Why do so many seemingly intelligent people fail to think? They fail to review Trump’s economic, crime, foreign and security policies? Then study the histories of Kamala Harris – until recently despised in her own party – and Tim Walz, likewise disdained? Call it the “Harris-Walz Mystery.” What is behind it?
Why do so many people who, by comparison, study the backs of cans, jars, and boxes for calorie counts, amounts of saturated fat, sodium, carbs, and protein, and not care about picking good leaders?
How can so many parents not worry – day and night – for the wellbeing of their children in schools, what they are being taught, forced to accept, safety in bathrooms and locker rooms, moral compass, exposure to drugs and crime? Why do they not think harder?
How can so many smart young people not see that energy solutions include balance, affordable fossil fuels and nuclear, unaffordable solar and wind, the value in being calm, not hysterical?
How can so many good hearts not appreciate that America is not an accident, that they did not get mobile phones, digital media, cures for diseases, and knowledge of the universe, just by chance?
How can we not want to understand history, the hard-won history of freedom, how delicate that human desire and right is in practice, how easy it is to crush, how crushable we all are?
How can they not want to understand Mankind’s long battle to get here, to have lives defined by God-given rights, limits on government, protections for faith and speech, a balanced Constitution?
How can seniors not see their life savings are being drained by the Biden-Harris – and now would be by Walz – government power centralized, consolidated by handouts, inflation made permanent?
How do they not see the enormity and momentum in inflation as a hidden tax, stealing value from them daily, that Biden-Harris were taking nine percent of their savings (annualized) in August 2022?
How can they not see the wisdom in stopping illegal entry into the US to keep citizenship and civic cohesion alive, keep us safe, keep our electoral system safe, kids safe, stop the rising drug overdoses on Chinese fentanyl, Mexican and Colombian cocaine, heroin, and meth?
Where is common sense? How can people who count pennies for gas, not see the cause of their pain? How can the thought process that people apply to safely crossing a street, trusting people who talk bluntly, even if rudely works daily, but then entrust themselves to those who are not leaders?
Jonathan Swift stumbled on the answer, years ago, when he noted people are easily led astray. Many give up thinking, let feelings guide them, and they are hard to get back. Wrote Swift: “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” In other words, logic, facts, and life experience may not work on those guided by loose, lazy, fluffy feelings.
Does that mean we should stop trying? No, we must keep trying to persuade, but false narratives and deliberately sown prejudice get get deeply rooted, and are hard to undo, as we all know.
We are in a perilous moment, many claiming to attest for things that are not true, class warfare and racist ideas reseeded for political gain by the current government, calling good bad and bad good.
Even George Orwell (1984) knew control of information flow is everything; those who control the past control the future. Our First Amendment rights are plainly at risk, yet many still do not see it.
So, about this “Harris-Walz Mystery”…Why are so many smart people willing to follow this deceptive pair, dishonest, calculating, power-concentrating in ways that endanger the future?
The answer is a giant slight-of-hand, as used to protect Biden, shifting all to Trump-Vance, the old denial, deception, and deflection. Half-truths, untruths, helping people hate, is their strategy.
Yes, it’s a food fight, both sides undermining each other, but the imbalance is profound, one side abusing power for profit and to prosecute enemies, which – if unchecked – may kill the Republic.
That side is now counting on a chunk of centrist America to pay no attention, do no more original thinking, ask no hard questions of Harris-Walz, indulge hope and also hate to win the day.
That is their strategy: Keep people off balance, keep them from digging deeper, thinking harder, comparing policies, examining Harris and Walz. Why do so many intelligent people fail to think? It takes effort, and it is easier not to, just to assume the best and accept what others tell them.
We have created an intellectually lazy cohort among voters, a group that would rather be given things than work for them, have others think for them, imagine ignorance outweighs knowledge.
No wonder Isaac Asimov, arguably one of the deepest thinkers of our time, warned: “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States…nurtured by the false notion that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’” There you have it, a caution shared by our founders: Think or perish.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
Well RBC, the simple answer to your question is that a lot of people don’t think critically. They can’t assess information properly nor can they formulate an appropriate solution, even at a very high level lacking specific details, as to what might or would actually remedy the situation.
The reason most people don’t think critically is that they have never been taught how to do so. Therefore, you can’t and shouldn’t expect most people would have a skill and mindset that they have never been taught in the first place. Thus what you have since the 1970’s is an increasing percentage of the overall population of this country making their decisions by either their emotions or “whatever sounds right” to them or the talking heads they listen to and obey on TV.
Critical thinking skills used to be taught in our public schools decades ago, but since Nixon created and federalized the Department of Education, and essentially handed public education over to the left in this country, the level of critical thinking skills in the overall population has been a steady downtrend. Thus, what you call “common sense” has been steady eroding since then. I do like that you used the quote by Asimov to end your article. A cult of ignorance is exactly what the left has set out to create in this country, so they could get public support to enact the changes to this nation that would allow Marxist policies to transform this nation. A nation of so-called useful idiots are exactly what the left in this country set out to do once Nixon handed them the means to do it on an accelerated timetable.
RBC, your article hit the nail on the head. Today’s population is focused on oneself and not in tune with their surroundings. Education has gone downhill since the teachings of the Bible were removed from institutions of learning. The Left control most of the professors that are instructing and molding young adults to the tune of the Left’s agenda. A wake up call is needed as I observe conservatives switching their allegiance to the Left.
Don’t underestimate Trump Derangement Syndrome! Many I assume are not voting “for Kamala” but “not for Trump” thanks to a collaborative media whose every story is “Trump bad/Kamala good”.
Walz/Harris two cringe worthy people. The gruesome twosome! Scary.
This is one of the best “common sense” articles I’ve read about what’s happening to our country. Should be shared with everyone you know.
Thinking about the matter of reasoning after reading this article — and comparing the need to think responsibly, intelligently, the way anything grows ,a plant , a tree for example , let’s say an apple tree , the seed,the roots, the tree, leaves, the apple. provides a connection with how things function And so it should be with political thought and responsibilities .The Jonathan Swift comment gets to the core of the issue. Mathematics is a form of reasoning ,should be thought of in that sense all of the time. You are very right Robert in addressing this matter of detachment by so many about issues of great importance. Eratosthenes ,the Greek mathematician ( about 350 B.C. ) in Alexandria ,Egypt, the brain center of the world at that time , reckoned the circumference of the earth to within just about 200 miles using only a form of sun dial and measurement of the shadow of the Sun. Eratosthenes was the chief librarian in Alexandria, Egypt and that was a significant advancement of knowledge for geography, navigation, mathematics, astronomy . If that achievement were taught in grade schools I do believe it would be at least a part of stimulating the kind of thought that would contribute to a higher level of thinking that is needed today. Well done with this article RBC . With respect .
Maybe people do vote mainly by their short term pocketbook.So,with our huge welfare state today,so many are dependent on government and vote for the party promising them the most stuff.
When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. — Ben Franklin .
A very good article, makes me think that people are very self centered and preoccupied with themselves so much , centered on the superficial ,that they can’t see or think past their own nose .Especially the affluent and those fancying themselves above the basket of deplorables We are lacking common sense.
Spot on!
Great questions: I have asked myself similar questions since the 2020 election. Harris & Walz remind me of Laurel and Hardy but I don’t know which is which!
Right on Robert. So good to know there are people to Agree with.
Bob McEwen Easy As Pie on YouTube
There is an AMAC mole who kept me from entering my comment early this afternoon.
The left has ZERO ability to think critically – or think at all.
Why did the RNC support McCain and Pailin? And the DNC support Harris and Waltz?
Were / are both parties doing what they could to get rid of them in each case. Just giving up an election while keeping power thru congress?
Why else would they support those distinctive running mates?