SUPER TUESDAY

Politics! Politics! Politics!

Unless a person chooses to avoid all media, this 2016 political “circus” is in our faces.

There has never been a campaign for the presidency like this one. The polls change daily.

GOP candidates shout at each other. Name-calling is frequent. While Democratic candidates 

debate issues. Makes a person wonder if this process is occurring on two different planets.

Fact-check resources work overtime to sort the true statements from the chaff. Sifting through exaggerations and out-and-out un-truths.  Almost as though these campaigns are about candidates’ personalities – and have little to do with any qualifications a person might have for the hardest job in the world.

Is it too much reality-show television drama, being voted off the island. Programming, which has so filled many people’s minds, that has blurred the distinction between entertainment and realities of our daily lives/the problems in the world?

Is it ignorance? Moving from the Midwest to the East coast, I used to laugh at New Yorkers’ version of the country’s geography. There was NYC and there was southern California. To go from one place to the other, one flew over a large void. Some enterprising soul even designed T-shirts with this limited perception of our country’s varied geographical culture.

When ordinary folks are asked basic questions about national and world issues, they typically score low. Who is the Prime Minister of Canada? Name five countries in Asia – or Europe. What is the most pressing problem facing this country? Is climate change a real phenomenon – or a conspiracy?

One contributing factor may be the theory of groupthink, researched by Irving Janis and a number of social psychologists. Close-mindedness and pressures toward uniformity are typical. Warnings are ignored when they challenge beliefs (climate change?). Stereotyping others are who “different” (anti-Muslim attitudes and white racism?). Direct pressure often is applied on anyone who appears to deviate from groupthink beliefs.

One of my favorite experiments is to gather together a group of ordinary people. Everyone is “in on it” but one person. Group members discuss some misstatement. The lone person, who is not “in the know,” is first confused about the obvious. Gradually, that person succumbs to the mistaken belief. Great fun as an experiment. Not fun at all when it happens in real life. I imagine all of us have had the experience of reluctantly embracing a point of view – leaving an odd, queasy sense in the pit of our stomachs.

However, there is another underlying dynamic: fear. Fear easily converted to hatred. We live in a rapidly changing time. Technology, perennial war, issues of immigration, rouge leaders, terrorism, and almost daily school-shootings.  And it becomes easy to lose perspective in a world in which we instantly learn of world events. Making it not difficult for a “smart” person to exploit our fears.

It is said it took Benjamin Franklin four months to learn of the end of the revolutionary war – because it took that long for a ship to sail from here to France. The Gulf War was said to be the first war viewed as it was happening on our television screens. The instant information made possible by the click of a button would boggle the mind of a Rip van Winkle! 

As people make their way to their primaries and caucuses today, everyone will be carrying a huge load of information – and misinformation. Who will win their votes? 

Politics! Politics! Politics!