“Stupid” theme spreads
PHOTO CC: Craig Jewell some rights reserved
In “Making America Stupid” New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman writes today that the Republicans at their convention chanting “drill, baby, drill!” makes as much sense as, at the dawn of the Internet and IT revolution, chanting “typewriters, baby, typewriters!” It focuses enthusiasm in the wrong direction, and for all the wrong reasons.
“I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It’s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue — including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.”
Read the entire Friedman column here
There will be, I predict, a lot more hand-wringing from pundits and commentators as they try to explain why obvious lies and distortions from McCain’s camp, even when they are exposed, continue to help Republican poll numbers. Nobody really wants to label American voters “dumb” or “stupid,” and indeed, those words are not going to build any bridges or encourage people to learn more about the issues. That kind of characterization just makes folks more defensive, and entrenched in an “us/them” paradigm.
A better way to see it: the swing voters that the candidates are now competing for (”undecideds” and “independents”) are not operating on the FACT level. They are on the IDENTITY level, where WHO you are is more important than WHAT you believe. And these voters are now hypnotized by the imagery: a strong, confident lady-leader has joined a reform-minded, plain-talking war hero … and they’re going to “shake things up!”
Can Obama break this spell?
UPDATE: And the meme goes on, in this concise overview of the current economic mess: James Moore asks: Are we a nation of village idiots?
