Arlie Russell Hochschild is a liberal sociologist from Berkeley; in Strangers in Their Own Land, she attempts to climb over what she calls the "empathy wall" and understand the world view of Tea Party conservatives. She visits communities in southwestern Louisiana and starts with a focus on one issue: environmental regulations. Louisiana has high levels of pollution from the oil and gas industries, but its people consistently vote against regulation. If she can understand this paradox, maybe she can understand the conservative mindset.
If you know me well, you know that I love to "try on" different world views. While Hochschild's approach is basically anecdotal, she does manage to present a compelling and sympathetic conservative worldview, and to identify areas where conservatives and liberals might find common cause if they talk in a collaborative way. (Other areas not so much, since the two sides can't even agree about the basic facts.)
So why are Louisianans against environmental regulation? Because they see it as ineffective, wrongly targeted, and an excuse for government overreach.
Take this bayou. If your motorboat leaks a little gas into the water, the warden'll write you up. But if companies leak thousands of gallons of it and kill all the life here? The state lets them go. If you shoot an endangered brown pelican, they'll put you in jail. But if a company kills the brown pelican by poisoning the fish he eats? They let it go. I think they overregulate the bottom because it's harder to regulate the top.
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