海角大神

As we head toward renewed battles over the debt ceiling, sequester, and government funding, it鈥檚 important to understand why Republicans are disciplined and Democrats aren鈥檛.

For the past five years of the Obama administration Republicans have marched in lockstep to oppose just about everything Obama and the Democrats have proposed. Yet the Democrats rarely march together.聽Recently, for example, 22 Democrats in the House joined every Republican in voting to delay the individual mandate in Obamacare.

When Republican leaders tell rank-and-file Republicans to call Obamacare鈥檚 cost controls 鈥渄eath panels," or to say the rich are 鈥渏ob creators," or the poor are 鈥渢akers rather than makers," they all repeat the same words. (Frank Luntz, their message consultant, once: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a simple rule. You say it again, and you say it again and you say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and then again and again and again and again, and about the time that you鈥檙e absolutely sick of saying it is about the time that your target audience has heard it for the first time.")

Democrats never stick to the same message. They rarely even say the same thing the same way twice. In fact, their messages often conflict.聽

To be sure, the Tea Partiers in Congress have challenged the GOP leadership. But that challenge is really about who should have the authority to impose discipline over the Party. The firebrands are bucking the old establishment with their own new establishment. Democrats, by contrast, buck their leaders all the time. And they do it as individuals, lone wolves and free agents.

Republican discipline and Democratic lack of discipline isn鈥檛 a new phenomenon. As Will Rogers 辞苍肠别听聽鈥淚鈥檓 not a member of any organized political party. I鈥檓 a Democrat."

The difference has to do with the kind of personalities the two parties attract. People who respect authority, follow orders, want clear answers, obey commands, and prefer precise organization and control, tend to gravitate toward Republicans.

On the other hand, people who don鈥檛 much like authority, recoil from orders, don鈥檛 believe in clear answers, often disobey commands, and prefer things a bit undefined, tend to gravitate to the Democrats.

In short, the Republican Party is the party of the authoritarian personality; the Democratic Party is the party of the anti-authoritarian personality.

In "Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics" (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Jonathan Weiler, professor of international studies at UNC Chapel Hill and his co-author, Marc Hetherington, use statistical models to determine whether someone is a Republican or Democrat. It turns out that the best predictor of party affiliation is someone鈥檚 score on an authoritarian personality scale that measures many of the traits I mentioned above.

This means Republicans will almost always be more disciplined about voting and messaging than the Democrats. Which gives the GOP an advantage in times like this, when the two parties are at war with each other聽聽鈥� and when so many Americans, angry and confused, are looking for simple answers.