Politicians have always served up the issues as a smorgasbord of feelings – usually with extra helpings of fear and outrage. In the cut throat world of soundbites emotion plays better than facts and conventional wisdom tells anyone with political aspirations that they must get their message to their target audience in twenty seconds or less. Emotions have dominated politics from time immemorial, but election years showcase the feelings of the players with more fervor than a high school gossip recounting the latest antics of the school football team.
Michele Bachmann (R-MN) stared into the camera yesterday and announced her heart was “[...] broken for a female college student in Minnesota who was raped, murdered and mutilated by a foreign national”. The congresswoman was speaking to CNN about the humanitarian crisis at the southern border. Along with many of her colleagues Rep. Bachmann has described the thousands of refugees who have traveled to the United States in an attempt to escape violence in their native homelands as an invasion of our country, one that must be stopped at all costs. She’s hardly unique in her comparison of displaced children with murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and disease ridden vermin.
But fear is not the only feeling politics traffics in. Last Friday Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) spoke at a meeting of the Republican Study Committee about how the GOP should address the party’s poor relationship with women voters. They contend the problem many woman have with their party is not one of policy, but one of messaging. “It’s how we are able to articulate ourselves - make sure we get the point across that we care,” Ellmers said.
It appears to be the opinion of the Republican Study Committee that a semblance of compassion is more important to the voting public than the practical effect of political policy.
Unfortunately politicians aren't the only ones guilty of leaning the body politic on the crutch of emotion. We the People stand equally guilty. We feed on the scandals, the outrage, the conflict and the arguments like a vampire gleefully glutting herself on her victim’s blood. We listen to appeals to emotion and seek out news sources more interested in keeping us entertained and interested in their brand of propaganda rather than sitting down calmly and researching the truth. For the most part we don’t want cold facts and careful reasoning – it’s to boring. It lacks drama. If politicians and journalists were to speak to us calmly, explain what was going on and suggest a solution or two most of the American people would change the channel.
Evidence of our investment in emotional politics can be found among the public every time someone says, “I have to do what I feel is right”, “I have to vote my conscience”, or “I just don’t feel good about [insert issue or candidate here]“. For us our political decisions are made when feelings are running high and thinking is down. Most people who go to the polls don’t want to come out knowing they made the best reasoned choice for themselves and their community; they want to come out feeling like they did something righteous.
We don’t often stop to think about the price we are paying for all these feelings. Our country is in a very difficult position. We have financial problems, we have huge income disparity problems, we’re being forced to revisit the Civil Rights issues so many of us believed had been settled, we have infrastructure problems, campaign finance problems and foreign policy problems. Most of these problems are complex, they’re difficult but they are not impossible to solve – if we sit down and work our way through them with careful reasoning, stringent fact-based debate, and dedication to finding meaningful solutions.
Voters need to learn to treat the act of voting as an act of intellectualism. Feelings are wonderful but policy should be made with a thinking mind, not a beating heart. The thinking mind is the best tool we have for solving problems. It’s the only one we have that can balance ethics, compassion and reason, and then apply all three to existing issues. The thinking mind is the only way we can reach out to people who don’t share our beliefs. Only with the thinking mind can we achieve compromise. Only with the thinking mind can we reestablish effective governance.
It’s time to put our hearts into a supporting role and let our minds lead us into the future.