I've long been of the opinion that, when it comes to deeply-held beliefs, people are driven, not by reason, but by feeling. What's in their heads, i.e., the beliefs that lead them, are formed, ultimately, by what's in their hearts. Rarely if ever are these beliefs held dispassionately. The rational reasons for those beliefs, while grounding them, don't seem to drive them.
In commenting on a recent USAToday poll which showed slightly greater Republican support for McCain than Democratic support of Obama, identical support of each from members of the opposing party, and slightly higher Independent support for both Clinton and Obama than McCain, Democratic strategist Bill Carrick says,
Some of it defies the philosophy or ideology of John McCain and gets into John McCain the American hero, John McCain the maverick Republican, John McCain the antithesis of the Democratic and independent voters' stereotypes of Republicans. He looks much stronger in these polls than any other imaginable Republican nominee would be.
I'm not sure that, hypothetically, another Republican nominee couldn't appear stronger in the polls, but the point remains that it's a thumbs-up/thumbs-down approach that drives the polls and politics in general -- in a word, approval. And rarely are either approval or disapproval expressed dispassionately. It's not a tide of ideology or philosophy per se that people tend to ride, but one of "what-tickles-me-now." Principles? Nah. Integrity? Nah. Stereotype? Yeah. Uninformed opinions? Yeah. Stereotype means someone is written off, and "principle" or "integrity" means "does stuff I like."
These are some of the reasons I'm stymied by elections. It's hard to know just how and what any given candidate will do in office, even if one spends a lot of time studying the issues and candidates and following all the media reporting. It's hard to find actual substance upon which to base one's vote. Although one must try.
