Crazies for Bush
Brian and Ace explain Christopher Lohse’s “study” purporting to show that crazy people are more likely to vote for Bush: crazy conservatives are more likely to be institutionalized than crazy liberals. The study may have also been flawed in that it measured only psychosis, not general smugness:
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.
Now that’s a surprise. How many demographic groups can you name that didn’t prefer Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election? The only such group I can think of is “people who are Pauline Kael,” and even that group appears to be apocryphal.
December 1st, 2006 at 4:42 pm
I grew up in NY. I knew only 2 people who voted for Nixon. My grandmother and my school librarian. Everyone else I knew voted for McGovern.
I have a friend who grew up in Berkeley. I knew two more than he did.
December 4th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
I think you may be giving too much credence to the writers over at Wikipedia for your remark that the comment by Pauline Kael may be apochryphal. The fact that it’s been attributed to others means nothing; nearly every great quotation has been attributed to the wrong person. The whole segment of her entry struck me as an attempt to C her A.
December 5th, 2006 at 6:45 am
Proving a negative is never easy. If the quote is real, someone should be able to document it. To the best of my knowledge, no one has.