Being a progressive or modern-day liberal is largely about feeling good about oneself. To them, means are more important than ends. Believing one has applied moral means to the solution of whatever problems confront us is paramount to progressives. As such, it resembles a religious view holding that being good is essential whereas being effective is merely desirable.
That said, it's no surprise their results are so often lame, as quality results (ends) are less important to them than the 'goodness' of the means used to achieve them. Conservatives often scornfully describe this process as "virtue signaling," defined as "the expression of tribalistic socially progressive views."
Social psychology defines the mechanism behind virtue signaling as the "social desirability bias." A testable hypothesis would be the following:
H: Individuals reporting progressive/leftist political views will exhibit higher levels of social desirability bias in the form of virtue signaling, as compared with individuals who report conservative/rightist political views.Perhaps President Obama will not change his demonstrably off-base views because he believes them to be the "right" views, where "right" is defined as moral, ethical, humanistic. He has signaled his virtue; his negligible results are regrettable but of lesser importance.
