"Conservatives on the other hand tend to think for themselves..."

Pardon me while I try...unsuccessfully... to stifle a guffaw!

You mean like Rush's 'dittoheads'? Or the myriads who just nod in agreement at whatever their preachers tell them about morality, evolution and Obama's birth?

C'mon, Ake... gimme a break. I am 73, and grew up in **Kansas**, and I used to TEACH conservative kids in Philosophy 101 classes. It was all I could do to even make many of them comprehend what 'thinking for themselves' was about!
If you mean that 'being stubbornly unmoved' was similar to 'thinking for themselves', then yeah...maybe so.