Elections Town Hall – Sunday, March 30th at 2:00PM EST: Your Voice, Your Vote
Via Rumble.
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The effect of Carter’s simple questionnaire is stark in both its size and duration He writes, “A single exposure to an unobtrusive American flag shifted participants’ voting intentions, voting behaviour, attitudes, and beliefs toward the Republican end of the ideological spectrum.“ This was true whether the volunteers identified as liberal or conservative – people from both ends of the spectrum shifted towards Republicanism. This isn’t the first time that a national flag has provoked such a striking effect in a psychological study. In 2007, Ran Hassin (who led Carter’s study) found that the sight of an Israeli flag could affect the attitudes of people involved in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. The flag appeared too briefly to be consciously seen, but still it drove the volunteers towards a more moderate stance in the political centre. And the brief flash of flag even shifted the volunteers’ votes. But there is one important difference between the two studies: the Israeli flag pushed people towards the political centre, but the US one shifted people to the right. Why? Perhaps the volunteers moved towards the dominant party at the time? Carter thinks not. In the spring of 2010, with Obama a year in power, Carter recruited 70 people and asked them to look at four photographs. Half the people saw buildings with flags in front of them; the others saw photos where the flags had been digitally removed. Even though the two groups had the same spectrum of political beliefs beforehand, the flag group shifted towards a Republican worldview after seeing the photos. It doesn’t seem to matter who is sitting in the White House at the time. Instead, Carter suggests three alternative explanations. First, it’s possible that the flag does shift people to a more moderate position. Carter’s recruits tended to be more liberal than conservative, so if they all moved towards the political centre, that would come across as a shift to the Republican end. The fact that conservative volunteers shifted further to the right argues against this, but it would be simple enough to test by repeating the study with a group of predominantly Republican volunteers. Second, people might associate the American flag with Republicans more than Democrats. Carter demonstrated as much in a small pilot study of 50 people – they associated brandishing the flag with Republicans more than Democrats. And indeed, previous studies have found that conservative Americans are more like to own or display a flag than liberals are. Carter writes, “The American flag conjures up Republican beliefs and attitudes, and these primes collectively push people in the Republican direction.” Third, people might simply believe that the average American is more conservative than they are. Carter argues that people associate national flags with the archetypal citizen, and if they see a flag, they might shift their attitudes towards that imaginary every-American. All three possibilities can be tested in future studies. For now, one thing is clear: these results come as a shock to most people. Indeed, Carter found that 90% of people believe that the presence of a flag wouldn’t affect their voting behaviour. We like to think that their political beliefs and choices are the result of thoughtful consideration and objective analysis. In truth, several studies have now shown that voting simply isn’t that rational. Our choices are affected by unconscious preferences, our reflexes, and even local sports results. We are so predictable that people can guess the victors of elections with a surprising degree of accuracy based only on fleeting glances. In this context, the idea that a powerful national symbol like a flag could affect political preferences is not unreasonable. It does, however, seem unbelievable that one exposure to an innocuous flag could have such broad effects, especially since the recruits will have seen hundreds of flags in their daily lives. Carter acknowledges this incredulity. “Considering how often Americans are exposed to their flag, why would this one exposure have any impact at all?” he writes. He thinks that the answer lies in the context of the experiment. During his study, people saw the flag while explicitly declaring their voting intentions. That’s a very powerful act, and not one that people do very regularly. Carter says, “For some participants, explicitly declaring voting intentions may have been a rare event that further crystallized their stated intentions and attitudes, incorporating any bias introduced by the presence of the flag at that critical moment.” Reference: Carter, Ferguson & Hassin. 2011. A Single Exposure to the American Flag Shifts Support Toward Republicanism up to 8 Months Later. Psychological Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797611414726
How cool is this! Pro Tesla demonstrations have broke out across American, including one in California! Seen here originally.
Watch: Some Big Messages As Americans Come Out Across Country to Support Tesla, Elon and DOGE
So Saturday was the day that the radical leftists came out to throw their 'Tesla Takedown" tantrum protests around the country.
Tesla has done nothing to them; yet they're not shy about saying they are trying to tank the company and getting Elon Musk out of the government with DOGE. They don't care about who they might hurt in the process, including the Tesla dealers, owners, and workers.
The protesters in New York City even held up a sign that said "Burn a Tesla, Save Democracy" in a truly threatening and delusional comment. They even had cut-out cardboard Teslas a couple of people wore, with fake flames on them. They were of a piece too: mostly old, mostly women, and with those eyes.
There were some interesting moments as people tried to talk to the protesters in Tyson's Corner, Virginia.Listen as this man explains to one of the protesters that he's voted Democrat for 25 years but after everything he's seen, including things like this, he's never going to vote Democrat again.
The supporters who came out at the Tesla in Sacramento even brought out donuts for the folks inside. Now, that was nice.
"I'd rather not vote than vote Democrat at this point. And I've voted Democrat for 25 years! So what does that tell you?" he said. This is what they don't get; they are alienating people, including Democrats, with how extreme they are being.
Many of the Tesla owners being attacked are/were Democrats, and this has opened up a window in their minds into their side.
But what was also pretty cool was all the counter-protesters who came out in "Stand with Tesla" or "Tesla Shield" actions to protect Tesla, and to stand with Elon Musk at locations around the country.
They held up "Thank you, Elon!" and Trump signs in Paramus, New Jersey, to the many honks of approval from folks passing by on Route 17. They showed up first before the protesters; one X account claimed they had many more people.
Good for her and the rest of the folks, standing up for what's right.One of the best takes was from this lady in Ohio, who held a sign thanking Elon and "Big Balls" (one of the DOGE crew). She said she was in the market for a car, and all this is now convincing her to pull the lever for a Tesla because they are "the most American made car."
There is a HUGE election on Tuesday in Wisconsin which will determine the fate of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and even the country. The Democratic candidate has promised to deliver two additional seats to the Democrats by approving radically gerrymandered seats to the Dems. And basically turn Wisconsin into Illinois - where people have been leaving for years now.
Brad Schimel has campaigned in all 72 Wisconsin Counties and is the clear and obvious choice!
Brett Favre Cuts Ad Spot for Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidate Brad Schimel