Current Trumpites remind us of the nativist Know-Nothing Party of the 1850's. That political movement was a backlash against the heavy immigration of Catholics from Germany and Ireland. Like Trump's modern Know-Nothings, the antebellum movement was based on fear of immigrants, fear of America being overwhelmed by a wave of outsiders. Today's fear is the same, only the names have changed.
The GOP has long relied on fear as a tool to motivate its base. Fear of immigrants. Fear of terrorists. Fear of criminals. Fear of Ebola. Fear of gays. Fear of black people. Fear of commies. Fear of change.
And scientists are beginning to understand why fear is an especially effective tool for motivating conservatives. A study by researchers at the University College of London found significant differences in brain structure between self-defined liberals and conservatives. It appears that the right amygdala of conservatives tends to be larger that that of liberals. This area of the brain is associated with the processing of emotions such as fear and disgust.
Other research reinforces the University College findings. For example, work from Cornell (Conservatives Are More Easily Disgusted Than Liberals) involved a series of questions that probed both political leanings and the level of sensitivity to disgusting situations. It found a strong correlation between conservatism and high disgust sensitivity.
Yet another confirming study (Disgust Sensitivity and the Neurophysiology of Left-Right Political Orientations) found that conservatives are more sensitive to disgusting pictures, such as a man eating live bugs. The sensitivity was measured by increased skin conductance (more sweating, higher conductance). Again, the right amygdala is involved in processing emotions such as disgust and fear.
GOP politicians recognize the high predisposition to fear in the psyche of their base, and pander to it. In Republican-controlled states across America, an all-guns-everywhere-all-the-time agenda has been implemented. Paranoid cowboys can now rest assured that they can shoot-down any threatening bad guys in their local Wal-Mart or the corner McDonald's.
The 2014 African Ebola crisis is a disgusting case in point. Many heroic American health-care workers volunteered to work on the front lines to halt this awful disease. But despite their bravery, they were treated as pariahs upon returning home. Republican Governors led the paranoid Ebola freak-out. Our own Scott Walker actually called for travel bans from affected African countries.
Current GOP front-runner Donald Trump was soiling his pants at the time, tweeting:“The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!” And further browning his shorts, “Ebola patient will be brought to the U.S. in a few days – now I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent. KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!” The Donald must have a HUGE amygdala !
Trump has been more effective than other GOP candidates in exploiting fear. He will round-up and export Hispanics because a few are criminals. He will stop Muslims from entering the country because a few are terrorists. He will shut-out all foreign trade goods because we lost some manufacturing jobs. We will all be safe hiding from the world behind our little wall. Everything will be great again. We will all be safe and secure.
I don't mean to imply that all Republicans are motivated by fear. Some are motivated by a desire to impose their morals on others. Others are motivated by greed. However, a big swath of neo-Know-Nothing GOP voters are driven by their high sensitivity to fear. Political hucksters like Trump are quite effective in stirring-up and riding that fear to political power.
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