re: #310 freetoken

I think we need a reality check here.

We, here at this blog, are self selected (except when Stinky has to do the de-selecting).

We tend to be older, or more educated (if not formally, at least self-educated by reading), and quite a bit more culturally aware, than many of our fellow Americans.

I’m not trying to pat us on the collective back as some sort of exercise in vanity. It’s just the way these self-defined groups form.

We don’t represent the masses of the American electorate.

It’s also not just my intransigent snobbishness writing this.

Election after election, not just in the US, show that people are manipulated through the techniques of mass advertisement.

Some things sell better than others.

It’s why cereal boxes aimed at children have brighter colors than those intended for adults.

Some things just work.

The GOP has a winning strategy, in appealing to visceral topics such as fear, racism, bigotry, etc. The GOP didn’t invent this. Even the Democratic party has used these techniques, but at least in my adult lifetime the rise of the Democratic intellectual (e.g., Obama) has meant somewhat more high-brow campaigning and less blue-collar fear mongering.

Bibles and guns - these are what Americans care about. (Marijuana appears a distant third.)

Not climate change. Not esoteric banking regulations. Certainly not elaborate explanations of economics.

Guns and Bibles.

until the wolf shows up at the door - then reality might set in a bit