Last night I attended a lecture at Albuquerque Academy by Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center.
She’s a brilliant observer of the press and the public dialogue. She intervenes to improve both through her books, reports, appearances on TV and via factcheck.org.
So why was her presentation on "Fact and Politics" so sad?
First, she talked about educating the voters to see through the "labeling" of bills and issues, to defend themselves against "facts" that are fictitious and to be wary of "scare" tactics.
Also, she lamented journalists’ habits of using "balance" in lieu of fact-finding as well as portraying elections as "horse races." (Rightly so, though she failed to put those bad habits in the context of corporate news mediums.)
Her goal, she said, was more "critical thinking" in the electorate.
In other words, Jamieson was unfailingly rational.
What’s wrong with that?
I will die before the electorate becomes rational. So will Jamieson. You, too.
Surely after this last election, in which the True Believer (aided by cynics, true) defeated the Rationalist, it should be clear that humans do not choose their leaders by a rational process.
They respond to emotion, to will, to vibrations negative and positive, as well as to rational argument.
George W. Bush believes in himself (the power of religion?), in corporate ownership of America and in an imperial foreign policy. That belief – not the specific policies - is the fundamental reason he won.
This assault from True Believers (on the right) is why liberals are now in some disarray. True, liberals can get as lost in ideology as anybody else, but they are – by definition – dedicated to rational problem - solving.
Sorry, but the forces of Belief are stronger than the forces of Disbelief. Always have been. Consider the history of religion. Not just the godly kind, but the secular (Communism). Even the Enlightenment rose on the wings of Belief.
So liberals are torn. They can reply to the Thunder of True Believers with rational (read, timid, emotionally unsatisfying) arguments. Or they can commit to their own Gospel and throw their own Lightning Bolts. But that makes them feel as if they are being irrational, simplistic, opportunistic, even True Believers!
So they dither – see the Kerry campaign – and they lose.
I appreciate Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s mind and spirit and idealism. It’s just that her approach – misstating the nature of humans - cannot prevail.
Which is why it was a sad evening.