Harvard Study States that Children Attending July 4th Parades Become Republicans

Where would you expect a study like this to originate? The stoic, ivy-adorned halls of Harvard University of course. Two individuals, being billed as "scientists" and "researchers", Andreas Madestam and David Yanagizawa-Drott, have released their study, which basically finds that children who attend July 4th parades and activities, are 2% more likely to grow up and vote Republican. The paper's abstract states:

Do childhood events shape adult political views and behavior? This paper investigates the impact of Fourth of July celebrations in the US during childhood on partisanship and participationlater in life. Using daily precipitation data to proxy for exogenous variation in participation onFourth of July as a child, we examine the role of the celebrations for people born in 1920-1990.We find that days without rain on Fourth of July in childhood have lifelong effects. In particular, they shift adult views and behavior in favor of the Republicans and increase later-lifepolitical participation. Our estimates are significant: one Fourth of July without rain beforeage 18 raises the likelihood of identifying as a Republican by 2 percent and voting for theRepublican candidate by 4 percent. It also increases voter turnout by 0.9 percent and boostspolitical campaign contributions by 3 percent. Taken together, the evidence suggests that important childhood events can have persistent effects on political beliefs and participation andthat Fourth of July celebrations in the US affect the nation’s political landscape.

So the next logical step of course, is to ban parades; and outlaw all sign of patriotism altogether. We damn sure can't have kids growing up Republican!

Report: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/dyanagi/Research/FourthOfJuly.pdf