Political Orientation

Over the last several years, research concerning our brains and political orientation has consistently shown differences in the brains of liberals and conservatives.  This can be due, in part, to life experiences.  The brain is not a static organ, and research shows it can be rewired.  This can occur by accident, by surgery, or by practices like meditation.  But it is also a fact that we each start with mental wiring that was not a matter of our choice.

For example, some people are born with a preference to use their left hand instead of their right hand.  They did not wake up one day and decide that writing with the left hand was better.  It was simply their natural inclination to favor their left hand when manipulating objects.  My mother tells me that, in her generation, use of the left hand was punished, and she had to learn to use her right hand instead.  But the births of "lefties" continued, and it is no longer a matter that people feel a need to correct.

We are now seeing the same thing with "sexual orientation."  People don't wake up one day deciding that they would like partners of the same sex.  It is simply their inborn inclination.  They can hide it and act like heterosexuals, but it is increasingly a matter that people do not feel they need to hide or "correct."

I believe we must acknowledge that the same thing is true with "political orientation."  To a greater degree than previously imagined, our political orientation -- liberal or conservative -- is probably something we are born with.  It's not a matter of choice, per se.  It can be hidden or "corrected" when the political climate requires, but it is not eliminated.

Nor is it something simply guaranteed by procreation.  My own parents are very conservative, while I am very liberal.  They are firmly Christian, and I am not. 

And yet my father told me recently that he loved me.  I told him I loved him, too.  I know that we both meant it.  Both of us have learned that the differences in our natures does not require us to diminish our regard for one another, even though we oppose each other on political and religious grounds.  There are exceptions to every rule, but I think this is the general case.