Voting

Are you voting Republican or Democrat? One question will decide. Whether you prefer tradition or change. If you are like the majority of voters (more than 80%), deciding for which party to vote is a traditional endeavor. You will vote for the same party that your "tribe" has traditionally voted for. If you are an independent voter (less than 20%), you will vote based on whether you prefer tradition or change. 

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As a human, you are an emotional creature. Emotions comes first; reasons follow. If you are like most people, you already know for which party you will vote. You are programmed to stay with your pack. Your instinct will be to stay with your pack. 

If you are like most voters. none of the arguments or "reasons" of the times will change your mind. You are all set. Your political party affiliation is part of your self image and your understanding of who you are. Your political affiliation is already an integral part of the tribal construct of reality ("us vs them") in which your primate brain operates. You will not risk leaving the pack. You will not risk being cast away. After all, you truly believe that your party is the "good" one while the other one is the "bad" one. 

Regardless of any rhyme or reason, if you are like most people, you are dead set on your political party. Supporting your party is how your brain tries to protect yourself. You will vote for whatever your brain perceives will be in your best interest. That is, whatever your brain perceives will help you survive and thrive by bringing you more pleasure and less pain. 

Your brain will perceive that staying with your traditional pack or tribe is safer than venturing out. That's why specific segments of the population (e.g. rural poor, urban poor) are so predictable. Humans stay within their packs. People vote for safety in numbers. People vote for their safety and wellbeing. That begins with supporting your own "tribe". 

Invariably, humans see their tribes as the "good" one, while the other rival tribes are the "bad" one. You will rationalize your emotional need of belonging and being safe. You will honestly and wholeheartedly believe that that your side is the "good" one and that the other side is the "evil" one.  

If you are an independent voter, your brain will sort these issues emotionally. Your brain will judge which political party gives you better odds of surviving and thriving; the best odds of gaining more pleasure and feeling less pain. That primitive pain/pleasure assessment explains everything humans and all other animals do. 

If you are an independent voter, it means that you do not identify with any specific political "pack". You will be hunting and gathering information to feed your emotional needs. Based on your emotions (not to be confused with reasons), you will decide whether supporting tradition serves you better than supporting change. There is a party that traditionally stands for tradition. There is a party that traditionally stands for change. Those are your two options and choice to make. 

You will decide based on your emotional self interests. You will decide for the party that your brain believes will better protect and serve you. For some, tradition (i.e. doing things like they were done in past) feels safer (more pleasurable and less painful) than change. After all, we have survived that way and our past was "great". For others, changing (doing things differently in the future) feels safer (more pleasurable and less painful) than tradition. After all, we have survived by changing and adapting. 

In politics, perception is reality. The perception is that one party is more for free enterprise than the other. The perception is that one party is more for women and minorities than the other. The perception i that one party is more for religious people than the other. The perception is that one party is more rural and Southern than the other. The perception is that one party is more urban and Yankee than the other.  There are many, many contrasting perceptions. To what extent they hold true is debatable. 

If you vote, you will vote based on your brain's unconscious and emotional perceptions about what is in your best interests. Whatever "reasons" you provide to explain your vote are mere rationalizations of an emotional decision based on fear and greed. Likewise, if you don't vote it is because your brain concluded that you are emotionally safer not getting into the emotional pain of politics. For example, you may be so afraid of losing, that you may decide not to play or not to vote. 

Your voting decision will be emotional rather than rational. You will rationalize it with the arguments and excuses of the day, but it will be an emotional decision based on fear and greed. Your brain will unconsciously decide for you based on what it believes will help you survive and thrive.

Food for thought. What do you think?

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