Jen Kuznicki
I’ve been doing some serious thinking on how to combat the lies, deceptions and misquotes of this election cycle. I kept thinking that perhaps I’m in over my head. As I look across the blogosphere and the the newspapers, watch the news and listen to the radio, the endless stream of disinformation gets picked apart and micro-planed at times and at other times twisted and argued like we are a pack of wolves at dinnertime. Everybody wants to be part of the team that defeated Obama, and wants to give a lasting impression.
But in the next two months, we have to decide who we can reach, and who we cannot. There are those of us whose approach to changing minds is to act intrigued when a liberal speaks in order to friend them, gain their confidence, then slowly pick apart their assumptions and try to turn them away from what they believe to be true. There are others who simply cry b.s. and state facts and let the chips fall where they may.
I suppose I fall in the latter category as far as style goes, but when I think about my small town, my township, my neighborhood, I realize that I have no idea what they believe. And I realized that I would have to find out if they believe the lies or the truth. Just because I’m convinced that for the most part, small town USA has a pretty good handle on what is good, right and true, does not mean that they have been informing themselves on the current situation.
A simple case-in-point comes during some research I’ve been doing on Senator Debbie Stabenow. It’s widely known that the Senate has not passed a budget for over 1200 days now. Stabenow says they did too, it was called the Budget Control Act of 2011, and it covers two years until 2013. Stabenow says the Republicans are lying. The Republicans say the Budget Control Act is not a budget. So, who do you believe? Who does your neighbor believe? Will it just come down to partisanship?
These things bother me to the point that I’m not sure if this nation will ever heal, but I know one thing, I have to go and talk to my neighbors.
The problem with thinking about how to reach those people that don’t pay attention to politics, is that they don’t pay attention because they have no interest in it, or, they hate it. The initial reaction they give, typically, is that politicians are jerks, out for themselves, and it doesn’t matter if we vote or who we vote for because the system is rigged. Or something like that. They act as though I am naive for trying to convince them of something they do not need to be convinced of, because they already have it figured out. Telling me that I’m wasting my time because it’s the same old song and dance, and since I’m only one person, how do I plan to change it? What ends up happening in these situations is that I end up getting the brunt of their unhappiness with the messiness of politics, and they believe I deserve it because I brought it up.
Mom always said, put yourself in their shoes. So I think about all the times in my life prior to entering in the political fray, and put myself in the place of the person answering the door and imagine how I would respond if an Obama campaigner came to my door. The problem is, I cannot un-know what I know. I can’t act interested in drivel. I’ve never been a patient person when I’m being lied to. I can’t accept false rhetoric.
So instead of doing a great mental exercise, I figured I would just go and visit people and rely on my own common sense, and on the common sense of the other person, and do the best I can to make it clear that I stand on one side, and they need to join me.
That’s all I got. I can’t pretend I’m some official-type person, although I guess I am a precinct delegate, and I know I have fans and followers online to whom I am perfectly humbled. But in my neck of the woods, I’m not widely read, and to be honest, being a blogger means absolutely nothing to a whole lot of people, and I’m just fine with that.
I believe to be effective in November, it will take every single one of us who are up to speed to rely on our own common sense, and get out and knock on doors ourselves. It’s not enough to share things online, it’s a false sense of security to leave it at that. While I knew what Obama represented in 2008, my county voted in his favor. I can’t let that happen again.
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2 Responses to We Must Rely On Our Own Common Sense
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The one aspect of this which you are not mentioning is that these people are so brainwashed ( and I don't quite understand it) they believe every liberal lie they are told, even when the facts in black and white dispute what they are told to believe. They chalk the arguments against what has become molded in stone up to right wing propaganda.
Is there any sense in "common sense". For many years I have renamed the term "common sense" to "good sense" because if it were common it would be abundant. What is common is the lack of any sense; therefore what used to be common is now uncommon and any sense that is worthwhile would be good hence the term is more appropriately referred to as "good sense".