The Development of Baby's Political Rebellion -- Part 2

This article follows up Part 1. There I offered the following arguments.

Baby Houseman was born in about 1946.

Her father Jake had wanted a son, so he encouraged career ambitions in her.

She was a "daddy's girl, wanting to please him.

Her elementary-school education coincided with the Eisenhower presidency.

Jake opposed the Democrats because he opposed socialized medicine.

Jake and his associates vocally supported President Eisenhower.

Baby liked President Eisenhower.

In late 1958 and early 1960 Jake supported New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller against Vice President Richard Nixon in the primary elections to select the Republican Party's candidate for the 1960 presidential election.

Baby was about 12 years old in 1958 and about 16 in 1962. The 1960 presidential election happened when she was about 14.

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The 1971 book Twelve to Sixteen: Early Adolescence includes two articles that are relevant to my discussion here.

"The Political Imagination of the Young Adolescent" by Joseph Adelson

"The Adolescent as Philosopher: The Discovery of the Self in a Post-Conventional World" by Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan

I will summarize the first article in this blog post and will summarize the second article in a future post.

Book Cover

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Adelson's article begins with this overview.

The years of early adolescence, twelve to sixteen, are a watershed era in the emergence of political thought. Ordinarily the youngster begins adolescence incapable of complex political discourse -- that is, mute on many issues, and when not mute, then simplistic, primitive, subject to fancies, unable to enter fully the realm of political ideas.

By the time this period is at an end, a dramatic change is evident: the youngster's grasp of the political world is now recognizably adult. His mind moves with some agility within the terrain of political concepts; he has achieved abstractness, complexity and even some delicacy in this sense of political textures; he is now on the threshold of ideology, struggling to formulate a morally coherent view of how society is and might and should be arranged.

Adelson's article is based on sociological interviews of 450 adolescents. He summarizes his findings as follows:

Surprisingly, it seems that neither sex nor intelligence nor social class counts for much in the growth of political concepts. There are simply no sex differences; and while there are some expectable differences associated with intelligence and social class (the bright are capable of abstract thought a bit earlier; the upper middle class are somewhat less authoritarian) these differences are on the whole minor.

What does count, and count heavily, is age. There is a profound shift in the character of political thought, one which seems to begin at the onset of adolescence -- twelve to thirteen -- and which is essentially completed by the time the child is fifteen to sixteen.

The shift is evident in three ways:

first, in a change in cognitive mode,

secondly, in a sharp decline of authoritarian views of the political system,

and finally, in the achievement of a capacity for ideology.

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Those three shifts happened in Baby Houseman as she watched the political campaigns that began in the Republican Party's primary race from late 1959 until July 1960 and then continued until the presidential election in November 1960. She watched the Republican Party select Richard Nixon over Nelson Rockefeller and then watched the US electorate elect John Kennedy over Nixon.

While she watched these important political developments, her father advocated Rockefeller over Nixon and then supported Nixon over Kennedy. In other words, her father advocated the loser (Rockefeller) in the primary election and then advocated the loser (Nixon) in the general election.

These failures of her father's advocacy revealed to Baby that she should not rely reflexively on his political opinions but rather should think more independently about political decisions. She began to ponder why her father advocated political opinions that were merely minority opinions.

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The first shift in Baby's political thought was a change in cognitive mode. I will not belabor this point. I will summarize it as follows.

Baby's political thinking became more complex.

Instead of thinking about only individuals, she increasingly thought about larger social groups -- about large minorities and about city, state and national entities.

Instead of thinking only about the present, she thought more about the past and the future.

Instead of thinking only about explicit motivations, she thought about implicit and deceptive motivations.

Instead of thinking only about concrete considerations, she thought more about abstract considerations.

Baby understood increasingly that politics are complicated. Many varied opinions --not merely her father's opinions -- had merit.

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The second shift in Baby's political thought was a sharp decline of authoritarian views. Baby understood increasingly that individuals and social groups had various rights that superseded the government's power. For example, she understood that the Constitutional right to freedom of speech meant that the mighy US government could not prevent individuals from criticizing the government.

She saw that Negroes recently had established their right to attend Caucasian schools in states that had established racially segregated schools.

She realized that lawbreakers might reasonably appeal to mitigating circumstances. For example, Negros broke some rules and laws in order to protest against racial discrimination. Perhaps she justified some stealing when the culprits seemed to be unbearably poor.

Perhaps she reasoned that individuals have a human right to healthcare despite her father's opposition to socialized medicine.

More generally, she felt increasingly empowered to question and even oppose her father's political opinions.

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The third shift in Baby's political thought was the achievement of a capacity for ideology.

Baby's ideological basis was her father's political ideology, which included these elements:

People should enjoy a great deal of liberty from the government. The government's power to control people should be limited.

Personal liberty is more important than social equality. When people exercise their own liberty and talents, some people will succeed more than others.

Free-market economies develop more progress and prosperity than socialist economies do.

When the government interferes in economic enterprises, the government usually causes more problems than benefits.

For Baby's father, a major issue was the proposal that the US Government interfere much more in the country's medical business. Like most doctors -- and like the American Medical Association -- Jake thought that such interference would cause more problems than benefits. The Government would distort prices, priorities and profits. The government would reduce salaries and investments in medical businesses. And so forth and so on.

In general, Jake's political opinions were represented well by the Republican Party. That is why he and his medical associates advocated Richard Nixon over John Kennedy in the general election.

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Baby had absorbed her father's political opinions as she grew up, but the 1960 presidential election caused her to consider increasingly the Democratic Party's arguments and ideology:

In the USA, which is not ruled by a royalty or aristocracy, the Government generally is not a threat to personal liberty. On the contrary, the government is an instrument to promote liberty.

Too much social inequality causes various crucial problems for political, social and economic systems.

A mixed economy that includes some socialist elements provides more stability and progress in the long run. Prosperity should including social nets.

The government can apply smart regulations that improve the US economy.

As Baby watched the 1960 election race, she paid attention to Kennedy's arguments.

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The entire Houseman family -- including 14-year-old Baby -- surely watched the four Nixon-Kennedy debates in September, October and November 1060.

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This series continues in Part 3.

This series of articles follows up an earlier series, "Baby Houseman's Thinking About Social Justice" -- Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.