In the wake of the good political news last night, especially from Ohio, let us pause and consider these questions from Charlie Pierce over at Esquire (penned before the results were in). Because at the end of the day, they are the ones that matter. And if we can’t answer them, then anything that happened yesterday will be less than a footnote.
Let’s assume that Kasich gets kicked around, the way it looks like he might, and the way he thoroughly deserves to be, god knows. What happens next? Is there really an actual movement building here, a parallel mobilization among the largely white middle class that would parallel the one taking place in the Occupy camps around the country? Or will the people on the lawn go back to sneering about the drum-beating hippies sleeping in the parks? Will they all leave the state capitol in Columbus and go back to listening to the hundreds of sub-Limbaughs on their local radio stations, telling them that teachers have it too good because they have summers off, or that firefighters are gaming the disability system, and that “government” is merely a way for all of Them to steal Our money, and that voting is just a waste of time? Do they all go back to worrying about The Deficit, which is merely convenient shorthand for all the things they don’t want to pay for? Do they all go home and prepare themselves, through ignorance and apathy, to vote for the next John Kasich who comes along?
What are the answers to these questions? And what are we supposed to do about it?
These are the questions that matter. Are these the mushy middle, the unquantifiable, unfindable, indescribable American polity that determines elections, yet seems indeterminate? Are they our friends and neighbors who might pay attention but have no strong, principled ideas about political theory, have no real ideology? Are they won over primarily by advertising, overheard punditry, talking points from their more partisan acquaintances?
If the question is about these people, who the heck knows, right? All we can do is hope they’re listening to us and not someone else.
“Are they our friends and neighbors who might pay attention but have no strong, principled ideas about political theory, have no real ideology?”
Do people like this actually exist? I don’t know any. How could someone be informed and have no opinions? What kind of strange creature they must be. And with our polarized media, it would almost be a kind of achievement. An annoying one, to be sure.