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The Eugene McCarthy Gene: Scientists Say DRD4 Drives Ideology

The nature or nurture debate may be over for liberals: scientists have isolated what they believe to be the “liberal gene.” Yes, that’s right. Researchers believe that DRD4 affects people’s ideology. It is ironic that Republicans who oppose evolution may have an evolutionary reason for their position. Of course, this is assuming that people are evolving toward the liberal gene like the fully opposable thumb.

You now know why you feel that need to pledge to NPR, attend Earth Day events, and watch Countdown and Rachel Maddow. It is not your fault. It is in your genes.

The scientists isolated DRD4 on the double-helix of a DNA strand to reach their conclusions. It was not hard to find it was the gene: it was wearing Birkenstocks, a hemp-made shirt, and trying to “really understand” what the other genes were experiencing.

What is clear from President Obama’s positions on torture, privacy, and gay rights is that it is also clearly a recessive gene for some.

Lead researcher James H. Fowler, a professor of both medical genetics and political science at the University of California, San Diego says “[t]he way openness is measured, it’s really about receptivity to different lifestyles, for example, or different norms or customs. . . . We hypothesize that individuals with a genetic predisposition toward seeking out new experiences [a measure of openness] will tend to be more liberal.”

While some may challenge that as a bit of a stretch, my concern is ideologically designed babies. Of course, since opposition to stem cell research and biogenetics is part of the belief structure for some conservatives, they are the least likely to ask for DRD4 to be removed from embryos. However, what of those pesky biogenetic loving libs? Could Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi be working at this very time on an army of test-tube liberal babies? Learn the answer on the next Glenn Beck Show.

Source: NBC

Jonathan Turley

111 thoughts on “The Eugene McCarthy Gene: Scientists Say DRD4 Drives Ideology”

  1. I think those of us with the liberbal DRD4 are all gene-iuses.

    I heard that scientists have also discovered a “conservative” gene. They call it YRU1.

  3. Byron,

    Bach wrote\dedicated\performed the Brandenburgs in hopes of getting a job as a court composer in Brandenburg. The fifth concerto has a (as I understand it) difficult harpsichord solo in it that he wrote specifically to show off his abilities.

  4. Gyges?Blouise:

    since you guy/gal are the resident muscians what did you both just say?

    My education is severly lacking in the arts.

  5. Gyges
    1, October 29, 2010 at 11:39 am
    Brandenburg #5, also known as the “If you hired me you’d have a harpsichordist who could play this” Concerto.

    Think of the Brandenburgs as a resume.
    ================================================================

    love it! lol

  6. Brandenburg #5, also known as the “If you hired me you’d have a harpsichordist who could play this” Concerto.

    Think of the Brandenburgs as a resume.

  8. From the article:

    However, the, subjects were only more likely to have leanings to the left if they were also socially active during adolescence.

    It is the crucial interaction of two factors — the genetic predisposition and the environmental condition of having many friends in adolescence — that is associated with being more liberal,” according to the study.

    Does this mean that the gene led to having more friends?

    Does this mean that if you didn’t have many friends, but had the gene, it makes you more open to non-liberal idealogy (or none at all)?

    I would think the cliquish nature of adolescents would mitigate against many becoming liberal. Which would explain a great deal.

  9. Byron and Bda,

    Today is a Sibelius day for me … Finlandia fits my mood (google it and take a listen, you’ll see what I mean)

    “I often wonder as the natives become restless do the gods then become angry.”(Bda) … I am either putting much negativity into the ethereal world or I am drawing negativity from the ethereal world … angry gods are a definite possibility!

    (The link was beautiful and stark all at the same time and a little scary)

  10. Blouise I was kidding about a month ago when you said I needed to move North and I said ours is coming to an end but yours is just starting. Sorry for your grey day. We look to end the season November 30 with one maybe two storms not including To-Mas,latest forecast moves it over Eastern Cuba Jamaica and Hispaniola. The poor people of Haiti after all that money was raised, now along with an outbreak of Cholera WILL have to deal with To-Mas.

    I often wonder as the natives become restless do the gods then become angry. Think Ghost Busters, the more negativity created the stronger the force becomes. It seems storms and natural disasters are happening more frequently. Think about what we’ve seen in the last several years and it continues today with the number of lives lost in yesterdays Tsunami.

    Here’s the latest look back as we ponder that question.

    http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goescolor/goeseast/overview2/color_lrg/latestfull.jpg

    Click anywhere to zoom 🙂

  11. Blousie:

    the sun is shining, the wind is blowing, the leaves are turning and Antonin Dvorák’s Symphony #8 in G Major, Op. 88 is on the radio.

    3 out of 4 aint bad, I find myself not much into Dvorak at least this piece. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #5 was just on and I was jamming to that.

    I enjoy music but have no depth of knowledge in that subject.

  14. Blouise:

    Orange John, he must have gone to Syracuse. Dont you pronounce Boehner as boner? as in one big . . .

  16. As long as DRD4 doesn’t open my mind too much … I don’t want to like Glen Beck or all of a sudden be able to understand how Sarah Palin thinks or turn orange like John Boehner … I’ll take some.

  17. Given that my older brother apparently lacks DRD4, perhaps through us Beck and O’Donnell can see neandertals evolving into humans before their very eyes.

  19. Well if it is a real gene (and it seems about half of discovered genes turn out to be not so clear cut) it may not be structural, it may just help produce a product (like a hormone) on an ongoing basis that makes people more liberal; like oxytocin makes people more trusting.

    It would be interesting to see what percentage of people have it. The fact that they think not everybody has it (or it wouldn’t distinguish one group from another) implies some sort of survival advantage for each mode; liberal vs. non-liberal. Kind of like left-handed vs. right-handed.

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