Are political leanings all in the genes?

[concerned]

www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19726411.800-are-political-leanings-all-in-the-genes.html

THE race to become the most powerful politician on earth is well under way, and the US is gripped by election fever. In newsrooms and bars across the land, liberals and conservatives are slugging it out, trying to convince each other that their way of thinking is right. They may be wasting their breath.

According to an emerging idea, political positions are substantially determined by biology and can be stubbornly resistant to reason. "These views are deep-seated and built into our brains. Trying to persuade someone not to be liberal is like trying to persuade someone not to have brown eyes. We have to rethink persuasion," says John Alford, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Evidence to support this idea is growing. For example, twin studies suggest that opinions on a long list of issues, from religion in schools to nuclear power and gay rights, have a link determined by biology.

Now this is an interesting approach. Maybe that is why it is next to impossible to argue politics, etc.

[Swimmy]

How many of us joined a political party because it's the same one our parents or someone with strong influence in our lives are members of? Exactly. How does the study take into account the political positions of adopted children from their biological parents? I'll bet that's an interesting dent in their study.

It's not genetics, it's the environment in which we develop and grow up. You resist the desire to change because you've grown up your whole life under that same thinking. I know several kids whose political convictions mimicked my high school government teacher's political views.

Next they'll be saying that racism is genetically controlled too.

[frankcor]

I may have told this story before and if so, please forgive a repeating old man.

On my 18th birthday, as I was rushing out the door to register for the draft and for voting, I asked my mom "Should I register Republican or Democrat?"

She said "If you want a county job, you have to be a Republican."

And so I did register as a Republican. It wasn't until years later when I asked myself "Why would I ever want a county job?"

I remain a Republican today so that I can vote in primary elections. You don't see many contested races for Independent or Libertarian candidacies . I'm not so cynical as to register Democrat to mess up their primaries.

Just about everyone in my extended family was a Democrat. I think that's common for immigrants and their children but I certainly don't understand why it works out that way.

I agree with swimmy. It's just too much of a stretch to think that our biology would waste a gene or enzyme pairing on political preference. Nature is more efficient than that.

[Swimmy]

My dad changed parties after clinton took office the first time and killed defense spending. People told him that in order to be a better prospect in the defense industry he should change political parties. It worked, temporarily. After all the defense industry left the area, he had no more options and then applied to the OIN as a quality engineer. He since has changed back to his original party. I'm the most moderate Republican in my family. So if it is genetically related, I must be a mutant.

[thelma]

I got involved with the Democratic party about 30 years ago when I was engaged to a City employee that was very involved in the current politics. I went to many Black tie affairs, etc, and even passed on "secret" documents to higher ups in the Democratic party.

All it took me was about 3 months to become very dissilusion with the entire process of politics.

Bottom line, politicians are the biggest hipocrities you will ever meet! They can look you right in the eye with a smile on their face, while sticking a knife in your back.

For people that deal with people that talk out of both sides of their mouths, then the world of politics might be a power trip for them. Personally, I don't like to associate with people like this so the world of politics is NOT for me.

[Swimmy]

So then you would agree that political leanings are not based on your genetic predisposition?

[Swimmy]

Hahahahaha. We're talking about genetics and the ad thing is trying to sell me on signing up for Ann Coulter's articles via e-mail.

[frankcor]

thelma said:

I went to many Black tie affairs, etc, and even passed on "secret" documents to higher ups in the Democratic party.

Okay, Thelma. Plenty of time has elapsed. It's time to dish the dirt.
--frankcor [status]fidgeting in gleeful anticipation[/status]

[Swimmy]

I thought it was 40 yrs, not 30.

[concerned]

Ah the environment vs genetics an argument that has been toss aroung for many a year. Today we are finding more and more valid information that genetics plays more than a vital role on human development. Maybe the historical and cultural devepopment of humankind has more of its roots in genetics than environment. A camelion can change its color to adapt to its environment , yet this is informed by its genetic makeup. The clown fish and the aneominie co exits; an environmental adaptation or genetic disposition. Mankind searches for answers outside itself in order to understand who am I in relationship to a transcendant being; environmental or genetic.The betterment of all humanity, a government that is all inclusive.an end to conflict, a need to unify; environment or genetic. Sometime narcissism might just be a response to a unified theory of life. A life that even on the molecular level and within that level all of life present and to come has meaning in its response to overcome that which consume everything; violence.Think about!!!!

[rrogers40]

As a strict functionalist (what ever that means) my answer is always environment over genetics. Take Japanese children who are raised by Americans, in America. They tend to be taller than their counterparts over in Japan.

[Swimmy]

Concerned,

I think I understand your point. That our ability to adapt to our environment is controlled by our genetics. Fair enough, I agree.

But if genetics determines our political leanings then how can one person change parties or beliefs? I started out much more conservative in high school. As I went to college, many of my political opinions started to sway to the liberal end of the political spectrum. Now that I'm in law school, I've swayed away from the middle and lean more heavily conservative than when I was in college (still not as I was in high school). I went to a very liberal college; I think I was one of 15 Republicans on the entire campus. My law school is still fairly liberal, but there is a larger conservative population than there was at my undergraduate school. If my political leanings are as finitely etched into my genetic code, I should not have swayed at all and should have stayed the same as my parents, who are very conservative.

Of course, I'm not a geneticist so I have no proof to support my experience. I just think that the environment plays a much larger role in the realm of politics than genetics does.

[concerned]

rrogers40 said:

As a strict functionalist (what ever that means) my answer is always environment over genetics. Take Japanese children who are raised by Americans, in America. They tend to be taller than their counterparts over in Japan.

Kind of like the theory on how the giraff got such a long neck...Lamarck

[concerned]

swimmy said:

Concerned,

I think I understand your point. That our ability to adapt to our environment is controlled by our genetics. Fair enough, I agree.

But if genetics determines our political leanings then how can one person change parties or beliefs? I started out much more conservative in high school. As I went to college, many of my political opinions started to sway to the liberal end of the political spectrum. Now that I'm in law school, I've swayed away from the middle and lean more heavily conservative than when I was in college (still not as I was in high school). I went to a very liberal college; I think I was one of 15 Republicans on the entire campus. My law school is still fairly liberal, but there is a larger conservative population than there was at my undergraduate school. If my political leanings are as finitely etched into my genetic code, I should not have swayed at all and should have stayed the same as my parents, who are very conservative.

Of course, I'm not a geneticist so I have no proof to support my experience. I just think that the environment plays a much larger role in the realm of politics than genetics does.

Somehow the sway in your high school and the adaptation in your current status was informed by your genetic disposition toward life.

In terms of genetics a particular gene can be dominant or recessive. Another words expressed or hidden. An example can be anything that is sex linked. It can take many years and sometime just a few years for an expression of a gene to go from hidden to expressed. Sickle-cell, baldheadinness and a variety of other anomolies are just a few. Sometimes I even think that a predisposition to crime can be an expression of a hidden gene that was fundamentally adapted to by an environmental stimulii that eventually became dominate. The question is exactly as you raised.Maybe genetics is actually the prime causal agent for all of humankinds activities? We are talikin about billions of years of genetic alterations which we all inherit. Going a little furthur in this argument is the question; does a person actually commit a crime or is he/she predisposed by there very nature/nurture. Who do we hold responsible? The person or his/her genetic makeup. Even if we say nurture than isn't the person really not responsible for his/her actions. Maybe the historical political activities of any given movement is dependant on the genetic expression of the majority of the population at the time. Just think of the posibilities of explaining past political/historical events?

[frankcor]

LOL, swimmy. Maybe it's a call for you and Ann Coulter to hook up and blend your genetics together.

If indeed political leanings are genetic, would it stand to reason that time will tell whether liberals or conservatives will emerge as the successful species while the other goes the way of Neanderthal? And where would libertarians fit in?