From Moral Intuitions to Moral Strategy - Elite Professionalization in US Political Communication

Research on political communication has increasingly examined how political elites deploy moral narratives. Yet, despite robust psychological evidence of systematic differences in moral intuitions between liberals and conservatives, empirical findings for political elites remain inconsistent. I argue that this discrepancy reflects the growing professionalization of political elites, which leads to a strategic use of moral language rather than the expression of personal underlying moral intuitions. To test this claim, I analyze U.S. congressional speeches from 1879 to 2022 alongside social media posts from contemporary politicians occupying positions with varying levels of professionalization. I theorize that lower levels of professionalization—historically and institutionally—are associated with stronger alignment between ideological orientation and moral values, whereas higher professionalization produces moral diffusion across ideological lines. The findings suggest that elite professionalization weakens mainstream party moral distinctiveness, potentially facilitating the rise of more morally distinct but ideologically extreme and non-mainstream political actors.