
 |
|
Nov. 25, 2009
JWisdom.com: No God … No You!
Know God, Know You! with Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (8 minutes)
Nov. 24, 2009
JWisdom.com: You are a Philanthropist
with Aliza Bulow (5 minutes)
Nov. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com: Actually, it really is all about you with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff
Nov. 20, 2009
Nov. 19, 2009
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf
with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith
with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Nov. 12, 2009
JWisdom.com Does God get tired?
with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Oct. 17, 2008
18 Tishrei 5769
The Irrational Exuberance of November
By
Suzanne Fields
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"Throw the bums out!" That's one of the most familiar campaign cries in
our history. It's even more effective than Herbert Hoover's slogan of "a
chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" and stirs the blood like
"Tippecanoe and Tyler, too" never could. Sometimes a little bum-throwing
makes sense. Sometimes it doesn't.
In just over three weeks we'll elect a president who, whether it turns
out that he's John McCain or Barack Obama, has crossed his heart and
hoped to die if he doesn't make good on his promise to throw out the
policies of an embattled president, if not that president himself.
"President Obama," if there is one, might even chase George and Laura
down Pennsylvania Ave., throwing sticks, stones and harsh words at the
moving van.
A lot of the rhetoric of any campaign is designed to encourage
foolishness, like expecting voters to believe everything they hear from
the platform. Voters often relish being unpredictable and make unlikely
choices. The political scientists and other academics who demand a
rational explanation of things for which there may be no rational
explanation often rail at "public ignorance" as the cause of not seeing
things as they think the public should. These wise men think all that's
important is "policy" and a candidate's ability to define undefined
presidential "doctrine," or to play a version of Trivial Pursuit, such
as identifying the middle initial of an assistant associate
undersecretary of state.
Larry Bartels, a professor of politics at Princeton, suggests in a
fascinating article in the Wilson Quarterly that the proper response to
such thinking is a mocking, "So what?" Voters usually get to the place
they want to go, and they choose how they get there.
"The political consequences of 'public ignorance' must be demonstrated,
not assumed," argues Prof. Bartels. "And that requires focusing not just
on what voters don't know, but on how what they don't know actually
affects how they vote. Do they manage to make sensible choices despite
being hazy about the details of politics and government? . If they do,
that's not stupid it's efficient." These political scientists might
make the common academic assumption that voters are always rational,
"but a half-century of [scientific analysis] provides plenty of grounds
for pessimism about voters' rationality."
Nothing annoys academics like the notion that faith in native common
sense trumps arcane argument, that voters will take a lot on faith if
they decide a candidate is likeable, down to earth and serious enough to
be trusted. Sometimes voters make choices that seem to be textbook cases
of irrationality, never more so, for example, than election results in
Arkansas in 1968. Voters there on a single day gave resounding victories
to George C. Wallace, a third-party segregationist candidate for
president; William Fulbright, a moderately conservative Democratic
incumbent U.S. senator; and Winthrop Rockefeller, a moderately liberal
Republican running for governor. They still talk about that one in
political-science seminars.
Sometimes voters just want to express unfocused anger, and take it out
on whoever is unlucky enough to be at hand. Like this year. George W.
Bush is not available as a target, so for some voters John McCain will
have to do.
There's a bizarre precedent of sorts. In the summer of 1916, killer
sharks repeatedly attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, killing
four of them over a period of weeks. The attacks were brazen, even for
hungry sharks. One shark even ventured up a freshwater stream to find a
victim. The attacks were unprecedented, and the tourist season was
ruined. Several hotels were all but forced into bankruptcy when
vacationers abandoned the shore by the thousands and didn't return.
Jersey residents demanded that Congress pass a law, or something, though
killer sharks are notorious for not obeying the law. So Jersey voters
took it out on a popular president, who had been the state's favorite
son from his term as governor and, before that, the president of
Princeton. Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president that November anyway,
though not with much help from voters in the towns along the Jersey
shore.
History is an unreliable guide for Messrs. McCain and Obama because
nobody can ever be sure where whimsy sometimes defined as
"irrationality" in college lecture halls will be aimed. Just as in
earlier election years, millions of voters will act on hunches and
guesses next month, on feelings held deep in the pit of the stomach.
Therein lies the secret to the great political success we call
democracy.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR contributor Suzanne Fields' column by clicking here.
Suzanne Fields Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate, Suzanne Fields
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Lewis Grossberger
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Jim Mullen
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Every Monday Matters
Nutrition Myths
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|