DEMOCRATIC GENES OR REPUBLICAN GENES

The New York Times reported on an interesting study (June 21, 2005) implying that we are born with "political genes."

Among the statements was the following: Political scientists have long held that people's upbringing and experience determine their political views. A child raised on peace protests and Bush-loathing generally tracks left as an adult, unless derailed by some powerful life experience. One reared on tax protests and a hatred of Kennedys usually lists to the right.

But on the basis of a new study, a team of political scientists is arguing that people's gut-level reaction to issues like the death penalty, taxes and abortion is strongly influenced by genetic inheritance. The new research builds on a series of studies that indicate that people's general approach to social issues - more conservative or more progressive - is influenced by genes.

Environmental influences like upbringing, the study suggests, play a more central role in party affiliation as a Democrat or Republican, much as they do in affiliation with a sports team. The report, which appears in the current issue of The American Political Science Review, the profession's premier journal, uses genetics to help answer several open questions in political science.

They include why some people defect from the party in which they were raised and why some political campaigns, like the 2004 presidential election, turn into verbal blood sport, though polls find little disparity in most Americans' views on specific issues like gun control and affirmative action.

I am certainly not a geneticist. It does remind me of the pseudo-study circulating on the internet in 2000 that states that voted for Gore had a higher IQ than states that voted for Bush--I don't know what became of that issue. Obviously there is the gene factor, but so often today we try to explain everything on the basis of heredity and environment. The issue of individual responsibility and accountibility has been minimized. Maybe there is a genetic factor to home-schooling???? Or perhaps there is the Episcopal or Baptist gene???