I made a couple of posts about the Democrats/Progressives and their views on breast implants. It is worth looking at the history of implants.

There are two types on implants used today. Both are silicon shells. One is filled with silicon gel, the other with sterile water. The gel gives a more natural feel. The water-filled implants are supposed to be harder, giving an artificial feel to the breast (I've never felt one myself). The gel-filled implants are only available women having reconstructive surgery. Women who get cosmetic surgery have to take the water-filled ones.

Back in the 1970s and 80s most or all implants were gel-filled. Then a woman came down with crippling joint problems after receiving implants that leaked gel into her body. She concluded that the gel caused her health problems. Her story got enough coverage that other women with implants and joint problems heard about it and came forward. The FDA re-evaluated the implants and issued new rules. Dow, the maker of the implants, was sued and agreed to a huge settlement.

This is the limits of the Democrats knowledge about implants. There is a lot more to it.

First, studies were done on the incidence of joint problems for women with implants and women in general. No increased risk was discovered. Millions of women have implants so hundreds of them will develop a fairly rare condition. They would have developed it anyway.

The FDA acknowedged that implants are safe. They never withdrew them from the market. They only limited who could get them. This was made on ideological grounds, not medical ones.

As for ideology - an early tenet of feminism was that women should be judged for their brains, not their bodies. Beauty contests and breast implants angered feminists.

A few thoughts here:

• intelligence is as much an accident of genetics as beauty so why prefer one over the other?
• Beauty seems to be a universal trait. Numerous studies have shown that there is a universal standard for beauty. This implies that attraction to beauty is an inborn trait. Trying to socialize it out of men will not happen.
• The TV audience for beauty pageants is around 80% women. Feminists have never squared this with their assertion that the contests are a meat market for men.
• Most women who get breast implants (not counting stripper) insist that they are doing it for their own self-esteem, not because they want to look better for men.

Keep in mind that the Democrats and the feminists embarrassed each other's values. That means that a properly socialized Democrat thinks that breast implants are bad regardless of health concerns.

Last year one of the manufacturers of silicon breast implants petitioned the FDA to allow them to be used again. They produced a number of studies showing no risk to the recipients. The FDA was expected to allow this but, unexpectedly, turned them down - apparantly for ideological reasons.

The Democrats'/Progressives' reaction to breast implants is symptomatic of a larger problem. They combine a mind-set from the 1980s with some flawed science and turn it into a cause. Look at other issues that they treat the same way - global warming, gun control, school vouchers, world trade, mass transit, acid rain, and a host of other environmental issues. In each case, the Democrats' ideology and a poor understanding of the issue combines to put them on the wrong side of the issue.

Republicans/conservatives do this somewhat, also, but not as often. One reason is that conservative think tanks take a close look at issues. Another reason is that the left tends to be more reactionary - they look for things to get upset about. Conservatives are more skeptical.

This doesn't always apply but conservatives are more likely to get upset about religion and moral questions rather than bad science. The creation/evolution debate is one where conservatives are on the wrong side.

A friend was in the American Communist Party in the late 1960s/early 1970s. He dropped out because they spent so much time justifying the policies of the USSR that they never came up with any policies relevant to the USA.

There is an old saying that "perfect is the enemy of good enough." When pursuing goals as a political party you start losing people once you reach that "good enough" state. The major causes of the Democratic Party - labor rights, racial equality, gender equality, environmental protection - have all made significant strides. While activists pursue "perfect", many of their foot soldiers have proclaimed "good enough" and gone on to other issues.

This left Howard Dean flailing last year. He was trying to appeal to traditional Democrat values but he got no traction from them.

This is why congressional Democrats are left opposing Bush without offering anything of their own. They want to return a mindset that predated Clinton moderation and triangulation but that leaves them stuck in the 1980s.

So we have well-meaning Democrats dismissing all women who want breast implants as strippers and insisting that research on the subject cannot possibly be correct.