Writing about something other than politics, my friend Deborah makes an observation that is just exactly right in almost any context:
Reputation is virtually unshakeable. People like to believe they know what they know.And that's the problem, isn't it? People 'know' all kinds of things. In the realm of politics, people (i.e., some non-trivial subset of the population) 'know', for example, some or all of the following: Clinton was a liar; Carter was weak; Kerry was a flip-flopper; Reagan won the Cold War; Bush is a racist; Bush is a Christian; Gore said he invented the internet; the Iraq war is all about oil; lawsuits are out of control; Bush is a war criminal; Dean is unhinged. Some of these may even be true; most of them have at least a grain of truth. True or false, what they have in common is that they are impervious to correction or amendment. Such are the core political beliefs of most people in this country.
So it is only after four years of Bush's complete disregard for the truth that polls show a plurality of respondents consider Bush untrustworthy. Only now, after four years of screwups and abuses and the failure to capture bin Laden, do they disapprove of his performance on terrorism. Only now, after four years of Bush behaving like a petulant bully, do they realize that he isn't as likeable as they thought. It's all very disheartening.
Nor is there any answer. There is no magic vaccine that will suddenly make people smarter. All we can do is be better than that. We must refuse to accept unexamined opinion when presented as fact; we must refuse to accept it from others, and (more importantly) refuse to accept it in ourselves. We must continually ask ourselves: do we know, or do we 'know'?
And if we do that, then all we can do otherwise is be patient. And hope.
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