The naturalistic explanation of politics makes all these notions plain as day -- to those who buy into the naturalistic explanation of politics: everything a function of self-interest and inner emotion. Shall we not overlook the race card lying on the table? The argument is, unless the NAACP gets every item on its agenda, those who vote to deny that agenda are crypto-slave holders. Oh, can't you just see Bush stalking the cotton fields, with bullwhip in hand, seeking to scourge the slackers and, especially, those slaves with some perversely exalted notion of human rights?
The naturalistic explanation of political preference is just now the biggest obstacle to anything like political reconciliation. If you know your opponents, of either party, are a bunch of no-goods, acting out their base instincts, you can write them off. In fact, you can commence calling them all sorts of bad names -- starting with "liars."
The naturalistic explanation of political preference shouts down Reason and, along with it, the religious understanding of society as a mass of men and women all in the same boat, spiritually speaking -- none as righteous as he thinks, all burdened in greater or lesser degree by that old affliction our ancestors called sin. But, hey, this isn't a church. It's churches -- right? -- that want to shackle free thought and turn our minds and schools over to fundamentalists.
You hear such things, indeed: one more reminder of how public discourse falls apart once you begin to flagellate opponents on grounds of their shaky relationship to decency, honor, everything you've got, but not they; oh, no, not they, or they'd see things your way.
Try nailing down an argument harder, tighter, than with that alluring hammer.