Another potential error is that the political ideologies of the parties have shifted wildly over time, most notable the polar shift (pun intended) after the civil rights act of 64.

Hearty Congratulations. Looks good on you.

This explains the Polar Shift.

This is a fantastic video, possibly one of my favorites ever here.

I'm surprised at the number of conservatives taking offense, since despite the somewhat derogatory intro, it's a pretty good theory to consider. It's just as revelatory about us (social) liberals as it is about social conservatives.

To imstellar28's comment immediately above, just because he didn't provide the full documentation of how he came upon this theory, doesn't make it bullshit new age pseudoscience. He doesn't need to prove all the evolutionary causes for it anymore than Newton needed to explain what gravity is when he wrote his Theory of Gravity. You can find evidence supporting a theory's predictive capability without understanding the underlying mechanics. In fact, that's pretty much how science works.


>> ^aaronfr:
>> ^imstellar28:
sorry but whens the last time you heard a liberal change his mind on an issue? how many ex-liberals have you met?
liberals are just as close-minded as conservatives are.

I'd consider myself a liberal, and I believe that I had a discussion with you earlier this week wherein you presented new facts and I changed my mind. Just sayin'.
Beyond that, I believe there is a whole section of liberals who 'changed' their minds. They're called Reagan Democrats.


Two aspects of this I wanted to respond to. First, I reject the notion that in order for liberals to be open-minded, they need to have been conservatives at some point in their life, or have abandoned one of their core principles, or altered their moral calculus at some point in their life.

Second, as for Reagan Democrats, I think this explains why they flipped -- they were social conservatives, and when the Democratic party started being socially liberal, they flipped parties.

Ya gotta keep in mind that both of the major American parties have changed over time. Republicans used to be socially liberal, and economically conservative. Democrats in the earlier part of the 20th Century were socially conservative, and economically liberal. The parties went through polarity shifts on the social scale during the 60's and 70's. I'd contend the Republicans also became economically liberal in the same period, but that was more gradual (and has culminated in 2008 with them becoming the American socialist party).