# Why are Republicans generally more patriotic than Democrats?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-generally-more-patriotic-than-democrats/791627>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 19, 2017, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-generally-more-patriotic-than-democrats/791627 "2017-07-19T05:03:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 149

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-generally-more-patriotic-than-democrats/791627/149 "2017-07-19T20:49:06Z")

</div>

I just posted in another thread with an observation that answers this question as well.

> [@Was the GOP always this bad?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-gop-always-this-bad/791550/77):
>
> Because of high mobility and the self-selected nature of today’s media, we have a new model for party division: _ **These days, people pick a party based on their cognition modality.** _ People who think with their temporal cerebral lobe gravitate to the Democratic Party. People whose cognition is dominated by an active amygdala (the brain center for the emotions of fear and disgust) gravitate to the Republican Party.
> 
> _This sad conclusion has been confirmed by a variety of scientific studies_, and explains today’s partisan gulf.

Those who rely on cerebral cognition are happy to understand the strengths and weakness of other cultures. They want to learn what good ideas other countries can teach, and so on. Liberals are happy to embrace what’s good about their country, but willing to question, and willing to change what isn’t good.

The more vulgar aspects of patriotism often involve fear and disgust of “The Other.” Thus it is normal to expect exaggerated patriotism to correlate with amygdalar cognition.

_ **Amygdalar cognition certainly does have its own very important roles to play.** _ When the enemy is charging I may prefer that my foxhole buddy is an amygdalar type, rather than an erudite over-thinker! When we had “big tent” political parties, we could learn from people with alternative modes of cognition. Those days are gone, and now all we can do is point fingers at each other: “You want to kill babies!” … “I’m more patriotic than you!” … Very sad.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-generally-more-patriotic-than-democrats/791627)._