This "How Obama Got Elected" video is making the rounds:
Apparently it's the basis for a forthcoming documentary. It's getting a lot of sympathy, particularly from those who are weary of Michael Moore movies claiming that the NRA and the KKK are the same thing and so forth. But it's a dangerous trap to fall into.
To be quite honest, I would have a hard time believing that a series of videotaped interviews of McCain supporters would have shown them looking much smarter.
We have to be realistic about what democracy actually means: the voting public is not made up of a bunch of political wonks who spend all their time writing impassioned essays. It’s made up of regular people who only think about politics once every four years, and who chiefly get their voting directions from friends, family, maybe a TV ad or two, and Jon Stewart. And that’s a feature, not a bug. Democracy means trusting even an uninformed populace to make the generally right decision.
Of course, if the argument is that a biased media is sabotaging the concept of an uninformed populace, then there’s a point to be made. But this isn’t a great way to lead into it if they’re trying to score scientific points.
Then again, if who they’re trying to appeal to is the “uninformed general populace” and not a bunch of scientifically-minded political bloggers, well…
Brian Tiemann
