I was directed to
this Democracy Corps report on the red/blue state divide on cultural issues after blogging about a study I'd read earlier in The Econmist, which is I
blogged about here...
The money quote (more on my blog):
The closer the negative pictures were to the target image, the more frequently the subject failed to spot the target.
More below...
Evidently sex and violence really do distract.
I'd connecture that progressives' brains are evidently wired differently are able to override this basic implulse...not that the folks on the right are stupider -they're not.
But if we want to win, we've got to understand and use these mechanisms.
From the Democracy Corps report:
Democrats must recognize the dynamics behind these trends and find a strategic
framework that combines these core beliefs with an aggressive `change' agenda that taps into
broad dissatisfaction with the current leadership in Washington...
Democrats' lack of a consistent stance on cultural issues leaves
a vacuum that is clearly being filled by voices on the right. Most referred to Democrats
as `liberal' on issues of morality, but some even go so far as to label them `immoral,'
`morally bankrupt,' or even `anti-religious.'
I think it's more than possible to have a healthy and moral attitude towards sex and abjure violence and at the same time be able to use this brain mechanism to outdo the Repubs on these issues.
At the very least we have to understand the underlying functionality here beyond the "don't think about an elephant" meme currently circulating.