What is the relationship between the Iraq prison scandal, and the impulses that drive all of us, for good or bad, including those that have driven President Geroge W. Bush? In a Newsweek magazine story, reporter Brian Braiker interviews Michael Milburn, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, for an answer to that question.
Co-author of The Politics of Denial, Dr. Milburn explores factors determinant in forming political attitudes, the role of emotion in public opinion, and the effects of the mass media on political attitudes and social behaviour. When discussing President Bush’s formative experiences, Milburn offers …
Bush is really fascinating. There was a televised interview with Barbara Bush during the [2000] campaign. She was talking about her son and relating this one incident where he had come home drunk and his father was walking out to talk to him. W was saying, “OK Dad, right now, let’s do it.” Clearly there’s a tremendous amount of anger there. Not that this explains everything that’s going on, but it’s clearly, to me, a factor in his “I’m gonna get the guy who threatened my dad but I’m also going to show my dad that I can do stuff that he couldn’t do [attitude]”.
Anger and resentment appear to be playing an increasingly important role in politics. To what degree is the political process in the United States determined by unresolved negative emotions (such as fear, anger and helplessness) that remain from punitive parenting, and by the politicians and conservative religious leaders who exploit those emotions?
