Sunday, February 1, 2015

Cycle

I like this post from a couple of days ago by Charlie Pierce on Jim Webb's sometimes bigfooted attempts to appeal to working class voters. This paragraph especially speaks to me.
Sooner or later, it's up to the voters to decide to stop being stupid about their own self-interest, and to stop falling for scams about how the Poors and Browns are the ones stealing all their money.
One of the frustrating things about politics - I'm not sure if it's specific to this country or just a general fact of life - is that if you want people to stop being stupid and you can objectively prove they have been , you still can't come out and say it. In fact elections in America often come down to who can more strongly affirm the innate wisdom of the voter. And all sorts of adjacent ass-kissing.

3 comments:

susan said...

It was H.L. Mencken who said: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

I think this is likely to be universally true when it comes to any attempt to change people's firmly held opinions.

susan said...

ps: Of course, it might be very helpful in the US if Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren got more airtime.

Ben said...

Mencken could surely be glib but he could be a sharp observer too. And yes, opinions are... what they are.

Sanders will be attempting to make his case in an uphill presidential race. Warren appears to be skipping that. Curious to which of them gets their message out better in the next couple of years.