Earlier today, I wrote about my belief that most Americans vastly underestimate the ability of their fellow citizens to think about and process political information. Here's an out-take, for those who missed it:
It reminds me of a brief conversation my wife and I had with a stranger in the Cincinnati airport on our way back from Montana. We were sitting waiting for our flight in one of those giant holding rooms that all airports seem to have when a report on the economy came on CNN. After a few minutes, the man sitting next to us started ranting about how "the media" is determined to scare people into a recession. The implication was that most Americans were so gullible that they would believe whatever the media told them. But not, of course, this man. Although his fellow citizens were mindlessly taking in whatever the media fed them, he knew better.
That seems to be the assumption most people make about both the media and politics. They are smart enough to know what's going on, but most of the rest of the people out there just aren't smart enough to think for themselves. And like I said, I don't buy it. I think most Americans do want something more from their political system. But most politicians, together with most of the members of our media, assume that they don't, and that worse, even if they were given something more high-minded they wouldn't know how to make sense of it.Glenn's right: Obama's campaign is premised on the idea that people want more. If he succeeds, it will be proof that he was right. And so far, he is succeeding.
Via Kevin Drum, here's some polling data from CBS News that almost perfectly confirms this idea. Kevin:
Most people say they personally don't care if a presidential candidate is black or white. Heartwarming, no? However, since most people either don't want to think of themselves as racist or else don't want to admit it, we might take that with a grain of salt. A more accurate accounting, perhaps, comes from what all these colorblind folks think about their friends. Answer: 33% say that "most" of the people they know wouldn't vote for a black candidate. This means that either a lot of Americans are very cynical about their friends, or else a lot of Americans are stone racists.
So Barack Obama has his work cut out for him. But now take a look at the second result: 17% of the population would prefer to vote for a man. Obviously people don't mind being publicly sexist as much as they mind being publicly racist. But again, that number probably isn't very trustworthy, so take a look instead at what people say about their friends. A full 45% think that "most" of their friends would refuse to vote for a woman. (This result is about the same for both Democratic and Republican/independent respondents.) 42% say people they know have judged Hillary Clinton more harshly because she's a woman. Is this cynicism? Or is America heavily populated by stone sexists?
Cynicism is part of it, no doubt. But its not all of it. Social psychology research teaches us that we simultaneously overestimate our own intelligence and underestimate the intelligence of others. It isn't cynicism so much as a system human flaw. And until we learn to recognize it for what it is - a near-universal human trait - we won't be able to begin to solve some of the biggest problems we face with our media today. It isn't just that playing to the lowest common denominator is good for ratings; it's also that network programmers and content creators overestimate just how low they need to go in order to attract an audience.
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