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Another Perspective
Take Nothing for Granted
The political classes should never assume that voters are ever in the know.
A to TAS commenter wrote yesterday, “Everybody KNOWS who Jeremiah Wright is.” I’d like to tell a couple of little stories about what people know. The first is set in Western Australia, in a fairly affluent suburb whose inhabitants’ general standard of education would, I guess, be at least equivalent to an average fairly affluent American suburb. Their houses were the houses of successful people. The state’s leading university was nearby.
I was out campaigning with Sir Charles Court for a coming state election. Sir Charles was premier of Western Australia (a position roughly equivalent to a U.S. governor — an Australian state governor is the Queen’s representative, a largely ceremonial figure unless he or she needs to sack a government and call an election. The premier is the elected chief executive.)
Before becoming premier, Sir Charles Court had been minister for industrial development, largely responsible for bringing in the huge iron-ore exporting projects in Western Australia’s North-West. Actually, a West Australian state premier is probably better known in that state than a US state governor is in his, because of WA’s isolation.
In the case of Sir Charles, he was undoubtedly the best-known face in West Australian politics. Probably no political figure in the country had done so much to create employment and prosperity. He had transformed the state’s economy and created whole new industries — big ones.
We knocked on a number of doors. “Good afternoon, I am Charles Court.” “Yeah?” It was obvious that at least a considerable number of the people — who I emphasize were not hillbilly types, but had shiny cars, well-tended lawns, and nature strips, and every appearance of competence, literacy and prosperity — had never heard of him, or at least did not recognize him. When I expressed amazement at this to Sir Charles, he told me it happened every time he went door-knocking. He sometimes deliberately took young politicians with him to teach them humility.
Story No. 2: I am at present writing the biography of another Australian politician, C. R “Bert” Kelly, another figure who transformed Australian politics and transformed Australia’s economy for the better. He was elected in the late 1950s and sat in Parliament for about 20 years, fighting what was at first a virtually single-handed battle for lower tariff-barriers. During and after his parliamentary career he wrote well over a thousand articles for major papers and several books, and made countless speeches in and outside Parliament.
Tariffs were, at the time he entered federal Parliament, an article of faith in the community and strongly supported by the long-term deputy prime minister, John McEwen, who became Kelly’s bitter enemy, as well as by the unions, the various Chambers of Manufacturers, big businesses, and other vested interests..
Gradually, gradually, Kelly gathered followers to this outré cause, explained countless times in every way he could think of that tariffs were not panaceas against unemployment but were doing enormous harm, and behind protectionist walls Australia had grown a clutch of uneconomic and inefficient industries with domestic markets too small ever to be economical at the cost of rational development. He had other causes in the general area of economic rectitude, but tariffs were the most central.
He lost his seat in 1977 and died in 1997. He was able to see a revolution in Australia’s economic culture and a radical lowering of tariff barriers, but it had taken him a generation to turn the political culture around like a great clumsy three-decker ship of the line, even though he had overwhelming and unanswerable arguments on his side, and, latterly, some able allies.
He was a sparkling writer and quite apart from the economic lessons they contained, his brilliant articles, mainly on a dull subject, would be worth studying by any journalist, writer, or politician for their style alone. I recently traveled through a large part of Australia collecting material on him — and found that an amazing number of people even in the general economic and intellectual classes had never heard of him.
One professor of history asked me how I was going to deal with the three policemen he murdered. This was an aspect of his career that was quite new to me and opened up whole new vistas for investigation. No one else had told me about this. Gradually it dawned on me that he thought I was writing about Ned Kelly, a 19th-century Victorian outlaw. But perhaps he was deaf.
The moral of these stories, as far as they can be transferred to America, is this: outside the political, academic and intellectual classes (and even inside them) an astonishing number do not know of political figures who those who inhabit the world of politics think famous and take for granted. The Mitt Romney campaign should not take it for granted that voters know who Jeremiah Wright is or what he has said. The stakes are important enough for me to break my rule of not commenting directly on U.S. politics.
An exposure of him is as important as economic arguments may be. Similarly, the Republican campaign should turn some of its guns on issues like the gutting of defense and the U.S. abdication of Space policy. My belief is that a large number of voters do not take in subjects that do not concern them directly unless they are explained repeatedly. This is even more the case when the U.S., unlike Australia, does not have compulsory voting. Ronald Reagan understood that part (by no means all) of a campaign is a simple, truthful, repeated message. Obama has made the presidential campaign a culture war, and Republicans cannot afford not to hammer every front, repeatedly.
About the Author
Hal G.P. Colebatch’s “Immram,” Counterstrike, is being published by Australian publisher Imaginites.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (41) | Leave a comment
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Kitty | 5.23.12 @ 6:22AM
You don't have to go all the way to Australia to prove your point of what Americans know and don't know.
Look at how many people still don't know that it was actually Tina Fey who said, "I can see Russia from my house."
TLP| 5.23.12 @ 3:11PM
Everybody KNOWS who Jeremiah Wright is. Unless you live in a Cave, or spend all of your nights, tied up in a Bar called The Man Cave (Hat Tip Alan Brooks) you know who Jeremiah Wright is. He is NOTHING MORE, than a DISTRACTION, and one that David Axelrod is more than happy, to see back on the Burner.
How are things in this Country, these Days? How's the Economy? How's the Housing Market, the Job Situation, the REAL Unemployment Numbers?
Are houses still being Foreclosed? What about Bankruptcies? How many Americans are out of work? How many are living at, or BELOW the Poverty Rate? Has our Credit Rating been Raised, or LOWERED?
Did he look the American People in the eye, and PROMISE them $800 Billion worth of Shovel Ready Infrastructure Jobs? Did he, INSTEAD, use that Money - OUR MONEY - to keep his Public Sector Union Stormtroopers on the Job, and still paying Dues that end up in His Coffers? Did he give BILLION$ of that money - OUR MONEY - to HIS Campaign Contributors, and HIS "Bundlers" in the form of Government Subsidies, for their "Shell" Companies?
Did he REFUSE the Keystone Pipeline, and the Thousands of "Shovel Ready Jobs" it would provide?
Is he keeping his Promise, to BANKRUPT the Coal Industry? Is he keeping his Promise to "Necessarily cause Electric Rates to SKYROCKET"? Has he had an ILLEGAL Drilling Moratorium in place, for the last 3 Years, or not?
Does he attack the People who Create the Jobs, in this Country? How many Companies are sitting on Hundreds of Billion$, buying their time, till he's gone? How many Companies have LEFT this Country, because of his Incessant Regulatory Barrages, his Multitude of Unfunded Mandates, and his Imperial Marxist Overreach, in his Quest to control every aspect of The Means of Production?
What do we have to look FOREWARD to, from a guy who thinks that borrowing his New Political Slogan - FOREWARD - from the most prolific MASS MURDERER of his own people, of the 20th Century, (MAO TSE DUNG) is a good idea?
All of that, and you wanna talk about some Jive Ass, shucking and jiving, Buckwheat looking, dime a dozen, run of the Mill, Street Hustling, Al Sharpton wannabe?
He's a Tar Baby in the Briar Patch. He's a Judas Goat. He's a Trojan Horse, and you wanna bring him inside the Walls.
That would be a Fool's Errand, my friend.
One, we need not run.
Occam's Tool| 5.27.12 @ 11:47PM
TLP:
Many, many of my patients, who have the right to vote, would not know who the POTUS is if I asked them.
50% of the population have IQs below 100, by definition, my friend.
Darin| 5.23.12 @ 6:34AM
How many Americans do not know Joe Biden is the Vice President? Far too many Americans are willfully ignorant about what's happening around them. And the rest of us have to suffer due to their ignorance.
Von Mises Jr| 5.23.12 @ 7:30AM
Sometimes you wonder if Joe Biden knows who Joe Biden is? Like Lousenberg, he fades in and out of conscienciousness.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.23.12 @ 1:34PM
(With my obligatory comment every time Biden is mentioned), as someone who has encountered Biden on the doorstep and in front of the supermarket, as well as at numerous public functions, I yearn for the days when I could be like the Australians described above meeting Charles Court, and be ignorant to the VPOTUS' identity and "achievements". Unfortunately, to achieve such a state of mind for me now, I would have to experience:
a) a severe head injury
b) dementia
c) a lobotomy
d) death
Another four years of Obama/Biden could likely lead to some combination or all of the above.
Von Mises Jr| 5.23.12 @ 2:25PM
Albert, then you can get a job with Perp as a troll. There is an upside to everything.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.23.12 @ 8:55PM
In the case of a),b) or c), yes. In case of d), I'd become a voting Democrat in Chicago.
Von Mises Jr| 5.23.12 @ 11:37PM
I realized my mistake after I hit "submit." But you are so right that they would change your registration and vote for you for decades.
Occam's Tool| 5.27.12 @ 11:48PM
Albert---you would vote twice in the case of "d." That is to say, your political influence would increase.
Purple Lips| 5.23.12 @ 11:54AM
But they all know Snookie, and the fact that is she due to have a snookiedoodle.
Appleby| 5.23.12 @ 7:22AM
During the Olympics that were held in Torino (Italy), masses of Americans called to make reservations for the Olympics in Toronto (Canada) and were puzzled and disappointed when they discovered their error.
Millions of people believe the Daytona 500 is the most famous car race in the world, and that the Superbowl is the biggest international sporting event. Mention the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the World Cup, and their foreheads wrinkle in bewilderment...although Americans are prominent in both events and nobody in France has ever heard of the FiveHunnert. (In fact, at last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, Michael Waltrip -- a NA$CAR "star" -- was interviewed during the race and opined that the 24 Hours was "okay" but the FiveHunnert was the greatest race he'd competed in, and then added that the only French words he'd picked up were unfit for broadcast, thus causing millions of Americans to wish the earth would open up and swallow him whole.)
There is no end to what Americans do not know. And the odd thing is, most of them are proud to declaim that they never read a book from one year's end to the next.
Moe Blotz| 5.23.12 @ 8:11AM
How many Yanks know that the race known as the 24 hours of Le Mans is held in Le Sarte?
Mac Jehoff| 5.23.12 @ 8:24AM
Right Moe, but your Frog is wanting. Circuit de la Sarthe is near the village of Le Mans, the race being promoted by Automobile Club de l'Ouest.
Bob K.| 5.23.12 @ 10:39AM
Moe,
Most Americans, perhaps 99%, don't give a damn where this race is held.
Hell, 50% or so don't care who wins the Super Bowl or World Series! And Golf and Basketball is even further down the list.
Moe Blotz| 5.23.12 @ 11:31PM
Are youse an OWS person, Bob?
Appleby| 5.23.12 @ 4:27PM
La Sarthe.
Moe Blotz| 5.23.12 @ 11:29PM
I refer the learned lady to the comment posted by Mr.Jehoff.
John G| 5.23.12 @ 1:53PM
Actually, its Turin (Italy).
Appleby| 5.23.12 @ 4:28PM
You're right. Torino is the car. [blush]
shipley130| 5.23.12 @ 3:00PM
Really, I, as an American, should care about a car race that takes place in France? I'm a little more worried about the vultures that are currently making their nests in the federal government.
Appleby| 5.23.12 @ 4:29PM
I rest my case.
Indy| 5.23.12 @ 7:58AM
The Aussie is correct, take nothing for granted. Sadly, the masses are uninformed / ill-informed. Most voters know more about American Idol and pop culture than basic civics / economics. The Press is a joke, they are not covering the story of "Rev. Wright" in his own words stating that he was offered $150K to be silent through the election. Instead, most of the press uses Obama's preacher as another opportunity to play the race card in an attempt to silence conservatives.
SUBVET| 5.23.12 @ 10:26AM
While we are on the topic of Rev. Wright I am sure you all know about the Rev.'s arrangement of the boy's DOWN LOW MARRIAGE.
In black communities a "down low marriage" is where a high profile flamming homosexual is paired up with a toxic straight female to give the appearance of it being a normal marriage.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 5.23.12 @ 8:40AM
The American public in general are stupid when it comes to boring topics like politics, and the economy, but I don't think we're any worse than most of the Countries around the World. I'm sure you could ask the most simple questions about politics anywhere, and be stunned by what People don't know about. The Australians, Canadians, French, English, Russians, and Japanese are no smarter than Americans when it comes to these topics, the only difference is, nobody cares that they don't know about these topics, but everybody seems to care that we don't know about them!! It's a shame though, because politics and the economy should be more important to everybody, than to know who won on American Idol this week. But as the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him stop playing with his IPad!! Or something like that? So keep repeating everything about President Obama until you're blue in the face, and hopefully a few People will pick up on it, and learn something that might change their minds!! I'm doing my small part here at FT Bragg, talking about the President and the Democratic Party everyday, and what a disaster they are to our future, so much so, that I even get bored hearing myself talk about politics and the economy!!
THKrupp| 5.23.12 @ 4:17PM
I have to disagree. I have met quite a few people overseas and Im always impressed with the knowlege most people have about current events, politics and just in general. I dont find this to be as true in the USA. I dont think its that they are smarter than we are I just think they arent as isolated physically and culturally like we are in the States. Part of it comes from the fact that we are isolated by large bodies of water and most people dont travel much outside the borders here as much as they do in other countries. That of course is only a partial explanation. I travel a lot in Eastern Europe and at least the people I have met seem to be very well educated for the most part. They have different cultural expectations about education than we do here in the USA. The other thing is that the people I meet tend to be interested in talking to a foreigner so they maybe the better informed portion of society that Im talkign to anyhow.
Occam's Tool| 5.27.12 @ 11:51PM
THK: I think the rule about them being brighter because they are interested in a foreigner applies. I lived in Rotorua, NZ for a year, and one of the things that struck me coming home was the generally MUCH higher level of political discourse here.
Anthony| 5.23.12 @ 8:58AM
Quite correct, Rev. Wright is a godsend that McLame and now Romney plans on wasting.
Contrary to the Washington "wizzards" advising Romney and some poster here at TAS, The Wright connection is a window into the very soul of Barack Obozo.
All that Obozo stands for in his quest to destroy America, is rooted in the radical extension of his early exposure to Marxism and the 20 years of radical Black Liberation Theology under the tutelage of Wright.
If Obozo continues to play the Mormon card, I say bring it!!! Mormonism vs. Black Liberation Theology, bring it on baby!!
Romney, like all establishment Rs has no balls or guts. Rs refuse to fight because they are more concerned about their standing in Washington than what's best for America. Their fear of being called racist speaks more to their own personal agenda than being leaders willing to take on the heavy lifting to save America.
Apparently, they don't believe that this election could be the one that destroys America for decades to come, if not permanently. This is why we are the ones that must save this country, because the professional pols will not.
Al Adab| 5.23.12 @ 11:11AM
Just another example of how the accomodationist republicans plan to lose the election. If only Romney and his handlers had the huevos to attack the Dems like he did his GOP rivals.
David W| 5.23.12 @ 9:39AM
Unfortunately Republicans (especially the dreaded establishment RINOs) fail to understand two things:
1) Every government policy/program can be eventually distilled into a social issue. Listen to the democrats justify their positions on almost everything. Any rational argument against their position will ultimately devolve into a social issue (racism, hatred, etc.). By failing to recognize this (depending too much on rational argument and not on emotional appeals) will cause the GOP to struggle when fighting against the democrats lies and miss-truths
2) Too many people do not understand what is happening in the world or around them. They are basically ignorant of a lot of things (I include myself in this). Those who get their news do so from the left-wing MSM - which glosses over just about any negative item about Obama or his associates (a friend of mine who is a software engineering manager had never heard of Solandra. She was totally ignorant of the issues with renewable energy. Her opinions of Christians were also negative based upon what little experiences she had (meeting me apparently made her more positive toward Christians, go figure)). Romney doesn't have to be hateful, just continue to ask simple questions about Obama's faith, his 20 years of sitting in the pews of Wright's church, and then hit the audience with Wright's damning of the US.
Dr. X| 5.23.12 @ 10:18AM
Exactly so. Interest groups, readers and commentators at TAS, etc. are known as "attentive publics." They follow politics, policy, and political personalities. They are often unaware how stupendously ignorant supposedly "educated" people really are about political matters that do not directly affect them.
For instance, I'll bet you that nine out of ten Americans do not know how the presidential electoral system works (the term "electoral college" does not appear in the Constitution), do not know what the enumerated powers are, what the Tenth Amendment says, and so on.
What is sinister about the Obama regime is how deftly and deliberately it has exploited this ignorance, and how Obama has manufactured, with Machiavellian craftiness, an entire biography and persona for his political life entirely at odds with the virulent anti-American radicalism of his private life.
And what is even more disturbing is the unwillingness of the Republicans to call him to account on it. In fairness to the Republicans, if you tell the 100% unvarnished truth about Obama, you come off sounding like some sort of lunatic conspiracy theorist. Try telling people that Obama actually came within about ten seconds of sticking a heroin needle in his arm, or that he is a personal friend of the guy who bombed the Pentagon and the NYPD, or that he told people that he was born in Kenya, or that he was a college Marxist, and they'll look at you as if you have three eyes and just got beamed down from the mothership.
Occam's Tool| 5.27.12 @ 11:53PM
Yup, and the fact that he did cocaine doesn't phase him. Hell, I remember when Reagan was thought to have possible problems running for President because he was divorced.
Who Knows?| 5.23.12 @ 10:38AM
Jeremiah Wright. Jeremiah Wright. Jeremiah Wright. Jeremiah Wright. Jeremiah Wright. Jeremiah Wright. Jeremiah Wright. ----------
I’m old enough to recall the days when subliminal advertising was a hot topic. You know---when in a movie theater, the sneaky capitalists would flash a quickie image, beneath conscious awareness, saying, “Buy a coke”, for example, and sales would thereby surge.
Well, the dogs who’ve become TOPPERS that get to be on TV are famous for dodging questions, so why don’t they just slip in the words, “Jeremiah Wright”, willy nilly. You know—with a wink and a nod, let slip the name of this mostly unknown dude, and watch the leftist pundits and Obama maniacs go crazy.
Before long, the pool of uninformed voters will BEGIN to wonder, who is this guy.
Here’s a thought---all the hot shots, like Rove and Jennifer Rubin, who tell us it would be stupid to harp on Wright, base their conclusion on a belief that the mass of voters ARE too dumb or unengaged or busy to get up to speed on the Wright-Obama “marriage”.
After all, American Idol is on tonight.
Bob K.| 5.23.12 @ 10:45AM
We have to face facts. If the voters can't get the information from the 6 PM news most of them aren't going to get it at all.
The information a candidate wants out there has to be in the political ads shown around that time and any candidate too wussy or prissy to go negative in those ads when it has to be done is going to lose the election.
Appleby| 5.23.12 @ 11:02AM
A gang of us in Atlanta started a guerrilla paper-whispering-campaign during Clinton's second run for the roses, leaving messages everywhere people might gather (washrooms a specialty) reading "If character doesn't count, why isn't Ted Kennedy President?" It was interesting to see how many people began to repeat it although when you asked where they'd heard it they'd say, "I dunno, I heard somebody say that."
Petronius| 5.23.12 @ 11:42AM
Now ya dunnit mate. Bringing up true knowledge and voters in the same sentence is like showing Dracula a mirror or a Cross. Aussies, Americans, Europeans are all the same when they go to the polls. They make their choices based only on raw emotions. Truth doesn't matter. The utter tripe they see in political adds on then idiot lantern and the opinions of their friends coupled with personal dislikes are what motivates them. Competence and principle aren't even on the list and the Constitution is just an antique piece of paper. Freedom is almost dead because the electorate is so downright infantile. Government is their Mommy. Ask Obama's daughter Julia. She'll tell you.
shipley130| 5.23.12 @ 12:59PM
Ayn Rand describes what is missing from this country due to politicians that have decided that the best route is to consolidate their own power instead of sharing it with the people that actually have the education and drive to keep this country great. This kind of thinking is what always brings down great and prosperous countries. In her book, Atlas Shrugged, she describes the thoughts of one of the characters as they are testing out new, but hated technology (a new type of metal in railroad tracks). This technology is hated by a cabal of power players that feel threatened, mostly due to the fact that they cannot compete. People were lined up to see the train pass by their towns and homesteads. The thought is this...."It was like the pictures she had seen---and envied---in schoolbook histories of railroads, from the era when people gathered to greet the first run of a train. It was like the age when Nat Taggart moved across the country, and the stops along the way were marked by men eager for the sight of achievement. That age, she had thought, was gone; generations had passed, with no event to greet anywhere, with nothing to see but the cracks lengthening year by year on the walls built by Nat Taggart."
Anthony| 5.23.12 @ 1:36PM
The Ds are always on the offense, even when facing disaster, they just plow ahead, unfazed. They do as Frederick the Great quiped, "lagasse, lagasse, tour jour lagasse".
Whereas Romney and his brain trust say, "cower, cower, please don't call me a racist, I'm sorry".
shipley130| 5.23.12 @ 4:23PM
Comparing the current democrats to Frederick the Great is like comparing a race horse and a donkey when you are talking about winning the Kentucky Derby. Freddie was the race horse, current democrats are the donkey. No pun intended.
Appleby| 5.23.12 @ 4:30PM
"l'audace" (it's French.)
POST American| 5.24.12 @ 12:00AM
------------------BOTTOMLESS LINE------------------
--AS we leaf through, once again,
the long record of Arminian con--op
Billy Graham --the soft selling of the
EUGENICS agenda by 'Leave your
spouse with Alzheimer's' Pat Robertson
------and the SILENCE on the statue of Pope
of 'MAY--SIN--re', and founder of the KKK,
Albert Pike, which stands beside our
Justice Dept. --from Jesse Jack's Son
---and AL Sharp---ton ---AND as we mull the
sunday morning sap ops of Robert Schuller
----and the 'calm--PLY--ants' and sub--mission
ops of ouron board 'churches' nationwide ----
AGAIN ---time to CLEAN the 'MAY--SIN--re'
and Rockefeller debauchery ----OUT! of our
churches!
IF this is not possible ---it's TIME to leave
and START your own.
"--Two people make a universe."
D H Lawrence
CLEAR YOUR GROUND!
--------------------------AND YOU ARE THERE!
"Let's ALLLLL DIE
-----------------or LET'S DO IT!"
-Thomas Carlysle