At Last, Proof of My Complete and Utter Sanity

A survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. . . . 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.’” . . .

Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election. . . .

For his part, Lohse is a self-described “Reagan revolution fanatic” but said that W. is just “beyond the pale.”