Michael Smith

Every chance I get, I try to talk to people from the other side of the political spectrum as a sanity check in case I am missing something.

On Friday, I had a chance to talk to several Democrats I know personally and asked 1) are they supporting the Harris/Walz ticket and 2) if so, why?

Of those supporting (a couple were undecided), not a single one could name any positive reason that wasn't based on conjecture or was factually wrong. The negative reasons not to vote for Trump were basically the same - conjecture (he is going to be an authoritarian) or factually wrong (mostly coming from MSNBC).

Not a single one could name anything Harris had done as VP and none knew anything about Walz until last week.

They were completely unaware of the full context of many of the media clips they are being fed by MSNBC and the Harris campaign. When I told them I never take a quote from either side at face value, they looked surprised. I said I always go find a transcript or a full video, which typically takes a few minutes - when I asked if they ever did that, they said there was no need, if it wasn't true the media wouldn't report it.

I have one question I pose because it tells me how economically savvy they are - I ask if they or their kids wanted to rent an apartment or buy a house, what is more important, low interest rates and high inventory of homes and apartments or government subsidies and rent/interest controls.

None of them said the former, they all favored some sort of government aid or intervention in the housing markets. They were completely unaware that price controls create scarcity and make things more expensive rather than less.

When I said Obamacare did not lower the cost of health insurance, they didn't believe me. I had to show them that what people who qualified were paying was only a part of what the real premiums were and the taxpayer is making up the difference. Real insurance premiums have actually gone up with the taxpayer making up the difference.

"But incomes are up," one person said.

"Sure, but purchasing power is down," I replied. "Have you noticed that you have more money but can afford to buy less?"

Of the people supporting Harris, I asked an additional question - "Do you think Biden was a good president?"

Unsurprisingly, they said he was - and when I asked why, they named off the titles of the policies and EO's he executed but couldn't name the substance or any actual positive results. To a person, they claimed success wouldn't be seen until some point in the future and they blamed Republicans for blocking his policies, "greedy corporations" for inflation, and Trump for the national debt.

This was certainly a very small sample, but based on what I see in the media, it might be representative of the larger Democrat Party.

I've done this since the Clinton administration and I can say, at least anecdotally, this is the least informed/most misinformed Democrat group I have spoken with.

A very small subset were those who were undecided. I asked them if that meant they would vote for another candidate or not vote at all - all replied the most likely action would be the latter, they are thinking about not voting.

There is a huge knowledge gap out there and there seems to be even less curiosity about things than ever before. Giving people information is like giving them stuff, stuff given is less appreciated than stuff earned.

People need to do a little research on their own, in essence to earn what they know and not have it spoon fed to them, that's why I try to talk directly to people outside my world when I can.

Tim replies:

This reminds me of a little movie I saw once starring Jerry O'Connell and Sam Elliott named "The Ranger, the Cook and the Hole in the Sky". O'Connell is a brash young teenager and he works for the U.S. forest service. There's another kid working there who never has his own opinion; he simply parrots whatever someone else says. O'Connell confronts him:

"Did you ever in your life have an opinion that didn't bounce from somewhere else? I mean,did you ever look at all the available evidence, keep what you could prove, discard what you couldn't, and come up with your own original viewpoint?"

The kid replied:

"Why would I go to all that trouble?"

That is at least half of the entire electorate and all Democrats. It's just easier to accept the word of the media than to research and think and come up with your own position.

And it's inexcusable in an era where information is at your fingertips - but that has only made it worse as there is so much to be sifted through now and they suffer sensory overload. Easier to just let the media tell them what to think and internalize those views as their own. After all, it's the "majority view" in their minds and who wants to go against the majority?

In short they are herd animals and follow the leader. Herd animals are always prey.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 892 words, total size 5 kb.