DescriptionSocial Psychological research generally concludes that political ideology is an outcome variable, dependent on our underlying psychological motivations. In the following paper, I propose a model of political ideology as moral vigilance – a general preparedness to detect moral transgressions of the values one highly emphasizes. This perspective integrates Moral Foundations Theory with Error Management Theory and is developed and tested in two studies. Study 1 replicates and extends research indicating that the Moral Foundations predict a wide variety of social and political attitudes, over and above demographic and cognitive flexibility variables. In particular, the Moral Foundations of Sanctity, Fairness, and Liberty appear to underlie many social and political attitudes within the United States. In Study 2 two statements, one ambiguously prejudiced statement and one ambiguously unpatriotic statement, made by an unknown individual in a television interview were presented. Two patterns of results emerged. First, those who placed a high emphasis on Loyalty found both statements offensive and desired greater social distance from the speaker. Second, those who placed a high emphasis on Fairness (Liberty) appeared to infer similarity with the person who made the ambiguously unpatriotic (prejudiced) comment and reported the speaker was educated, in effect granting the speaker psychological standing for their position.