General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I hope that Bernie is capable of being shallow. [View all]True Blue Door
(2,969 posts)But it's very easy to miscalculate the difference between courageous passion for your own views and ignorance of the views of others.
That's why people with strong reformist convictions often have a hard time communicating with the apolitical public: A lot of times they think they're owed support because they're right, and the reality in a democracy is that they're not owed anything - they have to convince a certain number of people, no matter how mindless or frivolous the final 10% of those people are.
Nor can a candidate complain that voters aren't treating them fairly, nor can they ignore the problem - pretending the gulf in mutual understanding isn't there won't stop a candidate from falling into it. They have to be aware of how others think, and communicate with them in ways that are neither phony nor condescending from the perspective of the other person. Or at very least assemble a team that can manage this for them.
So, yeah, he will definitely at some point have to talk about Jesus, sports, and pop culture if he gets as far as we hope, not because they objectively mean anything, but because they mean something to a lot of people who are not strongly locked into one side or the other.