"... have a morbid fascination with what MAKES people become liberalish or conservatish...... how can we look at the same data and go such divergent ways?" Bill D

"...the desire to live your own life the way you want to, and the desire to make other people live their lives the way you want them to. The former is the individualist instinct, and expresses itself in the politics of the right, and the latter is the collectivist instinct, and expresses itself in the politics of the left." Tacon

"...the desire to make other people live their lives the way you want them to" is epitomized by the anti-choice policies, anti-gay marriage policies, and "America is a Christian nation - love it or leave it" rhetoric, etc. *of the Right* Tia

I begin to have a glimmer of understanding as to why USian liberals and conservatives share little common ground. Instead of travelling along parallel ways we start back to back and go opposite directions. Kind of like dueling.

Tac's reasoning made me sputter; it is so counter to the facts as I perceive them. Tia has it exactly right.