Kids Think Differently

I- knew it all along.

Republicans -are children, and Democrats are adults.

With conservatives it’s always “me first,” not wanting to pay for anything outside their own family or backyard. They are against taxes, blind to the fact that taxes make their back yard possible, along with their family.

Roads get them to work. Police, firefighters and the military keep them safe. Schools teach their children. All from taxes. Society could not exist without taxes.

Republicans are stunted in their mental growth. More accurately, developmentally stunted people become Republicans. People who evolve to higher stages of mental growth become Democrats.

Republicans are kids, Democrats are grown-ups. It is not a horizontal, “across the aisle” relationship, it is a vertical one, with Democrats above and Republicans below. It’s a scientific fact.

The accepted psychologist on mental growth is Robert Kegan. He outlines five stages of adult development. Follow along and see how kids’ brains are different.

Stage 1 is the Egocentric Stage, early childhood behavior. Individuals are only concerned with their own needs and desires. They have little empathy and little impulse control. Republicans are strongly against taxes showing selfish, childish thinking. They have no empathy for the needy, always against welfare programs that help the poor. With Donald Trump, we have seen little impulse control for the past 10 years. Grabbing at women is impulsive.

Stage 2 is the Ethnocentric Stage where individuals identify strongly with their social group or nation, viewing outsiders with suspicion. The whole idea of MAGA is to identify with their own nation. They want to make America great, and nobody else. Republicans are suspicious of other races, obsessing about immigration. Trump is banning 41 countries from flying to the U.S. That’s outright paranoia about outsiders. Republicans are forever stuck in these lower stages.

Stage 3 is the World Centric Stage. Individuals have a greater empathy. They seek fairness and justice and are open to diversity. Here is where people mature as adults and evolve past the immature stages 1 and 2. Stage 3 people have empathy for the poor and the homeless. Democrat policies show empathy with welfare and family programs, and fairness with Affirmative Action. Republicans are against these things, showing they are self-centered and selfish like children, while Democrats are emerging as adults.

Stage 4 is the Inner Centric Stage, where they hold their own beliefs while respecting others’ viewpoints and adapt to various roles. Republicans are rigid about beliefs in Christianity. Religion in the schools means Christianity in schools. They don’t respect any other religion enough to have it taught in schools.

Stage 5 is the Global Centric stage where people have a holistic acceptance of the whole world and accept different lifestyles. MAGA wants to make America great. Higher-evolved people want to make the whole world great.

Conservatives want to end the U.N. and NATO that help the whole world. They also make laws hindering the LGBTQ lifestyles. The GOP is the intolerant party.

You don’t need a psychologist to tell you they are immature, but it confirms it. On Jan. 6, 2021, 3,000 rowdy rioters, Nazis and skinheads, led by the head elephant himself, attacked the U.S. Capitol. It was a Republican riot.

If there is any doubt the Republican Party is a bunch of rowdy, cowardly kids, just look at Jan. 6th.

Dennis Gregory writes a bi-monthly column for West Hawaii Today and welcomes your comments at makewavess@yahoo.com