Why Some Democrats and Republicans Should Be Barred from Voting

Have you ever wondered why some people seem impossible to reason with when conversations turn to politics?

A study conducted at Atlanta’s Emory University used sophisticated brain scans to analyze the political reasoning—or lack thereof—of voters strongly attached to one political party or the other.

The results: when faced with information that threatens their pre-existing beliefs, both staunch Democrats and Republicans turn off the rational centers in the brain and turn on the emotional ones.

According to LiveScience.com,

The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making … Both Republicans and Democrats consistently denied obvious contradictions for their own candidate but detected contradictions in the opposing candidate.

Emory University’s Director of Clinical Psychology, Drew Weston, put it this way:

The result (of the study) is that partisan beliefs are calcified, and the person can learn very little from new data.

The study might go far in explaining the popularity of conservative talk radio and the liberal blogosphere, where reason and evidence are as rare as an honest politician.

The old admonition may hold true that some people—the party faithful, as it turns out—just shouldn’t discuss politics.

Maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to vote, either.

Newsprism

President Bush, Pope Benedict Throw Popsicles at Hell

Arguably the two most powerful men in the world spoke yesterday about profound moral dilemmas, and both essentially failed to do the right thing.

President Bush addressed global warming in a speech at the White House, while Pope Benedict has touched on the pedophile priest scandal in several speeches since arriving in the States on Tuesday.

The President has clearly dragged his feet on global warming for over seven years. His administration has worked to suppress scientific evidence of the causes and scope of the problem while his energy policy and foreign policy have brazenly favored Big Oil (the proof is in their profits.)

Meanwhile, the Pope has twice acknowledged his “deep shame” over the pedophile priest scandal that has rocked the American Catholic establishment over the last decade. If any other organization in this country were responsible for tens of thousands of acts of child sexual abuse, those responsible would face the harshest sanctions allowed by law as well as a public outcry loud enough to deafen the angels. Instead, no bishops have been disciplined and the scandal has essentially been handled with cash payments exceeding $2 billion.

Actions speak louder than words; by that standard, both President Bush and Pope Benedict have remained silent on issues that should be producing a chorus from all of us.

Pope Benedict did meet for 25 minutes with “a handful” of victims of pedophile priests today. While his openness on the issue is welcome, as is President Bush’s addressing global warming, their responses amount to throwing popsicles at Hell.

Newsprism