American spirit an enigma to Viscount
In a recent BBC broadcast titled “Why do people vote against their own self-interest?” Third Viscount of Doxford David Runciman condescends to inform listeners with his thoughts on the subject:
“Last year, in a series of ‘town-hall meetings’ across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms.
What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.
[I]t is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform – the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state – are often the ones it seems designed to help.”
Runciman, who is a liberal political scientist at Cambridge University and heir to his family’s viscountcy, answers the lede question simply, “Anger.” “Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford?” Runciman claims it is not that Americans are uninformed or stupid, it’s because we have a deep and long-standing “paranoia” when it comes to government and political leaders. (I can’t imagine how such distrust and loathing of government ever got started in the colonies!)
Runciman adds that success in American politics depends on “stories not facts,” claiming the Left usually has the facts on their side but that the Right does a better job of using “stories” to bolster their positions. He cites author Drew Westen saying “stories always trump statistics, which means the politician with the best stories is going to win.” (Take away tales of Republican avarice and greed, compassionless conservatives, health care tragedies, foreclosures and oppression of “minorities” and most Democrat campaign facts could be cataloged on the back of freshman’s crib-sheet.)
Finally, Runciman cites Thomas Frank, the author of the best-selling book What’s The Matter with Kansas, who says that Americans suffer a self-imposed oppression that he calls “reverse revolution.” Frank explains, “It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy. [W]hatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different.”
I am skeptical about how much insight a British aristocrat, a Bush-hating moonbat and a liberal elite academician may have into American politics in general and in particular the revolutionary spirit of Americans. I don’t think Runciman, Westen or Frank really appreciate the desire of most Americans to live their lives with as much freedom as possible and with the least amount of government interference. I don’t think they understand the principles of self-reliance and rugged individualism that forged this country into the greatest, most prosperous and beneficent nation in history. I don’t think they understand the deep distrust that we hold of anyone that would rule us and that that distrust is embodied in our very Constitution, which we hold to be sacrosanct and the only worldly authority deserving our love and respect.
I don’t suppose they would understand the words of one of our founders any more than did King George III:
“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”–Samuel Adams
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