I’m grateful that when NBC called Ohio for Obama the first thing our election night party did was change the channel to see how Fox News was handling themselves – as we all know now… they did not take it well.
(… Dislike preambles? Jump To: Overcome Conspiracy Theory Politics for 2014 … )
If I had not seen it in real time, I don’t know if I would have believed it. I could not have imagined the absurdity denying reality on national television.
Yes, on November 6th, 2012 Barack Obama won a second term as President of the United States, and the Democrats had a pretty good night… but the real news from election night was that the right wing information bubble exploded on live TV. Even if just for a little while they were forced to look at the Truth about who lives in this country and what the majority of us believe.
“The Architect,” Karl Rove, spent 400 million dollars trying to win the election for Mitt Romney and the Republicans Party… and got his arse handed to him – and he REFUSED to believe it. Following in their job, Fox went along with it for awhile – “… well, if Karl says it ain’t true… then as always we’ll do what he says… and no that doesn’t seem biased in any way even though he spent 400 million in this election for the republicans…”
The republican “talk only to each other” bubble burst on live television and it was an amazing thing to watch. Proof that facts can, in reality, overcome conspiracies. How do we use that for the 2014 election? As I mentioned in an earlier post: there’s only a little time to communicate with the extreme right before the walls of unreality are built up again (or as Megyn Kelly put it “Is this just math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better?”).
Beyond electing Nate Silver to the cabinet as the Secretary of Protecting Reality, there are some things that can be done for the 2014 and 2016 elections in order to bring continue shrinking and occasionally popping republican conspiracy bubble “our own truth to make us feel better” bubble.
The 2012 General Election proved that (with a lot of hard work) facts can overrule conspiracy theories – which is not an easy thing to do since conspiracies require belief against proof and border on religion for many on the far right information bubble. What America needs to do, not just democrats, is keep pushing it through the 2014 midterm elections. As mentioned earlier, democrats get complacent in their post-success partying, but if you do that, then that give more time for the republican bubble to re-fortify itself. For the sake of the country, you cannot let that happen.
For the first time in 4 years, at least for one magical night, all Americans were operating under the same foundation of reality. We all had some deviations thereafter, but at least the foundation was the same. Now it’s our job to keep the foundation the same for the 2014 and 2016 elections – we can’t allow a re-creation of the far-right, super-isolated information bubble.
How to overcome conspiracy theory politics: Facts > Fervor
First, we must admit: you cannot bring everyone back to reality. There will ALWAYS be people on the extremes of all political parties who treat politics like a war, rather than an operational structure to run and improve a country, county, or city. Trusting facts also means we have to trust the fact that people who see politics as an ideological war will never join the discussion or contribute in any sort of meaningful way.
All extremists on either side of the aisle do is hold ideas and projects hostage as leverage – to prove (to themselves and donors) how much they are able to “hold true to their beliefs” when all they’re doing is creating more problems.
You can keep a seat at the table for the ideological hostage-takers if you want to – but the bottom line is that people (we humans) actually do create certain parts of our own realities, which means it’s impossible to get everyone to see the same color blue in the sky, the same beauty in Jazz, or the same motivation behind policy-making. Our goal is to get as many people as possible to at least be using the same reality foundation… that is what can create an environment that fosters progress.
Facts are not as fun as the fervor of conspiracy and paranoia. As such, it takes a lot more work and a lot more time for facts to pop all of the conspiracy bubbles. (Just look at the child-like lashing out on Twitter by the king birther himself, Donal Trump, on election night). His behavior was classic “no, honey, Santa Clause isn’t real” knee-jerk, angry denial. BUT the bubble burst, even if just for a moment (he deleted the tweets, that’s a starting point of acknowledging reality).
I’ll say it again: it takes a lot more work and a lot more TIME for Facts and Truth to overcome the fervor intensity of conspiracy and paranoia. It’s needs to be an ongoing and constant process – more often than every presidential election.
Facts and math aren’t fun (though they can make Nate Silver a hero). Conspiracies and information bubbles designed to make people feel better can take off running at am Usain Bolt pace. It’s for that reason why I’m so adamant about democrats being aggressive from the day after the election all the way through the 2014 midterm elections: sell Obamacare, talk about medicare, talk about education, send out a mailer to every US citizen that defines what privatization of medicare and social security means, talk about what capitalism in American really is, talk about how policies have tangible impacts on citizens, talk about abortion, talk about civil rights, and above all else, talk about Freedom.
Democrats can can eliminate the republican rhetorical strong hold on “Freedom” if they stick to the facts and don’t stop the drive up the field.
Accept that you can’t win everyone (at least by not by the 2014 midterm election), but a little bit of the veil has been lifted so the country has a chance to get everyone onto the same reality page. There are extreme democrats who will never come to the table, and there are extreme republicans who will never come to the table – but that’s OK – if through relentless “Facting” we can get 70% of the country at least willing to LISTEN to one another during the next election… what an accomplishment that would be.
Politics doesn’t “happen” only every 4 years. It’s happening every day. Every hour.
To everyone who wants Washington to function as a honorable government: Facts over Fervor. Start now and don’t stop – 2014 isn’t very far away.
Published: by | Updated: 03-31-2014 19:08:33
