Have you ever seen a Mac vs. PC debate? I encounter them a lot. Each side passionately believes that their operating system is superior. Each has an excellent rationalization for why their system is superior, but you can tell from people's tone that really the conflict is emotional, and that the factual arguments flying back and forth will never convince anyone.
Anyway, one of these debates sprang up during a guitar orchestra rehearsal. To get us back on track, the teacher said "Shall we end the religious debate and get back to practice?"
Strictly, preference in operating system isn't a religion, since it doesn't help explain the world. Though he may not have realized it, the insight that my guitar teacher had was that preference in operating systems is a deeply held opinion that we pick up from those around us, especially our parents, and sometimes confuse for a fact.
Cullen briefly referred the Declaration and the Constitution as America's "political religion." We learn from the OS story that a preference for democracy is an opinion that is ingrained so deeply in American culture that it may be confused for fact. No amount of logic will change anyone's position; in this kind of argument reason is a tool used to justify the party line. This religion isn't a complete religion either--it doesn't ban otherwise enjoyable activities--but this view of political systems does show that justifications from political science are ultimately irrelevant. Politics is really a question of culture.
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