Fourth of July turns kids into Republicans

What a great story about a stunning conclusion by a Harvard study on the effects of Fourth of July parades. No, really, I'm not making this up. I thought these two observations pretty much said it all:

Resistance is futile, and if you resist, you don’t get any hot dogs-by John Hayward: U.S. News brings us word of an important new Harvard study, which has concluded that Fourth of July parades are a form of right-wing brainwashing that “energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day.”

"Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation's political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party ... The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century. 

Survey evidence also confirms that Republicans consider themselves more patriotic than Democrats. Fourth of July celebrations in Republican dominated counties may thus be more politically biased events that socialize children into Republicans," write the Harvard Kennedy School.

According to the study, attending Fourth of July celebrations increases the likelihood of people younger than 18 identifying as a Republican by at least 2 percent, and raises the likelihood that parade watchers will vote for Republican candidates by 4 percent.  It also increases the chances that Fourth of July celebrants will vote by 1 percent.  These effects are said to be “surprisingly” enduring, with “no evidence of the effects depreciating as individuals become older.”

Or this from the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Jim Galloway, Political Insider:

Beware: If you go to a Fourth of July celebration on Monday, your kids are statistically more likely to end up Republican. Harvard University says so. From the press release: Read the real, honest-to-God study here. This was the key to their methodology:

In their paper, the researchers use a simple but novel strategy to address these problems: they use historical data on rainfall on Fourth of July. When it rains children and their parents are less likely to participate and the events are often cancelled.

Moreover, since rain is a random event, some children growing up experience nice weather and are more likely to celebrate, while others are hit by bad weather making it less likely that they join the festivities. This allows the researchers to isolate the effect of attending the celebrations from other important factors such as family background and education.

Just another big day in the life of flag pin patriots.