Recently on the Richard Dawkins forum I was discussing American politics with fellow posters, many of whom are not from America, but hail from such diverse countries as Sweden, New Zealand, the UK and Australia, just to name a few.  We posters from America were complaining about the choices our fellow citizens commonly make when voting for presidential candidates and the question came up, rather innocently, why does it seem America tends to vote for those, my UK friends might call twats. 

It is a rather serious question, when one considers that we elected a relatively inexperienced man with an IQ of 80 over an intellectually accomplished statesman like John Kerry, and, if polls can be trusted, we are having serious trouble deciding between a 70 years old war monger with a spotty political background and deeply troubling ties to financial corruption (Keating Five) and another intellectually esteemed gentleman.

 While there could be an infinite number of factors that contribute to voting trends in America, I have singled out the four that I feel are the most relevant to the current and recent elections.  

Emotions

I think there are several different emotional factors that contribute to trends in American politics, and that Republicans are very adept at manipulating those factors in their favor.  In his book The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, Public Affairs, Drew Westen suggests that emotions rule over logic in American Politics.  The party that can press the most emotional buttons, according to Westen’s theory, will win the most elections. Republicans have long ruled supreme at trotting out images of religion, flag, patriotism, mom and apple pie over the years, to the point of making those images part of the Republican brand. We have come to associate Patriotism and Godliness with the Republican Party even though there is little empirical evidence to suggest the party as a whole is either, and much to suggest is isn’t. 

Egocentrism

In 2004 President Bush maintained his lead in the “person with whom you would most want to have a beer” poll and managed to get re-elected.  This shows that Americans ultimately believe their president should be an ordinary person just like them. Few of us, however would want, as Sam Harris elucidates “an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves.” 

This type of extreme narcissism can only be interpreted as masochism if, as Harris so adeptly suggests “… you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages—and loses—both necessary and unnecessary wars.”  

It is truly a destructive egotism that makes us believe we know what is best for the country, as well as everyone else in it. If you really think, after taking a long hard look in the mirror that someone just like you is the best choice to lead the country, and you are not a rocket scientist, a world class economist or an experience diplomat, I urge you to take a step back and rethink your choice. 

Anti-intellectualism

We keep hearing McCain and Palin talk about Obama’s elitism, and one wonders to what they are referring.  Obama came from a single parent home and went to school on scholarships and student loans.  He married a woman from a middle class home, and he doesn’t own 7 houses, like John McCain, so we know he is not classically elite, in the wealthy sense. 

Obama is, however, a Magna Cum Laude graduate from Harvard Law, and that is what makes him elite as far as the Republicans are concerned.  He is from an elite group of educated people in our country who stand out and above the rest of us, and whose image, to his detriment, can be manipulated to seem as cold and aloof when it comes to the “little people.” It is this fiction that allows Palin and McCain, both profiting members of the party that has controlled this nation for what seems like forever, able to spew the pseudo invective of elitism as though it is a curse toward Obama and make it stick.   

Only in America could you actually stir up resentment against someone and paint them as an elitist for overcoming poverty and racism and then managing to graduate with honours from one of the most prestigious law schools in the country. 

Religion

George W Bush would not have been elected president without backing from James Dobson and others on the Council of National Policy, the super secret neo conservative organization that arranges for wealthy donors to back politicians who support their religious right agenda.  It was very clear that Obama was not going to get the CNP’s funding, but it wasn’t clear that McCain would either, until he brought Sarah Palin on board.   

The CNP and Sarah Palin are dedicated to reversing Roe v Wade, making it legal for health insurance carriers to refuse coverage of birth control medications, and they are avid fighters of any rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender people.  The organization, with their perfect candidate also wants creationism the only science taught in public schools and advocates making abstinence the only criteria used in sex education and aids prevention programs.  We all see how well that worked for Bristol Palin. Emotion.

Egocentrism, anti-intellectualism and religion are strong forces in America that forge strong trends in our politics, but it is essential we step back from our standard modus operandi and make decisions that are based on the actual benefit those decisions will bring to our country. 

This election will either bring sweeping changes or a recurrence of the depressing drudgery we’ve seen in the past, but it is imperative that any decisions we make for our nation be made with clear logical minds.    

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Palin Average Isn’t Good Enough, Sam Harris, Sept, 3, 2008, New York Times, OpEd, The Resentment Strategy, Paul Krugman, Sept 4, 2008. The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, Public Affairs; Drew Westen: 2008,