by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n The\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u2019 resident voodoo statistician, Charles Blow, is at it again, using \u201cscientific\u201d polling data as an excuse to indulge ideological prejudice. The poll in question profiled people regarding the current health-care debate, and Blow doesn\u2019t like the results. Seems that 56% of Republicans are following the debate \u201cvery closely,\u201d while only 42% of Democrats are. More galling to Blow, while 80% of Democrats support Obama\u2019s healthcare reforms, only 47% said they had a \u201cgood understanding of the issues involved.\u201d On the other hand, 58% of Republicans claimed a \u201cgood understanding\u201d of the issues, and only 19% supported Obamacare.<\/p>\n Now, these data could be interpreted in some interesting ways. This disconnect between some Democrats\u2019 support and their understanding of the issue might just suggest that their support is merely an uninformed, partisan reflex. And the Republican\u00a0lack<\/em>\u00a0of support could be a consequence of their\u00a0greater<\/em>understanding that results from following the issue more closely.<\/p>\n But of course, such an obvious reading of the data doesn\u2019t conform to liberal ideology and its bigoted view of Republicans as knuckle-dragging cavemen easily manipulated by the evil cabal of corporate hegemons, whereas Democrats are cool rationalists who base their positions on the careful study of the facts and coherent argument. So rather than deal with the challenge to his prejudices suggested by the data, Blow just takes off on a juvenile rant that adheres to the Democrats\u2019 spin on the raucous protests greeting Democratic politicians at various town halls and other\u00a0fora<\/em>. You know the narrative: all these people daring to question their betters are really just Republican operatives or pliant dummies agitated by Republican internet screeds and FOX news propaganda.<\/p>\n Following that partisan script, Blow writes, \u201cNot only are anti-reformists showing up, they\u2019re terrorizing legislators with their tomfoolery when they do.\u201d This muddled sentence reveals the irrational biases deforming Blow\u2019s thinking. By any definition of \u201ctomfoolery,\u201d anyone over the age of 5 who would be \u201cterrorized,\u201d rather than merely, say, annoyed, by tomfoolery should never leave the house, let alone be elected to public office. Blow displays here the representative vice of most bad writers: starting a sentence in one register and then finishing it in another incompatible with the first. George Orwell identified this fault as a typical feature of bad writing, which \u201cconsists less and less ofwords<\/em>\u00a0chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of\u00a0phrases<\/em>tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse.\u201d Orwell linked this sort of bad prose specifically to political writing, which is used \u201cfor concealing or preventing thought,\u201d just as Blow does by spraying the scary and distorting verbal aerosol of \u201cterrorized\u201d over the events he is describing.<\/p>\n After this rousing start, Blow works himself up into a rhetorical lather designed to avoid coming to terms with the uncomfortable conclusion \u2014 Republican support is predicated on greater understanding of the issue \u2014 suggested by the polling data: \u201cBlinded by fear and passion, armed with misinformation and misplaced anger, they descend on these meetings and hoot and holler in an attempt to shut down the debate rather than add to it.\u201d Let\u2019s parse the various irrational prejudices and mental tics of the fundamentalist liberal. First there is the two-bit psychologizing: if someone disagrees with liberal dogma, it can\u2019t possibly be because of an informed and thought-out opinion. No, such disagreement can result only from neuroses of some sort that usually afflict such people \u2014 \u201cfear\u201d of reform, or a \u201cpassion\u201d for holding on to their safe, comfortable worldview in which their privilege is assured. Next, because they are so irrational and incapable of reasoned discourse, their response is to \u201cshut down debate.\u201d Apparently, to Blow \u201cdebate\u201d in a public forum\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0means collective obeisance to whatever ideas or policy the politician is peddling, rather than questioning or challenging them.<\/p>\n Yes, some of the criticisms and questions have been voiced in a raucous or even rude manner. So what? Sometimes that\u2019s what it takes to get a politician\u2019s attention and get him to take you seriously. And that has ever been the way with public, democratic discussion, going back to ancient Athens, and evident in American history from the beginning. Politics involves beliefs and values that lie at the core of people\u2019s identities, and when these beliefs collide, as they must in a large, variegated nation such as ours, sometimes the spectacle can become unpleasant. Nor does the passion expressed necessarily mean the opinion is irrational. But that unpleasantness and conflict are the price we pay for the right publicly to \u201cspeak truth to power,\u201d and the opportunity to challenge our leaders and hold them accountable to the people in whom political power ultimately resides. Civility and decorum would be nice, but not at the expense of getting at the truth and holding our leaders\u2019 feet to the fire when policies of such great import (and expense) are being proposed.<\/p>\n Worse yet, it takes a remarkable amount of shamelessness for a liberal like Blow to complain about a lack of \u201ccivility\u201d after the last eight years of slander directed at George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Republican Party in general. Blow brings up the \u201cbirthers,\u201d those who have questions about Obama\u2019s place of birth, as further evidence of Republican stupidity and meanness. Yet this silly diversion is mere tomfoolery compared to the false charges that were continually leveled at George Bush \u2014 the most despicable being that he fabricated evidence about Iraq\u2019s WMD and lied to the people so he could start a war in which American citizens would die just to profit his corporate buddies. This canard was examined and exposed as false over and over, which didn\u2019t stop many liberals from indulging it with an aggressive viciousness and brutality that make these townhall critics sound like\u00a0ing\u00e9nues<\/em>\u00a0discussing theirbeaus<\/em>\u00a0in a Jane Austen novel. Did Blow think that such \u201cbelligerence is the currency of the intellectually bankrupt\u201d when Bush was on the receiving end?<\/p>\n But we know what this is really about: \u201cLet\u2019s face it. This is no party of Einsteins. Really, it isn\u2019t.\u201d Blow\u2019s proof? \u201cOnly 6 percent of scientists said that they were Republicans\u201d! There\u2019s the fatal flaw of reasoning that lies behind much liberal thinking: because science is adept at discovering many truths about the material world, it is equally capable of discovering truths about the political, social, or moral world \u2014 something it hasn\u2019t been able to do. Likewise, scientists can be geniuses when speaking about their area of research, yet complete idiots when they venture from it into realms such as the political. Look at all those brilliant scientists in Germany who sold their souls to one of history\u2019s most inhuman, irrational, and destructive ideologies.<\/p>\n Contrary to most liberal thinking, politics does not require \u201cscientific\u201d knowledge as much as what the Greek philosopher Protagoras called the \u201cpolitical skill,\u201d the wisdom about ends and means, goods and principles, and human nature that will not be discovered in a classroom or laboratory but that comes from tradition, experience, and sheer common sense. Such wisdom tells us that perfection in this world is a pipe dream, and anybody who sets out to create utopia usually leaves behind a huge mess, for life and people are too complex, conflicted, and quirky for the reductive schemes of social planners and \u201cengineers of the soul.\u201d Such wisdom is suspicious of those who claim otherwise, who promise perfect justice, perfect equality, happiness for all, or anything else they offer in exchange for more and more power.<\/p>\n I suspect many of those people exercising their right to free speech and to question their elected representatives are motivated not by \u201cfear\u201d and \u201cpassion\u201d but by a political common sense that knows giving more power over their lives to the government is a bad idea. That sounds much smarter and more rational than Blow\u2019s bigoted clich\u00e9s and dishonest rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Another rational liberal can’t think straight. by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The\u00a0New York Times\u2019 resident voodoo statistician, Charles Blow, is at it again, using \u201cscientific\u201d polling data as an excuse to indulge ideological prejudice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[653],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-BZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9832,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/californias-polarization\/","url_meta":{"origin":2355,"position":0},"title":"California\u2019s Polarization","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Richard Sousa Monday, February 6, 2017 With all due respect, I believe my colleague Sam Abrams has it all wrong. He argues that when examining California voter registration data at the county level, the polarization along party lines and the partisanship in the state are not as deep as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Democrats"","block_context":{"text":"Democrats","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/democrats\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3222,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-same-old-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":2355,"position":1},"title":"The Same Old Change","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We will likely see a lot of political \"readjustments\" come January, once President-elect Barack Obama and many new Democratic congressmen assume office, and the Republican administration leaves. Take the filibuster. For much of the Bush administration, out-of-power Democratic senators defended it as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2008"","block_context":{"text":"November 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/november-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6600,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-will-cut-a-deal-sooner-rather-than-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":2355,"position":2},"title":"Obama Will Cut a Deal Sooner Rather than Later","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO's\u00a0The Corner At first glance, the Republicans seemed to be losing the so-called shut-down impasse, inasmuch as Obamacare, as the president termed it, was \u201csettled law\u201d and the Republicans did not have the congressional clout to overturn it. No one likes, after all, to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/10038532014_fdcb3ca6a1-300x216.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6883,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/2014-year-of-decision\/","url_meta":{"origin":2355,"position":3},"title":"2014: Year of Decision","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 This year we will see if America is still a center-right country, or if Obama\u2019s two terms will mark a historic shift to the left. History and recent events give cause for optimism, subject, of course, to unforeseen events. The champions of big government,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10887,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-the-dreamer-fight-is-really-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":2355,"position":4},"title":"What the ‘Dreamer’ fight is really about","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Op-Ed By Victor Davis Hanson Los Angeles Times \u00a0 The loud fight over what will happen to America\u2019s \u201cDreamers\u201d isn\u2019t what it seems. For both sides, it\u2019s a fig leaf used to mask their true intentions. In his first term, Barack Obama admitted that he had no constitutional authority (\"I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Republicans"","block_context":{"text":"Republicans","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/republicans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3958,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-the-democrats-may-lose-the-2008-election\/","url_meta":{"origin":2355,"position":5},"title":"Why the Democrats May Lose the 2008 Election","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Will President Bush's current unpopularity translate into a Democratic recapture of either the House or Senate this fall \u2014 or a victory in the 2008 presidential election? Probably not. Despite widespread unhappiness with the Republicans, it is hard to envision a majority party\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2006"","block_context":{"text":"June 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/june-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2356,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions\/2356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}