book, Hatreds We Love: The Psychology of Political Tribalism in Post-Truth America, social scientists who study moral reasoning have found that conservatives and liberals are guided by profoundly different ethical “instincts.” Researchers call them moral intuitions.

Three of the most powerful psychological drivers that shape conservative politics are ingroup loyalty, deference to traditional authority, and social dominance. Actions are morally right if they benefit the group, preserve the power of the tribal leader, and lead to the conquest or control over subordinated outgroups.

In the MAGA epoch of right-wing politics, the traditional Republican ethos of “law and order” means that the leader is the law and gives the orders. Whether something is considered a crime has nothing to do with the act but is determined by who commits it. Trump may have directed a coup, stolen classified documents, extorted a foreign leader, abducted immigrant children, sexually assaulted women, given pardons in exchange for loyalty, sold influence, accepted bribes, ordered the incarceration of opponents, and perpetrated numerous fraudulent schemes during his career in business and public life. But they are not crimes because they are his actions. And now the MAGA justices that serve him and enable his impunity have conferred legal grace on his psychopathic entitlement.

The Supreme Court majority is not the only enabler of Trump’s autocratic and corrupt schemes.  His actions, which would be crimes if anyone else committed them, are also celebrated by the MAGA electoral base. They are seen as bold acts of defiance against the enemy.  The Trump Georgia mugshot t-shirt became one of the hottest items in fascist fashion. He has told his followers that what he does for himself is really a selfless act that benefits them. His cultic leadership has successfully appropriated those three moral foundations into the sanctification of his authority. Loyalty to him is conflated with loyalty to the group. And their group is the nation. Thus, he becomes the authority who can never be questioned and whose power can never be challenged. Serving him has become an explicit raison d'être for cult members. Life is meaningless without him. If that sounds like tendentious hyperbole, I offer you exhibit A below.

Even the conservative National Review was gobsmacked when this Trump or Death banner began to appear at MAGA rallies and swag booths. “What does it say about our country that there is a market for flags that declare, ‘Trump or Death?’” As one participant enthused, “This is my favorite flag.” He reminded the interviewer that the slogan is not just a call for suicidal sacrifice but could also be read as a threat. “It doesn’t necessarily mean my death; it could also mean your death.” Either way, the cause worth dying or killing for is not a lofty emancipatory principle such as Patrick Henry’s Liberty but, ironically, a king.

In contrast, liberals are driven by very different moral concerns – care for others, fairness, and equity. That care often extends to those outside the tribal boundary, which is generally more inclusive. Unlike MAGA conservatives, liberals view the nation as encompassing more than their political tribe to include all citizens. Moreover, they believe parties and their leaders should serve the country, not just themselves. Democratically elected authorities should be respected, not deified, and their powers constrained by the popular will. Autocratic and unaccountable authority is wrong, partly because of the unfairness inherent in depriving others of agency. Leaders who arrogate to themselves unearned privileges and who claim moral impunity defy the liberal principle of equity.  

This framework helps us understand the strikingly different responses by Democratic politicians and voters to the cognitive implosion of their own leader. While grateful for Joe Biden’s contributions over many years and respectful of his office, their loyalty is to the country and fellow citizens, not the party or its leader. There is a lively debate among Democratic partisans about who has the best chance of defeating an aspiring autocrat and protecting the country from the fascist counterrevolution the GOP is longing to enact.

The call to replace the party’s leader on the presidential ballot may not be successful. But it is a challenge to impaired authority that would never occur among Republicans, a party whose criteria for being a member in good standing is slavish fealty to a corrupt cult leader. Trump’s frequent effusions of incoherent word salad do not trouble them. His audiences cheer his rageful gibberish and laugh when they discern an intended joke.

Those few brave GOP souls who dare to issue a challenge, criticize his performance, or question his license to commit crimes can expect death threats and a lifetime of living under the protection of private security services. Both of the two major presidential candidates may be sundowning in their own ways, but only Democrats are willing to call out the leader of their tribe. That is because they feel loyalty toward the nation as a whole, not just a partisan subgroup.