Yes it is!
Fear of hell, fear of climate change, fear of corporations, fear of socially different people. Unfortunately, the republicans won't take the "fear of government" banner, that they should. That fear has proven true over and over as an accurate representation of human failings. Note that Jane Fonda had no issue with that banner over Vietnam and nuclear power.

Seems to me this article summarizes a study that says the republican liberals are smarter than democrat liberals, and the strongly social conservative republicans (mostly religious) are bringing the average down for conservatives. The author may not like this characterization, but I think it isn't far off.
Look are Trump running away, supported by the Walmart lemmings, that want change, but don't know how to get it, and would rather watch the Apprentice than read.
I consider myself very liberal, depending on the definition used. I support gay marriage, legalization of marijuana, breaking down the present barriers in healthcare, et al. However, I also support the simple, monotonic feedback loop where freedom = responsibility, which is completely broken by welfare and socialism. Why else do I think I am liberal? I didn't start out this way. My mother is a baptist semi-southern democrat, and my father was an Eisenhower republican. My brother and I found our way to libertarianism and atheism independently. Do not some others here consider themselves socially liberal and at odds with big government republicans?
"Progressive" is a negative totalitarian term, not too far from Mussolini. Liberal goes both ways (pun intended).

And my morning grammar could use a bit of brushing up. Please make that "Their" and not "There".

Sigh.

Jan, drinking coffee

de Bono knows his subject.

Good characterization.

Nice metaphor. I know a lot of people with great cars, but they are oblivious to the scenery and driving conditions. There functional capability is equivalent to a standard car driven by an alert driver.

Jan

Interesting categories. I know some LimoLibs (older people) and some DunnaLibs (younger people).

Huh.

Jan

The sample was still flawed.
In keeping with my belief that there are 3 types of liberals
1. Those that can afford to be liberal. Limousine Liberals
2. Those that can't afford not to be liberal. Welfare Liberal
3. Those that don't know what it is to be liberal. Those that want to be a Type-1 Liberal, but feel they could become a Type-2 liberal.
I would wager a bet that the group that "can't afford not to be liberal" are ignorant as dirt.
That would included any conservatives that live off the dole while complaining about "their tax dollars paying into it". Those individuals are Type-2 Liberals in denial.

That's the truth. Can't fake it there. Reality does have a way to make people get along. There is nothing like the old "actions have consequences" for a realaity check.

I think it is more a matter of lower IQ people (media talking heads, teachers) are drawn to the liberal agenda, as the talking points make it easy for them. No thinking required. Obama, at apx. 117 IQ, does not have the critical thinking skills to handle world problems.Gore falls in that category as well. Those who do have higher IQs, tend to think about things and are drawn to more conservative ventures, or at least fiscal conservative issues. Some of the best critical thinkers I have met, were plumbers and truck drivers, having worked for their money for years, they get it.

Put two people on an island that requires cooperation to survive and I bet even without studying AS they slowly wind up objectivity. Objections contains supremely practical ideas for human survival

to circuit guy... If you have been indoctrinated to accept the fallacy that social-libs are more intelligent because they have spent more time acquiring education and degrees, you have not been paying attention to their beliefs and doctrines. Anyone who believes that they have a right to take other peoples earnings by force or believes that they can dictate rights of association no matter what, is not an intelligent person. One of the most intelligent men of the last century was Hitler...he could move millions with retoric..hardly intelligent. Listen to Bernie Sanders sometime...Listen!

Actually they are not but a lack of understanding our founding and our founders pervades the culture.

There is Nothing dumber than a 'liberal' not even the rocks in my yard.

It's really what you do with your intelligence that matters. Today one would have problems categorizing people since most people have a mixture of libertarian, liberal, and conservative views on different subjects and under different circumstances

That is an amazingly ridiculous question to ask an Objectivist. Is it one of those silly internet questions, or a Sunday supplement question, or just the inquiry of someone with too much time on one's hands? It is unanswerable on more levels than I care to illustrate.

Confining that question to the current "mainstream" GOP of Congress, I'd definitely would say yes.
I would add the word "cowardly" to "dumber."

AR said, "Never use emotion as a tool of cognizance." Liberals "feel," conservatives (for the most part) "think." This suggests to me, that liberals use their brain less and, thus, by extension, don't have much there.

That is what this article reports. It also says that the libertarians that claim to be conservatives are the likely reason for the difference.

Professor Edward de Bono, in his book de Bono’s Thinking Course, has an excellent example of the difference between intelligence and efficient thinking. He says:

The car may have a powerful engine, a smooth gear box and wonderful suspension. But the skill of the driver is something different.

Indeed, the very power of the car may place extra demands upon that skill. In no way does the power of the car ensure the skill of the driver. In the analogy the engineering of the car corresponds to the innate intelligence and the driving skill of the driver corresponds to the operating skill we call thinking.

It is also often the case that a more humble car has a better driver. Driving skill can also be learned and practiced and improved.

Why is Critical Thinking so Hard to Teach? See an article by that title at
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/15-03...

That's funny. I seem to recall an article not so long ago that tested the scientific and mathematical acumen and correlated it to political persuasion and found that conservatives scored significantly higher than liberals.

NO, they are equally dumb and you can include the demos in with the group.

"Harder to manufacture and maintain fear among more rational people?"
Yes. The monster around the corner in a scary movie is scarier than seeing it. When something goes wrong in real life, at least for me, it seems much less scary once I get some facts, even the problem is really grim. Having a mysterious problem that I cannot understand is much scarier.

This article's claims ring true, and I agree with them.
" it is still a deep puzzle to me why it apparently takes high intelligence to understand that the government should stay out of both the bedroom and the boardroom."
Here are my guesses on this puzzle.
1. I suspect it's because when gov't spends money on things "industries" develop around keeping that money flowing. People who work for military, prisons, and social programs have armies of people writing articles and doing talk shows about how that spending critical the existence of the country. There is less incentive to have an army lobbying against those things because any one of them is a small percentage of taxes but it's the livlihood for people receiving gov't money to work on those programs.
2. It takes one thought step to answer what do you think of gay people, the Christian religion, helping the poor, researching cancer, etc. It takes two steps to say what do you think of them and should the gov't be involved. That sounds like nothing, but it's hard when you hear about things like the story of a business that won't serve people on account of religion, sexual orientation, race, etc. If you really feel strongly about those things, it takes some restraint, restraint that comes from reason, to say those people are wrong but sending men with guns to make them do the right thing is not the answer.

Copaganda!