Why arent Animal Rights ever an issue in presidential politics?

[athena]

95. Because the vast majority of people still have major cognitive dissonance on this issue.

Posting a pro-vegan argument on DU, for example, is a sure way to get flamed to the point where you begin to wish you were never born.

Indeed, even posting about a vegan meat substitute in the Vegan forum will get you attacked by meat eaters who feel insecure about their choices and feel the need to try to justify them.

Just mentioning that you're vegetarian at a party will get you surrounded by meat eaters grilling you with questions about the supposed dangers of a vegan or vegetarian diet, while trying desperately to justify their own "reasonableness" in eating animals.

Fortunately, things are changing. More people are finding their conscience (as I did 3.5 years ago). The topic may not come up in debates, but news items like this one show that factory farms are feeling the pressure of an increasingly growing number of people who refuse to support them by buying their products.