Respectability Politics and the Gerontocratic Question
How the Mental Inflexibility of the Boomers Facilitates Unwinnable Strategy in the GOP
Scores of Republican Party losses including proxy organizations, such as Turning Point Action, have left members in moderate and populist camps with a penchant for losing. Sacred losses are chalked up as principled stances while practical electoral politics; including grassroots fundraising, rallies, and issue campaigns, have been left to the dustbin of strategic consideration.
The backbone of the 2016 electoral landlines that ushered in Donald Trump and revitalized the conservative movement in a dying Western culture was a miraculous twist of fate in the ‘political mud’ of American campaigning.
However, if you were to ask the various national conservative groups what their strategic focus is in 2024, the answer would all be relatively the same, whether or not you ask the Republican consulting class, the Moral MAGA insurgency, or the vilified RINOs: Respectability.
The Respectability Doctrine
The ‘respectability doctrine’ is a philosophy that confines any individual with a modicum of a conservative mindset to strategic paralysis. While progressives are driven by an ambition to dismantle normalized systems of power, conservatives suffer from an ideological immobilization motivated by principle and fear of deviation from that principle. Arguably, this is not a conscious decision for the conservative activist. Various studies demonstrate the differences in cognition styles between liberal and conservative brain functionality. For instance, ‘liberal-minded’ individuals appeared to have increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex; a brain region regulating many complex decision-making processes, including conflict resolution, motivation, and cost-benefit analysis. On the other hand, the ‘conservative-minded’ individual possesses increased gray matter in the amygdala, a structure responsible for processing fear and aggression, as well as unconscious memory. Additionally, ideological behavior can be differentiated by specific behavioral patterns, such as the recognition and agreement with specified conspiracy theories and the degree in which they readily concede to fallacies.
The consistent adherence to norms and values is a main feature of the conservative thinker. It is, after all, in his interest to conserve the attitudes that continue to prolong and design present society. Whether or not that is an inherent desire restricted to our biological makeup or a learned behavior from constantly noticing patterns, the outcome is all the same. Being driven by fear-avoidance and self-preservation is not a bad thing; in fact, it is my personal belief that is a superior method of navigating through life.
“A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views.” – Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
However, in the world of politics, this mindset often misconstrues principled decision-making with political inertia.
The Gerontocratic Question (GQ)
Although the GOP’s stalwart adherence to respectability politics may be in part an issue of cognition, the position presented in this article is not entirely based on the premise that it is merely due to biological means. It is also a question of generational culture. The existing GOP structure has succumbed to the influence of the Baby Boomers.
Present generations are still experiencing waves of generational discontent. As the Boomers continue to retire from their professional employment, they retain much of their political influence and institutional power by holding a death grip on party executive committee structures and chair seats, despite facing youthful grievances and calls for change. Younger generations of Americans aim to reconfigure hackneyed systems of power, but congressional leadership remains geriatric.
Compounding the issue of decrepit leadership in the GOP is the conservative desire to maintain the respectability doctrine in the face of moralist leftist enemy activism who hold no principle other than obtaining and wielding power.
Despite very little statistical analysis provided on county party leadership demographics, national Republican membership coaches closer to the 60s and beyond, whereas Democrat membership leans towards younger generations. It is self-evident to those involved in county-level politics, however, that Boomer influence remains uncontested and strong amongst both national leadership as well as regional chapters. GOP county chairs are steadfast in securing geriatric decision-making power within local politics, whilst only strategically exploiting the youth for little more than window-dressing; they fail to utilize the youth effectively as dynamic sources of power that can implement change where it matters.
For the GOP to win and flourish, not only survive, it must break from grave-yard style politics and breathe a new breath of inspiration into its strategy, and match leftist power procurement.
you're on to something - but I hope you have far more than this to say. Do you?
Brilliant analysis!