George Rebane
These eyes have seen many presidential elections, but none like this one. I’m still walking around the house, tea cup in hand, in semi-shock. Yesterday when the sun set we were hanging by a thin thread of hope that ‘that change’ would not come to pass. It was not to be. The community organizer has now been promoted to re-organize the country. Brian Caplan (The Myth of Rational Voter – Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies) most recently warned that the sheep would carry the day. And indeed they have not only elected our new leader, but given him a co-minded Congress of the kind not seen since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society fell upon the country in the 1960s. A fall from which the country has yet to recover, and now looks as if the malady has become chronic.
To consider how the overwhelming fraction of voters decide, it is primarily through the repeated effects of the intellectually light, emotionally penetrating sound bite. In concert with dropping adult literacy rates, the average length of the political sound bite has shrunk precipitously in recent times. Cultural historian Kiku Adatto reports that from 1968 to 1988 the average sound bite from a presidential candidate dropped from 42.3 to 9.8 seconds. In 2000 this had fallen to just 7.8 seconds. I would venture that this election saw that number reduced even more. The candidate who has the money to hose the most of such 7.8 second tidbits into our heads will inevitably win. Displaying the ignorance of the voter in new ways is now the stock in trade for commentators and comedians alike. As the social problems have become more complex, their communication has become more abbreviated, and the comprehension of both has gone by the board. The folks who have the background to study the issues, and do, represent a vanishing fraction of the electorate. As a body politic we have voted for the brightly colored wrapper and will soon discover the gift we have given ourselves.
I don’t know what President-elect Barack Hussein Obama will call his new program of hopeful change, probably something like ‘The Caring and Sharing Society’. And maybe the new taxes will at least buy good looking uniforms for our President’s new Civilian National Security Force.
My personal hope is that from somewhere, not yet known, there will arise a steadying influence to counter the command from the helm for ‘Left Full Rudder!’ I would consider it a boon, dear Reader, if you could share such a hopeful vision with the rest of us that goes beyond ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’.
rebanesruminations.com 
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