Political personality types and beliefs are a function of biology, socialization, and psychology. Some of these variables can be changed, while others are more fixed in our brains. However, if we better understand the relationship between these variables there is a possibility that perhaps we (liberals, progressives, pragmatists, and reasonable conservatives) can better understand our political foes (the GOP base, “Trumpists”, Christian Reconstructionists, and Dominionists).

One of the recurring themes of the 2016 Republican primary season (and recent elections as well) has been an emphasis on fear, anxiety, death, and destruction. “Terrorism” is the new bogeyman. Black and brown people are going to kill white women and to destroy white America. Barack Obama is a black usurper Muslim Christian Indonesian who hates white America. This is a distorted and twisted reflection of current events, and a society that was traumatized and driven to sociopathic madness on the global stage after September 11, 2001. Such beliefs are also an indication of white anxiety about the United States’ changing ethnic and racial demographics. These beliefs are also the output of a right-wing news entertainment complex that preaches conspiracy theories and lies as though they are truths.

Macro-level political dynamics are given life through individuals.

Recently, CNN had a great feature on Donald Trump’s supporters which included observations such as:

At another rally in Manassas, Virginia, on December 2, Robin Reif, 54, yelled into the crowd that the President was from Kenya. He told CNN afterward that Obama was "too much of a Muslim" and an "Islamist sympathizer." "In our Constitution, it says that the president has to be an American citizen," Reif said. "I'm still wondering where is he really from. What is this man's background?"… Bickie Mason, a contractor from Lyman, South Carolina, who attended Trump's Spartanburg rally in November, said he felt he didn't have a choice but to agree with Trump's idea of tracking Muslim-Americans through a national database. "I don't believe all Muslims are bad. But anybody can turn bad, and you've got to be able to locate them and know where they're at," said Mason, 64… At the same rally, 55-year-old Susan Kemmelin said, "We can't look at a Muslim and tell if they're a terrorist or friendly…" Rhett Benhoff, a middle-aged white man at a December Trump campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, said discrimination against whites is "absolutely" real. "I mean, it seems like we really go overboard to make sure all these other nationalities nowadays and colors have their fair shake of it, but no one's looking out for the white guy anymore," he said.

These sentiments are not that dissimilar from those held by self-identified Republicans and conservatives as reported by public opinion polling data.

Biology is not destiny in matters of politics. But neuroscientists, political psychologists, and other researchers are learning that biology does have a great influence on how individuals perceive the world and the types of solutions they seek to socio-political problems.

For example, the brains of conservative-authoritarians are more fear-oriented. Moreover, instead of looking away or wanting to avoid negative stimuli (a feature of the brains of those whose political personality type is more “liberal” or “progressive), conservative-authoritarians are attracted to such imagery. As explained in The New Republic:

Hibbing and his colleagues subject volunteers to stimuli that are either neutral or aversive—some, like images of graveyards or threatening animals, that are meant to evoke fear, and others that are intended to induce disgust. (“The nice thing about disgust is that it’s very easy to disgust people,” Hibbing told me, listing a few reliable stimuli: pictures of “a guy eating worms, a cockroach on pizza, excrement on the street.”) The researchers then ask their subjects questions about their attitudes toward a variety of cultural, political, and economic issues—and the ones who’ve been exposed to the negative stimuli tend to lean farther to the right, especially on social issues. (Disgusting stimuli are especially effective at moving people to the right on sexual issues: opposition to gay marriage and abortion, and support for abstinence-only education.)

Other researchers have made complementary findings. From Live Science:

Conservatives pay more attention to negative stimuli compared with liberals, the study found. "They're essentially monitoring things that make them feel uncomfortable, which does feel fairly consistent with conservative policies, actually," study researcher Mike Dodd, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, told LiveScience. "They tend to confront things head-on that they view as threats, things like immigration and so on." Dodd was quick to note that the kind of stimuli a person pays more attention to does not make them better or worse than someone of another political persuasion. But the findings could suggest a biological basis for political views. "Based on your biology, you might be experiencing and processing something in a fundamentally different way from someone else," Dodd said.

These differences in brain structure are exploited by right-wing opinion leaders through processes of socialization and propaganda. Liberals and progressives are unable to persuade conservatives because they use a type of political language that does not appeal to the moral hierarchy, binary thinking, and fear obsessions that dominate the conservative-authoritarian mind.

Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and the other 2016 Republican candidates are intentionally trying to frighten Republican voters with fictive chimeras and made up monsters about a dystopian America where “real Americans” (read: white, Christian, heterosexual, rural, and suburban) are imperiled because those tactics are perceived as paying political dividends (and in many ways, they do).

The use of eliminationist and violent rhetoric by Republicans against liberals, progressives, Democrats, and those others with whom they disagree is an intentional strategy. One of its origins can be found in a 1996 GOPAC policy memo by Newt Gingrich. It suggested the following:

As you know, one of the key points in the GOPAC tapes is that "language matters." In the video "We are a Majority," Language is listed as a key mechanism of control used by a majority party, along with Agenda, Rules, Attitude and Learning. As the tapes have been used in training sessions across the country and mailed to candidates we have heard a plaintive plea: "I wish I could speak like Newt." That takes years of practice. But, we believe that you could have a significant impact on your campaign and the way you communicate if we help a little. That is why we have created this list of words and phrases. This list is prepared so that you might have a directory of words to use in writing literature and mail, in preparing speeches, and in producing electronic media. The words and phrases are powerful. Read them. Memorize as many as possible. And remember that like any tool, these words will not help if they are not used. While the list could be the size of the latest "College Edition" dictionary, we have attempted to keep it small enough to be readily useful yet large enough to be broadly functional. The list is divided into two sections: Optimistic Positive Governing words and phrases to help describe your vision for the future of your community (your message) and Contrasting words to help you clearly define the policies and record of your opponent and the Democratic party. Please let us know if you have any other suggestions or additions. We would also like to know how you use the list. Call us at GOPAC or write with your suggestions and comments. We may include them in the next tape mailing so that others can benefit from your knowledge and experience.

Newt Gingrich’s policy briefing gave the following guidance on the use of “contrasting words:”

Often we search hard for words to define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. Remember that creating a difference helps you. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party. Some of these words and phrases include: • abuse of power • anti- (issue): flag, family, child, jobs

• bureaucracy

• coercion

• failure (fail)

• impose

• welfare

• traitors

• they/them

• steal

• punish (poor …)

• radical

• corrupt

• destroy

• destructive

• devour

• disgrace • cheat • lie

Such language is familiar to anyone who listens to right-wing talk radio, watches Fox News, peruses conservative websites and comment sections, or is attuned to the rhetoric of the GOP’s political leaders.

It is impossible for conservatives to find a reasonable middle ground with their political enemies because 1) such a move is an act of betrayal for their political religion and 2) the Republican Party has spent decades demonizing and dehumanizing liberals, Democrats, and progressives.

As I wrote last week here at Daily Kos, conservatives and liberals live in fundamentally different (and often extremely divergent) life worlds. Nevertheless, we live in the same country and are impacted by our respective political leaders’ decisions.

There is clearly something very wrong in the political culture of the United States. The economy is not fair or productive for all citizens. The white working class and lower middle class are realizing that the wages of whiteness are diminishing, and that their artificially-inflated life successes are being reduced. Black and brown folks (working class and the poor especially), are living the neoliberal nightmare of the present, and historically have suffered under racism and white supremacy. They have a deep knowledge and maturity about the lie of American meritocracy and the Horatio Alger myth. Their fellow white Americans are finally waking up to the horrible truth.

These collective anxieties, fears, and worries are fueling the rise of Donald Trump as well as the potential power of Bernie Sanders. Those voters who are attracted to Trump and the Republican Party have chosen terror and fear as their overriding factors when making political decisions. Sanders’ supporters are more positive and hopeful dreamers who understand that what is deemed impossible is only true until that goal is accomplished.

I do not speak the political language of today’s Republicans and movement conservatives. Their brain structure is very different from mine. I have no interest in peering inside the mouths of political madness that beckon to them from Fox News and the broader right-wing hate media. But, if I can understand some of their motivations, psychology, and biology, perhaps it is possible to convert some conservatives back to the common good—and a more humane and truly democratic political vision.

Then again, maybe I am just a foolish optimist.