. Don’t trust the Washington media priests’ pronouncements about what “the people” think. The priests spend a lot more time talking to one another than they do talking to “the people,” so they basically have no idea what people think. You’ll recall that virtually every prediction out of Washington before the 1998 by-elections was that “the people” were going to punish the Democrats because Clinton had infuriated them by slipping out of the grasp of the morals police. Democrats won those elections, Newt Gingrich was forced from office, and Bill Clinton left the White House on his own schedule, with higher approval ratings than George W. Bush enjoys right now in many polls.
The Washington media caricature people on both sides — conservatives live in a small town in the heartland and teach Bible study; liberals spend their Sunday mornings in coffee houses in Berkeley or Burlington, Vermont. That’s a mistake, but the media make another one that’s even more crucial: They believe that their concerns are the people’s concerns. So they behold an America obsessed with Saddam Hussein and the sniper in their midst. Their recent track record all but guarantees us that Americans’ thoughts are elsewhere.
Monday, October 21, 2002
Michael Tomasky, subbing for Alterman, has some interesting points today.