Those crazy conservatives!

My friend Brian at Iowa Voice has blogged today about a “study” that supposedly suggests that there is a “direct link” between those who support Bush and mental illness:

A collective “I told you so” will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse’s study gets out.

Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.

Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. 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.

But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.

“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.’”

The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.

As Brian correctly points out, it isn’t exactly Republicans who are putting folks with questionable mental capabilities in positions of power.

Correct me if I’m wrong, though, but I haven’t heard of Bush supporters seeking counseling for depression after this month’s election loss like we read Democrats did after Kerry lost to Bush in 2004, have you?

Seriously, I’m not trying to make a joke of out mental illness, because it’s not funny, but you just know the liberal blogs are going to filled up with posts about his this “proves” that Bush supporters are nuts, all the while demonstrating that those same far lefties parrotting this “study” as though it’s the gospel truth have more than earned the nickname “Nutroots.”