Economic libertarians and Christian evangelicals, united by their common enemy, are strange bedfellows in today's Republican party, just as the two Georges - the archconservative Wallace and the uberliberal McGovern - found themselves in the same Democratic Party in 1972.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the unusual alliances formed in political parties based on shared opposition rather than common beliefs.
Steven Pinker points out the paradox of political alliances, where economic libertarians and Christian evangelicals, despite their differing ideologies, come together in the Republican party due to a mutual opposition. This phenomenon mirrors the historical situation in 1972 when two ideologically opposed figures, George Wallace and George McGovern, were part of the same Democratic Party, illustrating how political dynamics can create unexpected coalitions.
In practice
This quote can be used to illustrate the complexities of modern political alliances during a political debate.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
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The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Anti-Americanism is often the product of limits on free speech, education systems that promote bias and the practice of some leaders of saying one thing abroad and the opposite at home.
An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.
It is one of history's ironies that Communism, advertised as a classless society, tended to breed a privileged class of feudal proportions.
Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They're interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.
The corporations are powerful only because we have allowed them to be. In theory, it is we, not they, who mandate the state. But we have neglected our duty of citizenship, and they have taken advantage of our neglect to seize the reins of government.
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