What New Hampshire Voters Really Said
What a kerfuffle!
The press anoints Obama in Iowa, then gets caught smirking by the re-ascendance of Queen Hillary in New Hampshire. Is the press getting its come-upance?
That’s the story if you watch John Stewart lampooning Wolf Blitzer, Lou Dobbs and any network besides Comedy Central.
That’s also how Daniel Henninger’s Wall Street Journal article “Thomas E. Obama" sees it, invoking the flawed announcement of Dewey’s supposed defeat of Truman:
Here’s a simple explanation for what happened in New Hampshire. In the 96 hours between Thursday’s victory by Barack Obama in Iowa and Tuesday morning, enough election output poured over voters to fill the entire Truman-Dewey campaign of 1948. This thunder said: Barack Obama is the party nominee, a new era has dawned on American politics and the election is now about "change." Like Dewey, he can’t lose. New Hampshirites did what normal people do. They pushed back.
Lesson learned: In elections yet to come in the Internet Age, it will be the habit of the media to overdo it. As is their wont, the voters will undo it.
But the “voters revolt” theme has one big flaw: the polls blew only the Democratic primary—they nailed the GOP results. Did only Democrats revolt?
What about New Hampshire residents’ preferred view—their streak of stubborn independence (“we’re not gonna let a bunch of corn farmers tell us how to think”)? But that requires us to believe that all voters lied to the pollsters. Like most conspiracy theories, this one overstates humans’ ability to organize.
Let’s throw three other factors into the hopper.
One is race.
And if your nose just crinkled in a scowl at the above line, then you must go read a most thoughtful article by Shelby Steele (in Time magazine, of all places) called The Identity Card.
It deftly explains why white and black America alike are ensnared by wishes and denials about race—and how Obama is a lightning rod for all who hope we have transcended it. A good example could be seen on George Stephanopoulos’ ABC News roundtable Sunday: George introduced the race hypothesis, then instantly led the rush to distance himself from the idea—closely followed by everyone on his roundtable but Claire Shipman.
I don’t know how race may have affected the vote—I’m just suspicious of the rush to deny its relevance. Race is, simply, omnipresent in America. The wishful rush to deny it is understandable, but suspicious of itself.
The second factor is Hillary’s “crying.” Maureen Dowd, Gloria Steinem, the Republicans—everyone piled on immediately, staking out positions on gender, emotion, power, class.
And everyone’s theory probably differed a bit from your own, personal, immediate reaction. Instantly, the pundits were telling you what to think about something very personal—not just a vote, but a feeling—and how it explained you politically.
Now add the third factor—what I’ll call the Personal Heisenberg Principle. In physics, at a subatomic level, the act of measuring something can actually affect the measurement itself. At a human level—the same.
It’s one thing to tell me who everyone else is voting for. Annoying? Maybe. But it’s not particularly personal.
But mix in the personal. Throw in race and gender; tell people how they should feel about each.
Tell them publicly, statistically, with rhetorical flourish, from the anchorman’s desk, hours before going to the polls, that their innermost psyches are predictable, categorizable, and easy to segment int politically predefined categories. All the while claiming it’s about “change” and “experience.”
It’s one thing to tell me I’m going to vote like people in another state. It’s another to claim to objectively predict my innermost feelings, unclear even to myself, about some of the more complex issues in society today—like race and gender.
Which, of course, were only on display in the Democratic primary.
I know it’d irk me. I’d go and vote for—for—well, the opposite of whatever they told me I was going to vote for. Just to piss ‘em off.
When you pretend to know me, and you don’t—I don’t trust you.
Take that—all y’all. That’s what the voters were saying.
At least, I think so.
Hard to escape American politics right now, huh Charlie?
And in this climate, one has to wonder if voting even matters anymore. After all, it’s pretty clear these votes aren’t accurately even counted, except to skew the outcome – all by design, I might add.
Those MSM shills are but propagandists beholden to their paymasters; so, therefore, they’re absolutely unbelievable… and hardly trustworthy.
As you so ably point out.
They base their "analyses" on corrupted polling data which, in and of itself, is not close to being scientific. Thus, their sainted "opinions" don’t count for anything but to deceive the brain-dead American public.
This fictitious data is used to gain (1) attention, (2) reputation, and (3) trust. Then the herd unthinkingly follows along with our thought leaders‘ manufactured narratives.
One has merely to follow the money trail to know these paymasters are beholden to their own self-aggrandizement… and to the warmongers.
After all, war is a growth industry. Anybody else making lots of money… serve industries which are their advertisers.
Maybe that consumer revolt will be imposed on us… no matter what happens. Still, it’d be nice to elect a candidate who actually has the executive power to begin shrinking the size and scope of this government behemoth.
We can start by abolishing the IRS and fundamentally changing our foreign policy of naked aggression. Maybe we can legalize the Constitution, de-legitimate murder and piracy, and nationalize the banks.
It’s either we, the people take back the control… or we roll over… and play dead. Because, in the scheme of things, we are simply NOT a free people at all.
In fact, we’re in very real danger of losing our national sovereignty to this banking cartel, once and for all.
Good grief! Our own government is not even entitled to audit their books!
So, our enslavement may already be a fact… which is why we’ve witnessed so much treasonous behavior… by our "elected" representatives in government.
Maybe it’s why our so-called democracy is just a fiction… being maintained strictly for appearances’ sake.
And lying is big business these days. Like war, the profits are up, up, up. As with all successful capitalist enterprise, the trend is to collude, control, and effectively manage the markets where targeted investment can grow.
When we sanction a monopoly over money in a globalized capitalist economy, maintain it with what amounts to a counterfeit currency at the point of a gun, we merely grant these pirates even greater license to steal.
Dumbed-down Americans are being used to point their guns at those who do not comply to their machinations and grand designs. For our controllers… everything is a gigantic emergency… if their subterfuge is brought into question… or their power is ever seriously challenged.
This set of circumstances can only lead to totalitarianism and communitarian law – usurping all rule of law pertaining to natural rights and personal freedoms under our original Constitution.
To illustrate: If you owned a herd of sheep you’d want them to remain docile… so they could – one-by-one – be economically fleeced or led to "humane" slaughter… solely at your command. If you corner the market on sheep… naturally, you’d have surrogates do all this dirty work, wouldn’t you? Because next, the new game is on… to cornering the markets… for everything else that matters.
We became that nation of sheep when we chose to outsource our critical thinking to become serfs in servitude to our masters. If we cannot trust in the value of our money, and we can’t keep all the fruits of our labors; and we lose property and privacy rights, or lose the right to protect these rights or else defend ourselves from aggression… what have we left – privileges and benefits brought about via coercion and forced control?
This ain’t my definition of freedom, baby!
For the keepers of the fiction… that help to maintain this lust for total control… these anointed chosen few… in the media and academia… from think tanks…tax-free churches… and foundations… are already compliant… complicit… and effectively bought-and-paid-for – so why would anyone want to pay heed… except to learn how to escape… from all their controlling influence?
But the even sadder truth is… we, the people… are going down hard… big-time… if we don’t choose to emerge from our collective apathy… united… and stand up to these gatekeepers and prison wardens… of our own institutionalized oppression.
Just remember the story of the two frogs and the two pots of water. 😉