Dem Philosophy More Authoritarian than GOP's - Or Am I Nuts?

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No opinion pieces having particularly incited my ire at my normal haunts of the NY Times, LA Times or Boston Globe this morning, I ventured over to the Huffington Post, and found this beauty by Cliff Schecter, "Are You Psychotic? Because Empirically That Makes You Susceptible To Being A Republican."

It in turn touted a study by a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University purporting to find that there exists "a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush."

And how does the study's author explain the results? “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.'”

That in turn raises the question: whose philosophy of government is more authoritarian: the Democrats' or the Republicans'? Forgive me for suggesting that it isn't even close. Though the Republican majority might have strayed from its ideological roots since 1994 - explaining perhaps why it is now the future ex-majority - can anyone deny that essence of Republicanism is a belief in small government and the empowerment of the individual? Over at Free Republic, my 'handle' is 'governsleastgovernsbest,' representing my subscription as a mainstream conservative Republican to the notion advanced by Jefferson [some would say by Thomas Paine] that "the government is best which governs least." If ever there was an expression of an anti-authoritarian philosophy empowering the individual over the state, that is it.

In contrast, haven't the Dems come to be known as The Big Mommy party, exemplified by none other than Hillary Clinton herself? She who contrived a Rube Goldberesque scheme for government control of health care. She who uttered the nec plus ultra of authoritarianism: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." They who want to tell us what we can do and where we can do it on everything from smoking a cigarette to investing in hedge funds?

So I ask: aren't Dems more authoritarian than Republicans - or am I nuts?

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.


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When I saw Mark's headline,

When I saw Mark's headline, for some reason David Letterman's immortal words came to mind: "This is only an exhibition. This is not a competition. Please, no wagering." Anyway, to be serious for a moment, here once-again is the measurement tool the "professional" news media do not want people to see/think-about. Since professional politicians are reluctant to take the quiz, it's often instructive just to pretend to be a certain politician and take it for him/her based on past votes/statements. Neither party's politicians do too well...And the word "might" above could easily qualify for the NB understatement-of-the-year award, Mark. :)
JMR

"They who want to tell us wha

"They who want to tell us what we can do and where we can do it on everything from smoking a cigarette to investing in hedge funds?" Don't forget seatbelts. This kind of protective legislation slowly errodes our civil rights that the left tells us they want to protect.
The cigarette thing seems to be kind of like their tactic of using people that can't be criticized (the Jersey girls etc...). Who would say that not smoking in your house around kids is good? What will they deem unacceptable next?

Nortonalec

Tobacco control-freaks are

Tobacco control-freaks are a bi-partisan issue. See as example one Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, the Republicans' nutcase-stab-in-the-back to Libertarians & fiscal-conservatives candidate for Tom DeLay's old TX22 district who managed to cause DeLay's old staff to resign en masse. The "good" news is, she naturally lost, as I and others predicted she would, so she's about to leave office very-soon. IMO the Republican party really does prefer a leftwing Democrat like Nick Lampson winning to any chance of a Libertarian getting even a smidgen of political power, and IMO that stab in the back election, which fiscal conservatives could have won with a little maturity & cooperation, constitutes conclusive proof.
JMR

The study should have also me

The study should have also mentioned that there is a direct link between laziness, corruption, weakness, and thinking you are smarter than everyone else and support for the Democratic party.

BEAT NAVY!!!!!

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!´´
--Patrick Henry

I see the study as a good thing, Mark.

I see the study as a good thing, Mark.

The Globe is reduced to seeking out 'Master Degree Students' in order to find support for their hate.  How many of these students are there?  Um...

Do you think one could be rather slow and get into a Master Degree program in a Social Work School in the United States?

Or am I nuts?

ACA

...

Acaiguana says:  "Ya can't win if ya don't play."

Master of foolishness

His master's thesis is darn stupid.

69 psychiatric outpatients were his study group.

Someone in the social services ought to know a few things. First, that outpatients aren't psychotic, or they would be hospitalized. SECOND, they do not like change.

So, in his idiots charade, he could have easily concluded that all the years of training the patients have been fed in their outpatient health care programs, one of the main themes is big changes, in fact any changes are not good and make it difficult to maintain a "stable" condition.

Since he focused on asking in 2004, Bush was already POTUS, therefore, those who were 1. unstable or "psychotic" were merely following years of social workers counsel and making sure they did what they could to keep the presidency from changing. or 2. Found it easier to remember who Bush was with 4 years of possible tv radio and newspaper sightings, and weren't as capable in recalling Kerry or some other candidate.

Be aware, when patients are questioned by psychiatrists to see if they are psychotic and need admission to a mental hospital or not, one of the questions asked is almost ALWAYS " who is the President of the USA ".

One can easily surmise a patient feels as if they have passed the "test" if their answer to who they were voting for was the current POTUS.

So, in this short essay, I have utterly DESTROYED his master's thesis.

[ Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.

“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”]

Sports, if your world isn't too mixed up it is still...

Sports, if your world isn't too mixed up it is still comforting about someone telling you it's gonna be OK.

ACA

...

Acaiguana says:  "Ya can't win if ya don't play."

Good point acia

Good point acia, and of course the paranoids surely wanted someone who was going to get the people who were after them and everyone else, Al Qaeda, and Bush fits that bill as well. All the dems told em was nobody was after them, and they surely didn't believe that.

Again, the patients realized that if there wasn't government money, they wouldn't be kept hostage at their outpatient facility(69 patients in 3 locations is obviously  group homes), so in order to get the "caring social workers" and "state paid help" the heck out of their faces, and acquire their RIGHTS and Freedoms again, they would obviously choose to vote for the republican and not the democrat( who is more than happy to keep them locked up in state healthcare the rest of their lives).

I mean the guy who did the study is an idiot.

Furthermore, the master lefto jerko has stated that the "psychotics" liked authority to tell them this is the way it is going to be. In other words, they accepted authority and appreciated the discipline. This of course means they were the well behaved patients, not the hall walkers and screamers and cleptomaniacs and lib rebels.

I'll tell you what, I'd sure like a list of the statements from the portion of the 69 who voted Kerry in'04. I bet they were screaming and shrieking Bush has taken over the world, he did 911, he's taken away everyone's rights, he is wiretapping their brain directly, and the cia and black helicopters were surrounding them last night. Of course, for the libbie master thesis guy, a lot of that is merely adriot thinking and remarkably keen perception. 

Yep, the guy is a doofus, I'm sure he'll get his degree.

I'm reminded of the story about the inmate in the asylum.

I'm reminded of the story about the inmate in the asylum.

Guy has flat tire outside the fence.  He loses his lug nuts.  He is stuck.

Inmate standing on other side of fence mentions that if he uses one lug nut from each of the other wheels, he'll be able to drive to a gas station, carefully, and fix the problem.

Lug nut guy says, "I thought you were nuts?"

Inmate says, "Yeah, but I'm not stupid."

ACA

...

Acaiguana says:  "Ya can't win if ya don't play."

Another angle

There's another side to the Dems' authoritarian bent:  The tendency to ram policy down the throats of the people by getting a judge to impose them from the bench.  Lately judges have even usurped the legislative branches of states by ordering tax increases and requiring new laws related to gay marriage.  Abortion wouldn't be legal in several states if the courts hadn't imposed it on all of them.  And that's the most obvious example.

Just curious.  What are your

Just curious.  What are your career prospects with a masters in social work.....bartender?

Forklift driver at K-Mart.

Forklift driver at K-Mart.

Or teacher.  They seem to give out Master Degrees like candy these days.  Spelling isn't important because they make up all their own words.

ACA

...

Acaiguana says:  "Ya can't win if ya don't play."

Berry Funny

Funny as it is, an MSW gets you a job taking kids away from their parents for Child Protective Services.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow. Dwight Eisenhower

Reminds me of the old saying

Reminds me of the old saying "A Republican is just a Democrat that has been mugged."  Also considering we were attacked during the term of this President pschological factors are probably more measureable though still open to misinterpretation by students.

I did my own study. Based on

I did my own study. Based on the number of MSM stories citing Democrats needing psychological counseling following the 2004 elections vs. the number of Republicans needing the same following the 2006 elections, I've determined liberals are more psychologically fragile than conservatives.

Another finding in the study was that liberals blamed their losses on others (voter fraud, misimformed or ignorant public...). Conservatives immediately start asking what they themselves need to do different the next time around.

Do I get my Ph.D. now?

It's common knowledge with

It's common knowledge (backed up by dozens of studies) that the prisons and the nuthouses are predominently full of people who would vote Democrat if they were allowed to.

Proud member of the all-powerful and vast
militarist/industrialist/capitalist/zionist-bagelist complex

Also, scads of people with Na

Also, scads of people with Narcissistic and Schizotypal Personality Disorders are VERY typically found among non-institutionalized Liberals.

Wait... so now we're the &quo

Wait... so now we're the "Kool-Aid drinkers?"  D'oh!

I guess that same mental illn

I guess that same mental illness is what makes Conservatives give more to charity than Liberals too.

Maybe the world would be better, obvioulsy more charitible, if we all had that mental illness.

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." --John Milton

Sorry Mark, can't diagnose yo

Sorry Mark, can't diagnose you're mental health.  I haven't made a formal study, but most Republicans I know tend to be more trusting of authority, unless the authority is a Democratic President.  Most Dems I know tend to be distrustful of authority, with the same exception.  Personally, I think anyone who follows the "party line" is nuts.  In the commercial market place we have almost infinite choice.  In the political marketplace, really only two.  If the Party moves away from your personal best interest and core values, move away from the party.  Besides, labels are onerous.  Don't worry if others consider you "authoritarian" you know what you really are.

Unfortunately, bk, it's not

Unfortunately, bk, it's not that simple. So you're not going to get away with that. You can't just move away from your political party. Because that means you move towards the opposite side of the political spectrum and I'm sorry, that will never happen. Not because I'm fanatically loyal to Republicans, but because the Dims do NOT represent true christian moral values to me, they have no intention of preserving liberty in the US and they only care about which wind blows up their a-- on any particular day.

Is it me or is liberalism t

Is it me or is liberalism trying to commandeer America by telling us how to think, telling us what to believe, and tell us who is right and wrong? And if the average American resists, then support your whack job theory with Science. Because science is never wrong. Global warming a scientific fact, the gay gene, liberals are more compassionate, etc etc etc... This is just the latest... if you're a republican, then it probably means your psycho. I for one am sick of it. I'm sorry but more and more it seems that politics is seeping its way into science. I just thought of the 'findings' a few years back that said basically that people who believe in God are most likely mental and psychotic. Or something like that. I can't remember what it was exactly...

white matter = liberal = liar

Well Mark (and welcome back!), there's a study for just about everything. Not that any elitist liberal writers have sensed an urgent need to connect the dots and write the story, but there have been recent scientific studies which suggest that the amount of white matter in the brain has a lot to do with truth telling.

How's that? Allow me to quote:

A USC study has found the first proof of structural brain abnormalities in people who habitually lie, cheat and manipulate others.

While previous research has shown that there is heightened activity in the prefrontal cortex – the area of the brain that enables most people to feel remorse or learn moral behavior – when normal people lie, this is the first study to provide evidence of structural differences in that area among pathological liars...

...The liars had significantly more “white matter” and slightly less “gray matter” than those they were measured against, Raine said.

Specifically, liars had a 25.7 percent increase in prefrontal white matter compared to the antisocial controls and a 22 percent increase compared to the normal controls. Liars had a 14.2 percent decrease in prefrontal gray matter compared to normal controls.

More white matter – the wiring in the brain – may provide liars with the tools necessary to master the complex art of deceit, Raine said.

“Lying takes a lot of effort,” he said.

From researchers from the University of California, Irvine and the University of New Mexico:

Gray [matter] is central to processing information and plays a vital role in aiding skills such as mathematics, map-reading, and intellectual thought. White matter connects the brain's processing centers and is central to emotional thinking, use of language, and the ability to do more than one thing at once.

White matter has to do more with the wiring in the brain (how it communicates and at what speed), while gray matter [brain cells] has more to do with actual IQ.

Interestingly, studies indicate that those with more white matter tend to be more liberal (teachers, writers, journalists etc.). The study suggested that women have more white matter than men.

Bottom line: Liberals lie more than conservatives - because they simply have a more difficult time making a decision. I expect the examples should not be too difficult to locate.

I'd rather be crazy than stuck up

I did a little scientific study in my backyard and just used me as the primary conclusions.  In my scientific studies I have come to the conclusion that left wingers are stuck up snobs who think they are better than everyone else.  They are the kinds of people that drink wine, eat cheese and go to the symphony and then dress up real fancy and think they are the cream of the crop.  Now I would rather drink beer, eat pretzels and sing along to David Allan Coe songs and act crazy, than hang out with stuck up left wing snobs.

So for all the crazy people who aren't stuck up here are the entire lyrics to "You Never Even Called Me By My Name"  Make sure to sing along if you aren't stuck up and make it loud.

You Never Even Called Me By My Name

Written By Steve Goodman
As Recorded By David Allan Coe

WELL, IT WAS ALL
THAT I COULD DO TO KEEP FROM CRYING’
SOMETIMES IT SEEMED SO USELESS TO REMAIN
BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO CALL ME DARLIN’, DARLIN'
YOU NEVER EVEN CALL ME BY MY NAME

YOU DON’T HAVE TO CALL ME WAYLON JENNINGS
AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO CALL ME CHARLIE PRIDE
AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO CALL ME MERLE HAGGARD/ANYMORE
EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE ON MY FIGHTING’ SIDE

CHORUS:
AND I’LL HANG AROUND AS LONG AS YOU WILL LET ME
AND I NEVER MINDED STANDING’ IN THE RAIN
BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO CALL ME DARLIN’, DARLIN’
YOU NEVER EVEN CALLED ME BY MY NAME

WELL, I’VE HEARD MY NAME
A FEW TIMES IN YOUR PHONE BOOK (Hello, Hello)
AND I’VE SEEN IT ON SIGNS WHERE I’VE PLAYED
BUT THE ONLY TIME I KNOW
I’LL HEAR "DAVID ALLAN COE"
IS WHEN JESUS HAS HIS FINAL JUDGMENT DAY

REPEAT CHORUS

RECITATION:
WELL, A FRIEND OF MINE NAMED STEVE GOODMAN WROTE THAT SONG
AND HE TOLD ME IT WAS THE PERFECT COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG
I WROTE HIM BACK A LETTER AND I TOLD HIM IT WAS NOT THE PERFECT COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG BECAUSE HE HADN’T SAID ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT MAMA,
OR TRAINS,
OR TRUCKS,
OR PRISON,
OR GETTING’ DRUNK
WELL HE SAT DOWN AND WROTE ANOTHER VERSE TO THE SONG
AND HE SENT IT TO ME,
AND AFTER READING IT,
I REALIZED THAT MY FRIEND HAD WRITTEN THE PERFECT
COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG
AND I FELT OBLIGED TO INCLUDE IT ON THIS ALBUM
THE LAST VERSE GOES LIKE THIS HERE:

WELL, I WAS DRUNK THE DAY MY MOM GOT OUT OF PRISON
AND I WENT TO PICK HER UP IN THE RAIN
BUT BEFORE I COULD GET TO THE STATION IN MY PICKUP TRUCK
SHE GOT RUN NED OVER BY A DAMNED OLD TRAIN

CHORUS:
AND I’LL HANG AROUND AS LONG AS YOU WILL LET ME
AND I NEVER MINDED STANDING’ IN THE RAIN
NO, A’ YOU DON’T HAVE TO CALL ME DARLIN’, DARLIN’
YOU NEVER EVEN CALL ME
WELL I WONDER WHY YOU DON’T CALL ME
WHY DON’T YOU EVER CALL ME BY MY NAME

college

For a school to sanction a "study" like this is indicative of the "mental state" of our colleges and universities. Forget Iraq, America is in deep trouble right here at home.

NEVETR,NEVER trust a liberal

You said it!!!!"He who h

You said it!!!!

"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere"          -Ali ibn-Abi-Talib, 4th Islamic Caliph

I can't wait for the first

I can't wait for the first lib friend to cite this study to me. My first response will be a question: "So, do you believe this is fact? Be careful, it's a trick question :-)"

The Huffington's contributor's favorite quote is "Lohse, a social work master's student at Southern
Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives
have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush."

What a coincidence! It's my favorite quote too! He's proven it! Well, well, there we have it. A single study by a masters student has proven a direct link. Another fine example of liberal science.