I am so jealous of anyone who has grown up in a liberal family. My god. I got into it hard with my brother and my mom today. My mom had three miscarriages and is super prolife. My brother is a libertarian. I work with both of them. I spent two hours explaining how Romney stands NO chance at winning the electoral college, but it still boiled down to me 'being wrong' and them being right. I love them and hate them at the same time.
It's the power of people who have never really learned what actual critical thinking or objectivity is. Generally, people like that are given to magical thinking. Things happen because you want them to happen, and if you want them to happen bad enough, they will. And things you don't want to happen won't happen if you convince yourself they won't.
There's no higher thought going on there; it's like trying to get inside the head of someone who has kept one eye closed for their entire life and can't comprehend what stereo vision is. If they ever opened their other eye, there would be actual reorganizations of neural connections and they would literally think in a different way.
People say it's just subjects like politics and religion that cause many folks to act that way. In my experience those subjects just bring out the irrational thinking more easily - it's always there. But usually confined to subjects that are "harmless". Or go unnoticed.
There's an otherwise nice older woman I know, the mother of a friend, who always votes republican because she's totally on the fear bandwagon. Is terrified of everything in life. Whenever it rains, she won't leave her house. Because in the yard there's a 200 year old split oak tree. A century ago it was hit by lightning. The nice lady is convinced that because that tree was hit by lightning a century ago, there's an extremely likely chance lighting will strike it again, and so you're in grave danger if you stand outside in that yard in the rain. Even if there's no thunderclouds and static in the air.
It's pure fear, combined with no experiencing thinking in a logical framework.