{"id":254,"date":"2011-10-14T21:52:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-15T01:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=254"},"modified":"2011-10-14T21:52:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-15T01:52:00","slug":"national-elections-and-the-will-of-the-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/10\/national-elections-and-the-will-of-the-people.html","title":{"rendered":"National Elections and “the Will of the People”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now, no supporter of Ron Paul\u2019s will find himself surprised by the glaring inconsistencies, outright distortions, and, frankly, boldfaced lies <\/em>to which Republican-friendly media figures will descend in their efforts to marginalize his presidential candidacy.\u00a0 Still, so unabashed is their illogic, so overt the dishonesty, it is nevertheless difficult not to be amazed, even mesmerized, by the audaciousness with which Paul\u2019s critics subject him to one injustice after the other.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For as ugly as it is, though, this phenomenon is not without its value.\u00a0 That is, it supplies us with a classic textbook illustration of what many of us have always known: it is <\/em>indeed politicians and their cohorts in the media, and not voters, who select candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joseph A. Schumpeter was a conservative theorist who was also among the most distinguished and erudite of social scientists of the first half of the twentieth century.\u00a0 In his Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, <\/em>Schumpeter debunks what he characterizes as \u201cthe classical doctrine of democracy.\u201d\u00a0 According to this doctrine, it is \u201cthe people itself\u201d that settle \u201cissues through the election of individuals who are to assemble in order to carry out its will.\u201d\u00a0 In reality, though, \u201cthe will of the people is the product<\/em> and not the motive power of the political process\u201d (emphasis mine).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem with this idealized notion of democracy\u2014a notion, mind you, that continues to prevail today, over two centuries <\/em>after it emerged\u2014is that it ascribes to \u201cthe will of the individual <\/em>an independence and a rational quality that are altogether unrealistic\u201d (emphasis original).\u00a0 Thomas Sowell, I believe it was, once said that ideology is fairy tales for adults.\u00a0 Schumpeter would agree.\u00a0 More specifically, inasmuch as the average democratic voter makes his decisions on the basis of largely \u201cextra-rational and irrational\u201d factors, he would say that the eighteenth century rationalist ideology of \u201cDemocracy\u201d is among the grandest \u201cfairy tales\u201d that had ever been invented.<\/p>\n

If the \u201cclassical doctrine of democracy\u201d was sound, then \u201ceveryone would have to know definitely what he wants to stand for,\u201d and this \u201cdefinite will would have to be implemented by the ability to observe and interpret correctly the facts that are directly accessible to everyone and to sift critically the information about the facts that are not.\u201d\u00a0 Then, \u201caccording to the rules of logical inference,\u201d the citizen should be able to draw \u201ca clear and prompt <\/em>conclusion as to particular issues\u201d (emphasis original)[.]<\/p>\n

This, though, is most certainly not how the average voter thinks. When it comes to politics, <\/em>his will, far from being \u201cdeterminate\u201d and \u201crational,\u201d is actually \u201can indeterminate bundle of vague impulses loosely playing about given slogans and mistaken impressions\u201d thrust upon him by \u201cpressure groups and propaganda[.]\u201d\u00a0 For the average voter, \u201cmere assertion, often repeated\u201d is much weightier than \u201crational argument\u201d could ever hope to be.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that the average voter is dumb.\u00a0 He attends carefully to those matters with which he is intimately bound, those concerning his family, friends, work, current financial condition, church, neighborhood, and town.\u00a0 When it comes to national politics, in fact, there are some<\/em> issues that engage him personally.\u00a0 But even then, voters not infrequently \u201cprove themselves bad judges of their own long-run interests, for it is only the short-run promise that tells politically and only short-run rationality that asserts itself effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumpeter explains that the average voter easily falls prey to the manipulative machinations of politicians, journalists, and pundits because, at bottom, national affairs generally have an air of unreality for him.\u00a0 \u201cNormally, the great political questions take their place in the psychic economy of the typical citizen with those leisure hour interests that have not attained the rank of hobbies, and with the subjects of irresponsible conversation.\u201d\u00a0 Issues concerning the nation as a whole \u201cseem so far off; they are not at all like a business proposition; dangers may not materialize at all and if they should they may not prove so very serious[.]\u201d\u00a0 In short, when it comes to national politics, the average voter \u201cfeels\u201d like he is \u201cmoving in a fictitious world.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe will\u201d of \u201cthe people\u201d of which politicians tirelessly proclaim themselves unqualified champions is, then, an \u201cartifact.\u201d\u00a0 Along with the issues themselves, it is \u201cmanufactured\u201d similarly to the ways in which the desires and wants of consumers are manufactured by \u201ccommercial advertising.\u201d\u00a0 As Schumpeter explains, in politics:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find the same attempts to contact the subconscious.\u00a0 We find the same technique of creating favorable and unfavorable associations which are the more effective the less rational they are.\u00a0 We find the same evasions and reticences [sic] and the same trick of producing opinion by reiterated assertion that is successful precisely to the extent to which it avoids rational argument and the danger of awakening the critical faculties of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumpeter\u2019s argument resonates more readily with our imagistic generation than it did in 1942 when he first composed it.\u00a0 While thinking about our national politics generally, and the media coverage of Ron Paul\u2019s candidacy in particular, we would be well served to call it to mind.<\/p>\n

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

originally published at The\u00a0New American\u00a0<\/p>\n

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By now, no supporter of Ron Paul\u2019s will find himself surprised by the glaring inconsistencies, outright distortions, and, frankly, boldfaced lies to which Republican-friendly media figures will descend in their efforts to marginalize his presidential candidacy.\u00a0 Still, so unabashed is their illogic, so overt the dishonesty, it is nevertheless difficult not to be amazed, even…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNational Elections and "the Will of the People"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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