Liberal Insanity Like Never Before Seen

Brace yourself, because this one's really, REALLY unbelievable.  No, I mean it.

Yesterday the journal Psychological Science published a paper (abstract here, original here*) that demonstrates:

the mere sight of the American flag can subtly shift their political views… towards Republicanism.  It's an effect that holds in both Democrats and Republicans, it affects actual votes, and it lasts for at least 8 months.

This is a fascinating finding in and of itself, but even more so considering the other recent study that showed

that July 4th parades energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day.

So apparently, patriotism is a Republican thing.  (Go ahead now, lefties, get all frothed up).

We looked at that one previously here.  Anyway, here's a bit more on the flag study:

In contrast to people's beliefs, we report two experiments showing that the American flag introduces a bias toward the Republican Party over the Democratic Party.  A single exposure to a small American flag while participants were deliberating about their voting intentions prior to a general election led to significant and robust changes in participants' voting intentions, voting behavior, and political attitudes, all in the politically conservative direction.  In a separate experiment, we replicated these patterns over a year into a Democratic presidential administration.

We also tested the longevity of this priming effect on judgment and attitudes.  Flag priming effects may be especially potent if they occur while a person is consciously deliberating about politics and voting intentions.  We exposed people to the American flag once during such an arguably critical psychological window, and found that the effects from this single exposure lasted up to 8 months later.  This represents one of the most durable priming effects in the cognitive sciences literature, and shows that contextual effects can not only impact important political decisions, but can also have a robust and long-lasting influence.

The author of this RedState post suggests that this explains why the Left is always burning the flag - they simply have a deep-seated hatred for this symbol that reminds them that their beliefs are wrong.

I think it is very interesting to note that we are seeing some increasingly verifiable data to back up conservative assertions that the Left is distinctly anti-American.  What isn't clear is just what Lefty liberals will do about that data.  We've already seen repeated attempts to curtail where and when the flag can be displayed (see here and here for two recent examples), but where will it stop?  Will they ban the flag from all schools or government property because it's 'inflammatory', just like the 10 Commandments?  Make it illegal to have a flag within sight of polling places?  Prevent the use of the flag in campaign commercials?  Ban the flag altogether?

Who knows?  It's ludicrous to think that any of these things would actually be proposed or enacted, but given the obvious lengths these people are willing to go to -- and the well-documented hatred they have of the American flag -- I don't think anything is really off the table.  If you'd asked any red-blooded American fifty years ago if they thought it was even remotely possible that the 10 Commandments would be prohibited from government buildings and school classrooms, they would have given it as much chance of happening as we're probably giving the banning of the American flag.  That's why we need to watch this very carefully and crush anything that would move us toward such ludicrousness becoming reality.

And above all we must remember -- and constantly remind those around us -- of the demonstrable facts that the liberal Left is anti-American and becoming more so with each passing year.  They must be recognized for who they are and what they believe, they must be publicly chastised and spoken honestly about, and then they absolutely MUST be thrown out of power before they can do more damage to this nation than they've already done.  Finally, we must always be vigilant to prevent them from dictating policy ever again.

The work begins now.