Lots of people have asked me recently why the Democrats can't get anything done when they control the House, the Senate and the White House. The reason is in their brains. I remember once hearing about the difference between Conservative and Liberal thinking and how the Conservatives are much more comfortable with an authoritarian leader whereas Liberals prefer authoritative control. The basic concept is this:
Authoritative(liberal/progressive): better being controlled by rule of law, rules of society, collective agreement of direction.
Authoritarian(conservative/regressive): put someone in charge, do as they say, don't question authority, once someone is in charge, they can't be wrong, they are in charge so I don't have to think about it.
Just because there are these generalities, doesn't mean that the thinking of one can't creep into the supposed electorate of another.
This topic was recently brought up on FiveThirtyEight.com. The blog post had an interesting breakdown of traits of those with Authoritarian points of view (click the link to see the full breakdown). In general, those who are rural, religious Christians, and less educated agree more with the authoritarian perspective. Those categories also describe the Republican party.
Democrats are more likely to challenge authority of a person (Pelosi, Reid, Obama) and search for the collective consensus. This is partly why the Democrats seems to have a difficult time marching in step to orders from on high. This can be good (Progressive caucus standing up to the House leadership to say they won't pass a bill without a public option) or bad (rogue conservative Democrats unsure if they will vote to end a Republican filibuster of heath care reform) for the sake policy making in DC.
So, although there are several factors as to why the Democrats seem and are less organized than the GOP was when they controlled DC, one large reason is the wiring of their brains.
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Another reason might be that the conservative stance (for a traditional definition of conservative) is that things should stay the way they are. If your whole party is formed on the basis of "don't change things that work well enough," it's easier to move/vote as a unit.
If however, your party is progressive (for a traditional definition of progressive), your party believes that something isn't right, and needs to change. This position is fundamentally more divisive than the conservative (What should change? How should it change? Something should change!). So it might not just be how peoples' brains are wired, but that the core ideologies of the parties are different.
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