One of the principal traits of conservatives — that label is not used liberally — and anything GOPish is the great presence of fear: the Republican-upchuck fright-inducing phrase to the ignorant, ‘government takeover,’ has been crowned the 2010 Lie of the Year.
As Greg Sargent noted the noteworthiness of the lie: The obvious reason is that it’s catchy and packs a lot of fear-mongering into only two words. But the real key to it, I think, is that it’s simultaneously very hard to challenge.
Fear is a vapor made solid by lying lips.

(Illustration found here).

Last February, the GOP even stated the obvious in a memo instructed to use “fear” as a source so that “ego-driven” Republican donors could be bilked by a campaign of fear and the promise that only the Republicans could “save the country from trending toward socialism.”
Using fear even on its own kind — the ultimate fear mongering.

Why all the pants-shitting fright?
Well, people who tend to wallow to the right side of things just might have been born scared.
A new study out of the UK reveals these clowns might be “hard-wired” within their own brains to be frightful of all kinds of shit, and are unable to feel safe.
From the Telegraph (h/t Raw Story):

Scientists have found that people with conservative views have brains with larger amygdalas, almond shaped areas in the centre of the brain often associated with anxiety and emotions.
On the otherhand, they have a smaller anterior cingulate, an area at the front of the brain associated with courage and looking on the bright side of life.

(See illustration above).

The “exciting” correlation was found by scientists at University College London who scanned the brains of two members of parliament and a number of students.
They found that the size of the two areas of the brain directly related to the political views of the volunteers.
However as they were all adults it was hard to say whether their brains had been born that way or had developed through experience.
…
Prof Geraint Rees, who led the research, said: “We were very surprised to find that there was an area of the brain that we could predict political attitude.
“It is very surprising because it does suggest there is something about political attitude that is encoded in our brain structure through our experience or that there is something in our brain structure that determines or results in political attitude.”

And in a related topic, another study released this past October suggests there’s also a “liberal gene” found in progressives that might explain some left-leaning political views.
On obtaining this ‘gene,’ people must have had an active social life in adolescence and be a bit open-minded about shit.

Lead researcher James H. Fowler of UC San Diego and his colleagues hypothesized that people with the novelty-seeking gene variant would be more interested in learning about their friends’ points of view.
As a consequence, people with this genetic predisposition who have a greater-than-average number of friends would be exposed to a wider variety of social norms and lifestyles, which might make them more liberal than average.
They reported that “it is the crucial interaction of two factors — the genetic predisposition and the environmental condition of having many friends in adolescence — that is associated with being more liberal.”
The research team also showed that this held true independent of ethnicity, culture, sex or age.

Right-wing, wing-nutters need more friends, and they need to get out more — and not be so scared of every damn thing.
Hey! Is that guy Muslim or Mexican?
Just kiddin’ and don’t be a freakin’ scaredy cat…