The hearings over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are giving us wonderful opportunities to see the psychopathology of modern ‘conservatism’ in action.  I am indebted to Daily Kos for much of the information that follows.

Here are some interesting factoids on the GOP and conservatives’ war on empathy – and I would suggest their war on basic humanity in general.

First, consider both the hypocrisy and the extreme stupidity of the following two comments by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.  (The link lets you hear him or read him.)

It’s pretty clear that Senator Coburn simply does not much know what the word ’empathy’ means.  Perhaps because he has so little of it himself.

Second, this interpretation becomes all the more reasonable when we look at these words about “compassionate conservatism” by a prominant conservative who admits the term as used by most of the right is meaningless, Jonah Goldberg, editor of National Review. 

As countless writers have noted in National Review over the last five years, most conservatives never really understood what compassionate conservatism was, beyond a convenient marketing slogan to attract swing voters. The reality–as even some members of the Bush team will sheepishly concede–is that there was nothing behind the curtain. Sure, in the hands of Marvin Olasky and others, compassionate conservatism had some heft. But Karl Rove’s translation of it into a political platform made it into a pseudo-intellectual rationale for constituent-pleasing and Nixonian “modern Republicanism.”

Goldberg point is underlined by Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele who derided “crazy nonsense empathetic.” And added “I’ll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind!”

Inability to understand empathy would explain so much about the modern ‘conservative’ movement.  Its tribalism is rooted in the inability of so many to empathetically understand people different from themselves.  Its amorality is rooted in the fact, for I believe it is a fact, that those who cannot empathize cannot act from a deeply ethical perspective.

Third,  as more and more polls indicate, most Americans are turned off by this failure to set much of an example of human excellence or even decency by the right – long on outrage, longer on hypocrisy.  Daily Kos’s poll is most revealing:

Do you think empathy is an important characteristic for a Supreme Court Justice to possess or not?

               Yes   No
18-29       63   17
30-44       47   34
45-59       55   26
60+          46   35

White       41   39
Black       81    4
Latino      79    4
Other       79    5

Men        48   34
Women   56   24

[…] Same question as above:
Do you think empathy is an important characteristic for a Supreme Court Justice to possess or not?

     Yes   No
Dem   73   12
GOP   18   56
Ind   54   28