If Only It Were So

Andrew Sullivan, the oft-wrong but always well-informed, had a link on his site to a recent Pew study detailing how, in a mere decade and change, the neo-con revolution has crashed and burned. Of course, someone like me would take tremendous joy in such a revelation, if only I could believe that this was some permenant sea change. On a person by person basis, you like to think that people are intelligent, thoughtful, good...and you tend to see that people aren't easily swayed. However, when you look at the public at large, through research, polls, or reality television, the opposite seems to be true. People, collectively, are under-informed, misguided, selfish, and change their opinions about as often as they change their clothes. For example, recent surveys find that over 60 percent of people say that the war in Iraq was unnecessary and a bad idea..which is easier to do in hindsight I suppose, but you'll notice that a mere 5 years ago roughly that many people thought the war was a great idea (I not being one of them).

Sure, this Pew research study finds that since 1994, fewer people have faith in the Republican party, more people support social welfare programs and proposals to alleviate poverty no matter the cost, and more people are accepting of minorities/alternate lifestyles/alternate religious beliefs. The same study found that the number of admitted atheists, though still a discriminated minority, is increasing with each generation which would seem to contradict all of the social evidence as of late. The fact is, amid the Republican scandals recently - and boy have their been a lot - people are frustrated and willing to say just about anything. But that can all change quickly. Prior to September, 2001, lots of people thought George W. was a bumbling idiot and partisan hack, but suddenly people realized that, no, he wasn't. What that terrorist attack on his watch taught most Americans was that he was a visionary and hero. None of that was true, obviously, but it became the common perception that no one was eager to question. If there were another terrorist attack tomorrow, perhaps all of the successes of the Democrats would be forgotten in favor of once again calling them weak and unpatriotic, and all of the scandals of the Republicans would be forgotten because, hey, there's no time for ethics in war.

I'd like to get my hopes up and think that 2008 will bring a great change in our nation, where new ideas and new avenues of discussion will be opened - where the level of discourse will be raised and real solutions to pressing problems will be levied. But really, what are the odds. Nothing is permenant, and things can quickly change as we all have seen.