Political Ideology and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

After reading an article in which Congressional Democratic leadership suggested to other Democratic members of Congress that voting against the upcoming Supreme Court nomination was more important than their careers. Without knowing who the nomination is, Democrats are already rallying votes to oppose the nomination. My thought was "Liberals think differently than I do".

Then after reading several Gallup polls, I became convinced of it, liberals don't think like I do. Here's some of the polls"

• In U.S., Record-Low 47% Extremely Proud to Be Americans
• Democrats Drive Rise in Concern About Global Warming
• Labor Union Approval Best Since 2003, at 61%
• Partisan Differences Growing on a Number of Issues

From college I remembered Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Going back over the polls again and comparing the issues Republicans and Democrats were more supportive on made me come to a conclusion. It appears to me that Republicans focus more on the bottom three tiers of the hierarchy and Democrats focus more on the top three.

If you're not familiar, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a theory that gives one possible explanation for what motivates people. At the bottom of the pyramid are the basic needs, once those basic needs are met we move on to more advanced needs.

Drawing the conclusion that Republicans are driven by safety needs, we (based on the polls) are more concerned about terrorists, immigration, gun rights, and drug usage. Democrats appear to be driven more by the self-actualization portion of the pyramid wanting to create a perfect world. Working on creating this perfect world focuses Democrats on protecting the environment, open borders, and government supplied health care.

We need to each take a more balanced approach. Working on creating that utopia we would all like to live in but at the same time recognizing that we can't abandon those basic needs. Those basic needs aren't guaranteed to us so they must be protected and move closer to that goal of being assured to us. At the same time, there is no reason we can't work toward that perfect world.