Human Nature

[Alan V]

I think that morality comes first to most people. Morality viewed by lens of ideology however; people support say libertarian policies because they think them just and because they see them as good for themselves. It's not that majority of people are monsters who would take welfare from grannies and kids for shit and giggles (though number of them is insignificant), they simply see this welfare as something morally bad and I suppose in their own view they're thinking that they are helping said grannies and kids by voting on politicians wanting to cut it.

I don't agree, at least not for Americans. The folks here act politically not out of moral concerns but out of "how might this affect me?" Most Americans don't give a shit about whether cutting welfare or school-lunch programs hurts others if it means their tax bill is lower.

At least, that's what they vote for -- and I take them at their word. If they cared about that stuff would they incessantly vote for lower taxes and concomitant cuts in government services? These voters aren't worried about teaching welfare-queens any big lesson, they're more concerned about I-me-mine.

That assessment seems more true of Republicans than Democrats.  Ronald Reagan's welfare-queens critique was a great rationalization for many people to act selfishly.  Ayn Rand appeals to many Republicans for the same reason.  As a result, they have lost the ability to moderate their selfishness, and Trump is the reductio ad absurdum of such thinking.  The end result is an oligarchy of the rich.