I couldn’t find a good stock photo signifying “resentment,” so here’s Victoria Beckham, who sings a song with that title.

Once again, we can see how these folks divide the world into a bifurcated land of enterprising strivers and idle moochers. Conservatives have an easy time understanding the world as a “fallen” place where sin is ever-present and perfection always eludes even the best of bureaucratic planners, but they seem to have great difficulty in understanding that the world is also a place with broken people who through genetics, environment, or misfortune are in need of societal assistance. As long as there is some accountability, they are pretty good at forgiveness, but compassion and empathy are tremendous challenges for them.

But, quite aside from all that, we can see that resentment is the key ingredient in their political toolbox.

GOP lawmaker doubles down on anal sex obsession, Robyn Pennacchia, Death and Taxes, May 6, 2014

For an ostensibly straight dude, South Dakota State Rep. Steve Hickey (R-Your Butt) spends a lot of time thinking about gay men having sex. Last week, he was ridiculed for penning a bizarre op-ed condemning both gay sex and trans* rights, delightfully titled “A One Way Alley for the Garbage Truck.” He had wanted to publish it in The Argus Leader, but was politely turned down.

The op-ed called for South Dakota doctors to come out and criticize the practice of anal sex, which he a) believes must be harmful, and b) thinks is a thing only gay men are into.

Red Sex, Blue Sex, Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, November 3, 2008

During the campaign, the media has largely respected calls to treat Bristol Palin’s pregnancy as a private matter. But the reactions to it have exposed a cultural rift that mirrors America’s dominant political divide. Social liberals in the country’s “blue states” tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter’s pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in “red states” generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn’t choose to have an abortion.

Photo credit: By Darkness Blackheart from Mystery Babylon, Infinita (IMG_0354) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.