The Pain Is Never as Bad as We Fear (Election Trauma) -WaPo

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111200676.html

The Pain Is Never as Bad as We Fear

By Shankar Vedantam
Monday, November 13, 2006; A02



Dear supporters of Republican politicians voted out of office: Yes, it feels terrible, but it won't feel this way for long.

That's the message Daniel Gilbert has for supporters of candidates who lost major races in Tuesday's elections. And while the Harvard psychologist is no fan of the current White House, he says the same goes for President Bush, who was unofficially downgraded by the election last week from lame duck to sitting duck.

In fact, there is an irony here, because Gilbert first learned what happens to supporters of candidates who lose elections a dozen years ago, when he was studying an election where the same George W. Bush was the winner.

In an experiment conducted among voters in Austin in 1994, Gilbert and his colleagues asked people to predict how they would feel if their candidate won or lost, in the race between Bush and Democratic Gov. Ann Richards.

Not surprisingly, supporters of both politicians predicted they would be devastated if their candidate lost and said they would be delighted with victory. Bush, of course, defeated Richards, setting him on a course that eventually led to the White House.

About a month after the 1994 election, Gilbert had researchers call the same voters to ask how they felt. Supporters of Bush said they were still delighted -- exactly in line with their prediction.

But supporters of Richards, who had said they would be devastated, were significantly happier than they had predicted.

"When partisans imagine being devastated when their candidate loses, they focus on how they will feel when they think about it," Gilbert said. "What they fail to realize is how seldom they think about it."




FUNNY, I KNOW LOTS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD A 6 YEAR, CONTINUING CRISIS: MORALLY, PSYCHOLOGICALLY, ECONOMICALLY, AND EVERY WHICH WAY, THANKS TO GOP WINS; AND HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ARE DEAD AT HOME AND ABROAD THANKS TO THE "BUSH"FIRES.

[MADem]

1. ...lame duck to sitting duck. Ain't THAT the truth!

Well, I have been MISERABLE since Bush stole the White House. Flat out miserable. Since the Dems took back the House and Senate, I have been sleeping better, and am much, much happier.

And I don't think I am the only one. Everyone I speak to says that a cloud has been lifted...

[Demeter]

2. IF GOPpers Were Honest With Themselves....

(if pigs had wings)


then they would know that their country and their own miserable little lives were going to be greatly improved by stopping the BushCo Team of Destruction, and their miserable puny religion would not suffer, either. They just couldn't jerk people around, make their neighbors suffer, and rob the public purse anymore.

Of course, where's the fun in that?

[beltanefauve]

3. Bullshit article

It minimizes the "pain" we went through having not one but two or even three (2002) elections stolen. And who could have predicted that this administration and it's policies would turn out to be worse than anyone ever imagined? All the while, we've been branded as un-American, traitors, un-patriotic, terrorist-appeasers, etc. on an ongoing basis for the last six years. And in 2000, did * say anything to the effect of, "For those of you who didn't vote for me, I want to assure you, that I am your President too."? Nope, it was a total coup the way they came into power. Where was the "healing" and the "catharsis" for us? Didn't happen. It's just been a series of one more insult, one more right stripped away, one more outrage on a daily basis, sealed with a smirk.