Bush's approval rating has been sitting in the toilet for most of this year, and the obvious failures in Iraq are making it tough to buy into his rhetoric. Yet he won the 2004 election with an electoral and popular majority. All of which raises the question: if conservatives are disenchanted with Bush, liberals obviously despise him, and centrists are going with the Democrats - who actually supports him? One researcher believes the answer is "crazy people."

[Graduate student Christopher] Lohse's study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person's psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

[...]

"Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader," Lohse says. "If your world is very mixed up, there's something very comforting about someone telling you, 'This is how it's going to be.'"

[...]

"Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry," the study says.

Lohse says the trend isn't unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.

Maybe the lunatics really are running the asylum?

MisterEnrolled

Birmingham, AL

October 2005

NOV 30, 2006 02:02 PM

You raise the blade.
You make me change.
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane.

Zarth

Seattle, WA

December 2004

NOV 30, 2006 02:02 PM

Well that made my day.

DieWhiteGirls

Madison, WI

July 2005

NOV 30, 2006 02:05 PM

Crap, does this mean I have to support Bush now?

MEH.

Vestril

Coronado, CA

February 2003

NOV 30, 2006 02:10 PM

The title already explains what's going to happen with this study. People who hate Bush will go "aha, Bush supporters are insane!!" People who love Bush will point out that he was elected with popular support in the last election, which would be far too many crazy people for one country, they'll sneer at the study and think it's worthless. In the meantime the actual study showed that crazy people support Bush, not that people who support Bush are crazy.

DieWhiteGirls said:
Crap, does this mean I have to support Bush now?

MEH.

You mean you didn't? Jesus man, get with the times. Try to hide the fact that you made such a large error, see if you can get one of those "Bush/Cheney" bumper stickers and stress it so it looks worn.

zyryx

Tyler, TX

April 2004

NOV 30, 2006 02:10 PM

make sense to me...

Adroitbeing

I'm lost

September 2003

NOV 30, 2006 02:10 PM

I wonder if GW every got really fucked up and sat in his car listening to Pink Floyd for hours with his eyes closed. I know I did, and look what it's done for me!

Bastardo

Boston, MA

January 2005

NOV 30, 2006 02:15 PM

"Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader," Lohse says. "If your world is very mixed up, there's something very comforting about someone telling you, 'This is how it's going to be.'"

My personal experience as an EMT has shown that psychotic people prefer to fling their poo at me when I interrupt their umpteenth groin fondling session of the day.