Liberals may be crying now, but Repubs cried as kids
By Jessica Fargen
Thursday, March 23, 2006 - Updated: 02:28 AM EST
And you thought liberals were the whiners.
Turns out the young men and women who are complainers and tattletales as little ones become big conservatives later on in life, according to an ultra-liberal West Coast team.
The University of California-Berkeley study, which has been attacked by campus Republicans, followed 95 boys and girls from nursery school into their early 20s, observing their behavior throughout to see who lined up on the right and who was on the left.
Kids who turned into bleeding hearts were “self-reliant, energetic and resilient,” as tykes, according to the study.
The conservative kids felt easily victimized, “indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, and relatively over-controlled and vulnerable,” according to the 16-page document published in the Journal of Research in Personality.
At least one liberal politician in Boston has his doubts.
Growing up, you took your political cues from mom and dad, said state Sen. Jack Hart (D-South Boston), proud papa of four girls under age 9.
“If you were to ask most people out there what party affiliation they were and why, many would say ‘That’s what my mother and father were,’ ” Hart said. “I think it’s more society and more so what happens in the family.”
Over on the left coast, the study has some college Republicans whining. The Berkeley campus GOP group called the study “a wanton waste of resources” and a “frivolous display of intolerance.”
The study’s author, retired UC Berkeley professor Jack Block, is not commenting, according to the school’s press office.
One Burlington mom says she hasn’t given the future political persuasion of her 21-month-old daughter a thought.
Maria Sturdevant just knows that her little girl is outgoing.
“My daughter is very independent,” Sturdevant said. “Even though I stay home with her all day, she doesn’t cling to me. I would say 90 percent of the time she’s out there like, ‘Mommy who?’ ”
According to the study, she’s a budding Democrat.
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