Do you do this? I know I do:

Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative information about various candidates. Both groups were quick to spot inconsistency and hypocrisy—but only in candidates they opposed.

When presented with negative information about the candidates they liked, partisans of all stripes found ways to discount it, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected, furthermore, the brain scans showed that volunteers gave themselves feel-good pats—the scans showed that “reward centers” in volunteers’ brains were activated.

Not everyone is a partisan, so it stands to reason not everyone will be quick to jump to see no fault in their own candidate.

Seeing fault in both candidates is reality, but reality must be spoon-fed to us in these hard times.

We are all edgy and so require our comforting fantasies to lull us to sleep. Perish any thought to jerk us back to less pleasant possibilities.

Myself, I’m voting for the chimp pictured above. He can’t speak in coherent sentences but he can use sign language, use a tool to extract maggots from a stump, and looks good in a bikini.

I’d like to further on elaborate on Simmertime’s point, that its natural for people to be partial toward one certain person, race or, in this case, political party. It isn’t always just a knee-jerk, ancient biological reaction. Sometimes this ‘pleasure center activation’ can come from being AHEAD of things. As in, “I told you so! I knew it was going to happen! But you wouldn’t listen!“

To illustrate, I’ll use myself as an example:

My ‘pleasure center’ was activated many times as Mayor Wilder was doing all of those (completely) idiotic things and, when he was caught doing some less-than-honest things. My joy was not that I wanted the city to fail, or from some sick desire to see Richmond (where I live) go through needless hard times…

...no, it was because I knew all of that was going to happen—before he got elected. When everyone including the Times-Dispatch were blowing the trumpets of glory toward that guy. I kept thinking then, “HIM? Are they NUTS?! Can’t they see what I see?!“

And so when it did happen my pleasure center was activated. I told you all so! In summary maybe we do this because we see some things in some people, some political party, that others are too stupid to see.

When the LWV [League of Women Voters] ceded authority over the debates in 1988, it called the growing Democratic-Republican domination of the debates “a fraud on the American voter.”

Americans have a special justification now for insisting on the inclusion of Cynthia McKinney, independent Ralph Nader, Libertarian nominee Bob Barr, and the Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin, all of whom will be on the ballot in a majority of states. The proposed bailout has placed the loyalties of our political leaders in bold relief. The leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties, including Barack Obama and John McCain, have joined the Bush Administration and Wall Street cronies in support of a scheme allowing the greatest transfer of wealth from taxpayers to financial corporations in US history.

Opposing the $700 billion bailout legislation are some progressive Democrats, some traditionally conservative Republicans (those who object to taxpayer-funded corporate handouts), most of the American public, and the alternative party candidates. Neither the Obama nor the McCain campaign represent anti-bailout voters.

Of course: “"If anyone in Washington is skeptical about these findings, they are in denial,“ he said. “We have 50 years of evidence that racial prejudice predicts voting. Republicans are supported by whites with prejudice against blacks.“ Hopefully tax money was not wasted on these “researchers”.

Every human being makes judgements about others based on observation and personal experience. Positive characteristics are noted as well as negative, including lifeystyle. The judgements are not inherently false as the researchers would have us believe. In fact they may be quite accurate about an individual’s behavior let alone a group’s consistent behavior.

Unfortunately US society has gotten so caught up in “equality” of outcomes for everyone, that it is blinded by the negative behavior of different groups pulling down society.

This is part of the reason monkeys need more than the duopoly.

OPEN THE DEBATES!

That’s a cute post! That study was hardly worth any funding, though. This is something we already know. Ok, technically it ‘proves’ it…but still nothing will change.

Its called rationalization. I do it all the time, you do it all the time. I challenge anyone to go through a day without rationalizing. You will end up rationalizing that you never rationalize and have to rationalize that on top of the fact that you ever rationalized.

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