Is the US more conservative because of race?

[old timey villain]

The US is more racially and ethnically diverse than many industrialized countries. This has created racial tension which becomes a breeding ground for conservative reactionary politics. It seems like almost every proposed liberal economic or social policy becomes all about race.

From my viewpoint:

1) Obamacare became vilified by many conservatives because it was seen as a one big handout for uninsured minorities funded by higher taxes for wealthy white people and reduced medicare coverage for seniors.

2) Amesty proposals like the Dream Act became a way to legalize illegal Hispanics so they can vote for Democrats. "Undocumented Democrats" as some liked to call them...

3) Gun control bills. Maybe I'm stretching here, but doesn't it seem racial as well? Nice, good white folks won't be able to defend themselves from the gangbangers, thugs and rapists (most of whom are perceived as being minorities).

4) Abortion


5) Welfare becomes white resentment against black people who supposedly live on easy street while everyone else pays for them.
(From the Onion lololololz)

[retromike22]

I was going to say you may be on to something, but then I remembered the example of Brazil. I actually think the U.S. has more in common with Brazil than with almost any other country, due to it's size, population, and ethnic mixture.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

No, the US is more race-IST because of (religious) conservatives.  

There is no empirical or scientific evidence that any race is any better or worse than any other.  (MAYBE the Asians scoring higher on tests is the only one that can't be immediately traced to income)  So, without basis in reality, where does the justification for racism come from?  Mmmhmmmm.  

Yes... everything does seem to come down to race, especially when Barack Obama is the focal point of the Democratic Party.  I just think you have it backward.  The racism doesn't cause the conservatism.  It's completely the other way around. 

Believe me... you wouldn't have the opposition you do to welfare if it was being used to help fuel a white CEO's private jet.  During the bailout... we actually saw this.  But giving the blacks a boost out of the mire we started them in.  That's a socialist no-go!

[Link]

African American are pretty conservative at least in regards to religion and homosexuality.

[Blue3]

I was going to say you may be on to something, but then I remembered the example of Brazil. I actually think the U.S. has more in common with Brazil than with almost any other country, due to it's size, population, and ethnic mixture.

India is quite liberal too, and possibly the most diverse country in the world.

[Blue3]

African American are pretty conservative at least in regards to religion and homosexuality.

The aftermath of the 2012 elections showed that more African-Americans support gay marriage than white people.

[traininthedistance]

No, the US is more race-IST because of (religious) conservatives.  

There is no empirical or scientific evidence that any race is any better or worse than any other.  (MAYBE the Asians scoring higher on tests is the only one that can't be immediately traced to income)  So, without basis in reality, where does the justification for racism come from?  Mmmhmmmm.  

Yes... everything does seem to come down to race, especially when Barack Obama is the focal point of the Democratic Party.  I just think you have it backward.  The racism doesn't cause the conservatism.  It's completely the other way around. 

Believe me... you wouldn't have the opposition you do to welfare if it was being used to help fuel a white CEO's private jet.  During the bailout... we actually saw this.  But giving the blacks a boost out of the mire we started them in.  That's a socialist no-go!

Actually, I sometimes wonder if the correlation goes in the other direction.  The Southern Baptist Convention got its start when nervous slaveowners in the early 1800s realized they needed a moral justification for subjugating other people, and started twisting Scripture to that end.

[All Along The Watchtower]

African American are pretty conservative at least in regards to religion and homosexuality.

Why do you suppose that is?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

No, the US is more race-IST because of (religious) conservatives.  

There is no empirical or scientific evidence that any race is any better or worse than any other.  (MAYBE the Asians scoring higher on tests is the only one that can't be immediately traced to income)  So, without basis in reality, where does the justification for racism come from?  Mmmhmmmm.  

Yes... everything does seem to come down to race, especially when Barack Obama is the focal point of the Democratic Party.  I just think you have it backward.  The racism doesn't cause the conservatism.  It's completely the other way around. 

Believe me... you wouldn't have the opposition you do to welfare if it was being used to help fuel a white CEO's private jet.  During the bailout... we actually saw this.  But giving the blacks a boost out of the mire we started them in.  That's a socialist no-go!

Actually, I sometimes wonder if the correlation goes in the other direction.  The Southern Baptist Convention got its start when nervous slaveowners in the early 1800s realized they needed a moral justification for subjugating other people, and started twisting Scripture to that end.

TWISTING Scripture?

    However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land.  You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.  You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.  (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)

    If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years.  Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.  If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year.  But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him.  If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master.  But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children.  I would rather not go free.'  If he does this, his master must present him before God.  Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl.  After that, the slave will belong to his master forever.  (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)

What's there to twist?  

[traininthedistance]

No, the US is more race-IST because of (religious) conservatives.  

There is no empirical or scientific evidence that any race is any better or worse than any other.  (MAYBE the Asians scoring higher on tests is the only one that can't be immediately traced to income)  So, without basis in reality, where does the justification for racism come from?  Mmmhmmmm.  

Yes... everything does seem to come down to race, especially when Barack Obama is the focal point of the Democratic Party.  I just think you have it backward.  The racism doesn't cause the conservatism.  It's completely the other way around.  

Believe me... you wouldn't have the opposition you do to welfare if it was being used to help fuel a white CEO's private jet.  During the bailout... we actually saw this.  But giving the blacks a boost out of the mire we started them in.  That's a socialist no-go!

Actually, I sometimes wonder if the correlation goes in the other direction.  The Southern Baptist Convention got its start when nervous slaveowners in the early 1800s realized they needed a moral justification for subjugating other people, and started twisting Scripture to that end.

TWISTING Scripture?

    However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land.  You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.  You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.  (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)

    If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years.  Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.  If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year.  But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him.  If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master.  But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children.  I would rather not go free.'  If he does this, his master must present him before God.  Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl.  After that, the slave will belong to his master forever.  (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)

What's there to twist?  

I say "twist" because religious groups were among the most fervent abolitionists in the North.  If you want to say that it was anti-slavery religious Northerners who were actively seeking out ways to misinterpret the Bible for their own ends, then... eh, I guess you're welcome to make that case.  But it's not so cut and dried; the rise of the Southern Baptists was certainly a radical movement for its time, at the very least.

[Link]

African American are pretty conservative at least in regards to religion and homosexuality.

Why do you suppose that is?

Don't know.  I know it isn't a good comparison because one is a first world continent and the other is a third world continent but things like religion and superstition are taken far more seriously in Sub Saharan Africa than in Western Europe.  In fact from what I know homosexuality really wasn't an issue in African countries I've visited... till Europeans arrived... Then the usual American hate mongers showed up.  Now the Western media has pointed out Uganda as "antigay."  It's a joke.  I'm pretty sure if you go back 30 years ago there was not a big burning gay issue in the country.

African American are pretty conservative at least in regards to religion and homosexuality.

The aftermath of the 2012 elections showed that more African-Americans support gay marriage than white people.

The aftermath of the 2012 elections showed African Americans aren't stupid.  They knew once the hate mongers were done with the gays they would go back to attacking their food of choice.  If you had been hanging out with African Americans for decades none of this would come as a surprise to you.

[Horus]

African American are pretty conservative at least in regards to religion and homosexuality.

This is rapidly changing.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

No, the US is more race-IST because of (religious) conservatives.  

There is no empirical or scientific evidence that any race is any better or worse than any other.  (MAYBE the Asians scoring higher on tests is the only one that can't be immediately traced to income)  So, without basis in reality, where does the justification for racism come from?  Mmmhmmmm.  

Yes... everything does seem to come down to race, especially when Barack Obama is the focal point of the Democratic Party.  I just think you have it backward.  The racism doesn't cause the conservatism.  It's completely the other way around.  

Believe me... you wouldn't have the opposition you do to welfare if it was being used to help fuel a white CEO's private jet.  During the bailout... we actually saw this.  But giving the blacks a boost out of the mire we started them in.  That's a socialist no-go!

Actually, I sometimes wonder if the correlation goes in the other direction.  The Southern Baptist Convention got its start when nervous slaveowners in the early 1800s realized they needed a moral justification for subjugating other people, and started twisting Scripture to that end.

TWISTING Scripture?

    However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land.  You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.  You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.  (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)

    If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years.  Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.  If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year.  But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him.  If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master.  But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children.  I would rather not go free.'  If he does this, his master must present him before God.  Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl.  After that, the slave will belong to his master forever.  (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)

What's there to twist?  

I say "twist" because religious groups were among the most fervent abolitionists in the North.  If you want to say that it was anti-slavery religious Northerners who were actively seeking out ways to misinterpret the Bible for their own ends, then... eh, I guess you're welcome to make that case.  But it's not so cut and dried; the rise of the Southern Baptists was certainly a radical movement for its time, at the very least.

This may be true.  I was just speaking in the sense that if someone WANTED to use the Bible to justify slavery... which the Southerners did... they weren't exactly pulling strings. 

[memphis]

Slavery is pervasive and accepted in the Bible, as much as the Bible can be thought of as one thing, which it's clearly not. If that's your basis for morality, slavery is A-ok.

[Indy Texas]

This reminds me of an apocryphal story about the Democratic primary between Ralph Yarborough (a liberal) and Price Daniel (a conservative) for Texas governor. Daniel supposedly rented a bunch of Cadillacs, put Yarborough bumper stickers on them, and paid some black people to drive around rural East Texas, stop in at filling stations and drugstores and behave obnoxiously and speak in African-American Vernacular English while telling the white employees and customers to vote for Ralph Yarborough. Daniel won the primary and became governor.

[H. Ross Peron]

In one way this may be true, the presence of large racial minorities that were historically oppressed along with various aspects of the cultures drives income inequality compared to most other Western countries IMO.

A lot of it may be due to our Scotch-Irish influence too, which is why Ulster is far more socially conservative compared to the rest of the UK.