General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Hillary the inevitable. [View all]Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)Conventional wisdom is a killer. It falls under "everybody knows" and nobody challenges that conventional wisdom.
Polling is vital. It can tell us what the mood of the public is, what they want, what they are looking for. But Polling without information is useless. If the person being polled isn't a political junkie, like most of the users here, then that persons opinion is at best uninformed.
A better poll would be to ask those politically uninformed what issues they consider important. Then to see if they like proposals put forth by Liberals. The usual answer is yes, they like the proposals put forth.
But we don't ask those questions, or I should say rarely do we ask them. Instead we go for the easy questions. Like who do you prefer. Hillary or Warren. Most people don't know Warren, so they answer Hillary. The Conventional Wisdom worshipers jump up and down and announce that Hillary has it sewn up. Yes, she won the popularity contest, but not the contest of ideals, because none were examined.
Conventional Wisdom says a great many things. Our Politicians today are masters of embracing this conventional wisdom. In some speeches, they may challenge the Conventional Wisdom, but rarely do they do so in action. Almost never is it a platform during an election. You can't fit a challenge to Conventional Wisdom into a thirty second campaign ad.
But you can challenge it. One of the last to do so was Ronald Reagan. While I detest his policies, and abhor his time as President, we could have learned a lot from him. President Reagan painted pictures with his words, and delivery. His Trickle down my back economic plan was panned by Republicans as Voodoo economics. It was referred to in even less favorable terms by Democrats. Yet, he got it through a Congress that was solidly Democratic. How? How could he have done so? He went to the people, and sold it to them. Asking them to help him help them. Brilliant presentation, and brilliant strategy. Tip O'Neil said that the budget and tax cuts were dead on arrival. Senator Kennedy said that it would never pass the Senate.
Remember Star Wars? Every scientist in the world told us it was impossible to do what he wanted done. The Technology did not exist and wouldn't for at least twenty years, perhaps even more. Yet Reagan was able to sell it and did so challenging the existing conventional wisdom of Mutually Assured Destruction that had worked for more than four decades to prevent Nuclear war. People got behind the idea of taking action to protect the nation against a threat that had existed for so long.
Reagan is a damned asshole who fucked up a lot of things. We're still paying for many of those things. Yet, he was successful at shaping and motivating public opinion. No one since has been as successful. No one since has challenged conventional wisdom with such determination, and was willing to risk their political future so effectively.
I hate Reagan's policies. I am honest enough to admit that his tactics were effective in implementing a flawed strategy. He was a good salesman. But History has plenty of other great leaders who were able to inspire. In the Democratic Party I've mentioned many times FDR, JFK, and Truman as the big three of the last Century. They were able to reach out to the people. They were able to talk to the people, and inspire trust. But after JFK, we lost it somewhere. We lost the ability to pick candidates who were inspiring, and could exude a genuine air of astonishing competence.
LBJ didn't have it. He risked his political career on a doomed war, and he lost. Carter was a great man. He led by example, wearing a sweater to show the nation that he had turned the heat down in the White House during the energy crisis. Showing the world that he would never ask something of his people that he would be unwilling to do himself. Carter stood on the ground at Three Mile Island and announced that the crisis was under control. We believed him, because he had shown that he was a leader who led by example.
Bill Clinton was the first of the modern era of Presidents. Easily dissuaded by polling and trained by advisor's not to rock the boat too much, a little rock now and then, but not more than that. No challenging of the conventional wisdom, and no grad plans for the future. Just a little progress is all he promised. Minuscule is a better term. I've been asking, where are the greats? Where are the statesmen or women who will stand up and challenge the conventional wisdom? WHere are the leaders who will march forward with strong and determined steps seeing obstacles as things to overcome?
President Kennedy said we were going to the Moon not because it was easy, but because it was hard. Because by doing those hard things, by accepting the challenges that doing the hard things entailed we would become better than we were. President Kennedy said he could not promise we would be first, but if we did not make the effort, we would be last. Look at that speech sometime. Look at it and see the dare that Kennedy laid down before the people. We're doing it because it is hard. Now look at the politics of today. We can't do it because it's hard. Because if you dare, and fail, you will go down in history as a fool, a failure, and a dreamer. So we don't dare. We don't dream of something amazing. We accept the mediocre because it's safer, and conventional wisdom tells us not to risk too much as we stretch for something out of reach. It's better to wait until a ladder comes along.