Fear Factor: Republicans Wired to be Afraid?

Image from DrWill

It's an interesting article, though I'm not sure that fear is the biggest emotional difference between Republicans and Democrats. Fear certainly does work in getting people to vote Republican when they otherwise might not have. I thought that was mostly skillful (if sleazy) Rovian marketing.

Without fear (and a lot of cheating), George W. Bush wouldn't have had a prayer in the 2004 election. He had already shown himself to be a malapropism spouting boob. But they worked the "war President" angle hard, making sure to issue a "terror alert" any time their strategy started to flag. It was at least good enough to sway enough people to make the election close enough to steal.* Meanwhile, liberals like me were baffled. We rolled our eyes at the color-coded terror chart, didn't buy the "Library Tower" or "Manhattan Bridge" terrorist plot stories for a second. . .in short, we heard the boy cry wolf far too many times.

[Excerpt]

Liberal? Conservative? Blame it on a fear factor

Die-hard liberals and conservatives aren't made; they're born. It's literally in their DNA.

That's the suggestion of a study by a group of researchers who wanted to see if there was a biological basis for people's political attitudes.

They found to their surprise that opinions on such contentious issues as gun control, pacifism and capital punishment are strongly associated with physiological traits that are probably present at birth. . .

Read more at: Politics West

*EDITOR'S NOTE: Before you write me off as a paranoid tin-foil hatter for saying 2004 was stolen, I have seen evidence that it was. I believe 2000 was too, but 2004 for sure. Sources to check out, here and here and here. Unfortunately, much of the material I've read on the subject occurred before I had a blog. Finding the links now may take more time, but I may do a story it in the near future.