A week after election day in the US and there are more and more signs that the Republicans know they must ditch the crazy, populist, dumbed-down version of conservatism that was the Tea Party and return to a principled, intellectual conservatism that at least stands a chance of appealing to more than a group of retired white Church ladies from Omaha. Today's Politico has a piece on Bobby Jindal saying just that.
Another aspect of reality has to do with listening to dissenting voices and understanding that criticism is not treason. There have been reports that the Romney campaign simply didn't believe the poll numbers and chose to believe outliers like Gallup.
There are some parallels, as usual, with Chile, which I point out here. In highly polarized societies people don't want to be challenged by views which differ from their own. Each side operates in its own reality and has little contact with the outside world. Such it was with the recent electoral results in places like Providencia, where the mayor was so convinced he would win, he did not see the demographic changes taking place right before his eyes. He saw no need to campaign as hard as his opponent or to show up to televised debates. He lost.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment