Politics and the startle response

There was a lot of coverage a few weeks back about research showing that people with a tendency to experience anxiety are more likely to favor right-wing political views. To put it bluntly, Republicans scare easily.

That’s amply demonstrated in a post that the excellent Mahablog links to, in which Jonah Goldberg purports to write from 2012, reporting on Obama’s failed presidency. It’s a bizarre, even hysterical, piece of writing in which, apparently, Obama’s administration will be damaged by Biden making bizarre statements:

…he told the Russian foreign minister he’d “rather punch a nun in the throat” than cooperate on an Iranian nuclear deal, the Obama administration knew they had a problem on their hands.

The strange comments and behavior kept coming: at an international summit on child poverty, he accused the Dalai Lama of issuing a “brain fart,” he phoned Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts at home and called him a “[re]tard in short pants…”

And so on and so on. Goldberg manages to reveal his racism: “The last straw was Biden’s complaint, emphatically offered at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, that he would have more influence over foreign policy if he were black.”

See. A black president, ergo he won’t listen to white people.” Now imagine if this was a liberal saying not to vote for McCain because McCain’s too much of a racist to listen to the concerns of racial minorities.

The Mahablog, however, has I think missed an even nuttier example of fear-driven Republican prognostication: Fundamentalist Christian Janet Porter’s “A newscast from a future we must never see.”

Now at this point I’m cursing myself for having used the word “hysterical” to describe Goldberg’s writing. That leaves me, perhaps appropriately, wordless to describe Porter’s insanity.

“Obama campaign supporters from al-Qaida to Hamas to Hezbollah, to Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood, continue to dance in the streets.”

See — Obama is a friend of terrorists! [Ignore that Al Qaeda in fact endorsed McCain].

The “Death to America Coalition” released a statement: “We have not celebrated like this since 9/11!”

See — Obama hates America.

And he plans to force Americans to have abortions!!!

“The only thing left of the abortion agenda not yet accomplished is the forced abortion policy of China.”

We will also see a “government takeover of health care” and of course guns will be banned. [Fundamentalist Christians apparently like guns -- What assault weapon would Jesus choose?].

The Osama bin Laden video released yesterday has been shown to be authentic.

OSAMA speaks in Arabic.

TRANSLATOR: I am looking forward to meeting with President Barack Obama without preconditions to negotiate our demands of “submit or die.” We have much in common: the same supporters, the same allies and we both have friends who blew up the Pentagon.

See — Obama really, really is a friend of terrorists — even though the core of his foreign policy is to take troops from Iraq so that we can finally destroy Al Qaeda.

[Louis Farrakhan] today received another honor from the president, who asked him to be the keynote speaker at the Presidential Prayer Breakfast. Attendees were reportedly told to face east.

Farrakhan called for the loud siren signaling the Muslim call to prayer heard in Muslim Countries (and in Michigan) to be sounded in the capital five times a day. Not surprisingly, President Obama repeated the words he said in a February 27, 2007, interview with the New York Times that this call to allegiance to Allah as the “one true god” was “one of the prettiest sounds on earth.”

And he’s not just a terrorist, but a Muslim terrorist!

Conservative talk radio just became a thing of the past with President Obama answering the Democrat Congress’ call for a gag rule on Rush Limbaugh, conservative and Christian talk radio.

And he’s against free speech and — well he’s a Muslim, isn’t he? — he wants to ban Christian radio.

And perhaps worst of all, he’ll “place vulnerable orphan children in the homes of homosexual activists.”

(Please make up your own subtext for that one].

And just to make sure you’ve got the message, she also has a column titled, “You cannot be a Christian and vote for Obama.” Subtle, eh?

It’s clear that these people see Obama as a monster, not as a human being. They believe he is capable of anything. Whatever the neuro-chemicals associated with fear, Goldberg and Porter’s brains appear to be swimming in them.

According to her website, Porter (née Folger) “has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Evening News, 20/20, and Nightline, CBS This Morning, FOX News including The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, The Big Story and Heartland with John Kasich), MSNBC including Hardball with Chris Mathews, CNN, including Inside Politics and CNN Headline News, and the syndicated Extra among others.”

Dear, gods! How can someone like this be taken seriously enough to appear on all these TV shows? I excuse them for having brains intoxicated with anxiety. But aren’t there some sensible people out there who can say, “Wait, this person clearly has a diminished capacity for thinking clearly. Is this the kind of person whose views we want to foist on a world that needs a little wisdom, truth, and common sense?”

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One Response to “Politics and the startle response”

1. Stephen says:

   November 3, 2008 at 11:55 am

   Gosh, truly mindboggling. I have never felt any belief in God myself, but i have known large amounts of thoughtful, intelligent Christians and other theists, who are wise and aware that their faith is but a flawed human attempt to try and know what they see ultimately as a wondrous mystery. They also tend to be some of the most decent and compassionate people i know. But the dogmatic “we know what God thinks and everyone else is wrong (and coincidentally he’s also a socially conservative republican)” approach truly pushes my limits of empathy beyond breaking point. What indeed are the neurochemical origins of bigotry and arrogance; now there is a nature/nurture debate if ever there was one!

   Here’s fingers crossed for history being made tomorrow, even on the other side of the Atlantic the tension is becoming quite unbearable. The prospect of one of the most exciting events in political history seems so near but the anxiety of the polls being wrong and it all being snatched away is palpable – it’s at times like this that I wish I did believe in God and the power of prayer!

   ps greatly like the new design, very fresh, though i loved your comment about the samsaric nature of being very happy with something for a while and then disatisfaction creeping in for no apparent reason, i am in touch with that human flaw!

   kind reagrds
   Stephen