Why is conservatism and fundamentalist religious ideology so compatible? This has been a question for which I have been seeking answers for a long time. I have thought that there have been complex answers to this question, but in fact it is quite simple. The answer came to me in a moment of clarity as I was thinking about how republicans have handled the entire process of ascension (starting with Buckley/Goldwater) and termination (George W. Bush). The fact is that conservatism has been the predominant ideology for 30 years+ and they have had their chance to make it work. Yes, I know many of them would say that they never really put true conservatism into practice - but that is, of course, BS. The fact is this "experiment" of lowering taxes, eliminating regulation, shifting money to the rich, undermining unions, reconfiguring the judicial system etc...have been an utter failure.
Republicans have decided to be in total denial about these facts. Bobby Jindal's rebuttal of Obama's talk revealed that republicans continue to press the exact same ideas that so clearly led to these problems. They stick to their ideologically driven "policies" in a fundamentalist manner - with no ability to absorb reality. So any rigidly held ideological system with no ability to have flexibility or ambiguity in the system leads inexorably to the kind of concrete thinking of hyper religious ideology. In other words, extreme religious beliefs are rigid and resistant to any ambiguities. Therefore, fundamentalist religions (whether christian fundamentalists, orthodox jews, hyper religious mulims, etc...) gravitate toward the conservative parties.
Intolerance of ambiguity, the need to ascribe to your beliefs in the face of direct evidence to the contrary, is evidence of this kind of conservative/religious belief. As an aside this is also what keeps conservatives from being able to tolerate science and "expert" opinions. Conservative/Republican reality is based on a denial of the reality of ambiguity.
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