June 21, 2005
It gets stranger. The study suggests that the explanation for people switching away from the political parties of their birth families.It is not that opinions on specific issues are written into a person's DNA. Rather, genes prime people to respond cautiously or openly to the mores of a social group.
Only recently have researchers begun to examine how these predispositions, in combination with childhood and later life experiences, shape political behavior.
So wait a minute, if genetics plays a role then how does a person get "mismatched" within their birth family? Wouldn't the parents be genetically similar to the child? Sounds like a lot of crap to me. Based on my experience, a person can have a number of influences as they mature that will help form their political views.A mismatch between an inherited social orientation and a given party may also explain why some people defect from a party. Many people who are genetically conservative may be brought up as Democrats, and some who are genetically more progressive may be raised as Republicans, the researchers say.
One of the author's of the study even suggests that this concept probably applies to Sen. Zell Miller. I agree with Miller's response:
And for the record I haven't noticed too many conservatives - or anyone for that matter - leaving the Republican party to become a Democrat. If they're out there, they must be an endangered species.Reached by telephone, Mr. Miller said he did not see it quite that way. He said that his views had not changed much since his days as a marine, but that the Democratic Party had moved.
"And I'm not talking about inch by inch, like a glacier," said Mr. Miller, who makes the case in a new book, "A Deficit of Decency." "I'm saying the thing got up and flew away."
Posted by: Gary at
09:15 PM
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