Theorists assert that we can only know approximately 150 people intimately; it is from these individuals that we acquire our feeling of community and kinship.
On the flip side, this implies most of us are trapped in feedback mechanisms in which everyone we speak with shares our viewpoint. This has the potential to be lethal for politicians and parties.
When Senator Elizabeth Warren argues in the New York Times (as she just did) that Democrats losing ground in poll results is because they have not moved far enough or quickly enough to the far left, she exemplifies the issue.
Every piece of information received by the Massachusetts Democrat from her family, friends, coworkers, contributors, and staff supports her ideological inclination.
One of the reasons why prices are up? Corporations have figured out they can use inflation as cover to not only pass along their own increased costs to consumers, but also to price gouge to boost their profit margins. We need tougher rules to prevent price gouging.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 30, 2022
She could not be more wrong.
A True Believer
True believers are deafeningly blind.
They frequently struggle to comprehend how anyone else might disagree with them. When they come across others who do, they tend to frame their disputes in terms of moral failings, rather than ideological differences.
True believers become captives of their groupthink, unable to look beyond the horizon of their ideals, due to a lack of impartial objectivity.
The analysts and surveyors they hire to maintain neutrality and dispassion fall into line or are excommunicated.
Additionally, members of Twitter’s board of directors may assert that Elon Musk poses a severe threat to free speech by promising to remove their restrictions on free speech.
They honestly believe free speech is limited to expressions that conform to their view of reality. To the believer, speech that contradicts their worldview is not free; it is deadly “misinformation.”
OPINION: Elon Musk is threat to our democracy cries Elizabeth Warren as she works to undermine ithttps://t.co/Cc5fZZkKrQ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 30, 2022
Given all of this, it’s comprehensible, if not forgiving, that Warren argues for an even more dramatic swing to the far left to boost the Democrat Party’s electoral prospects.
Public officials chosen from states or regions profoundly colored by their partial views can be equally blinded.
However, what is President Joe Biden’s justification? He pledged to represent all Americans, not just those on the periphery of his political party.
Democrats preferred him over his rivals because he was more centrist. Yet, in practically every instance, Biden’s leadership advocates for policies that are at least as extreme as those of his party’s most radical members.
Potential Win For the GOP
If followed, Warren’s advice to Democrats ensures that Republicans will win districts and states they could not have imagined winning only a few months ago.
Additionally, it will clear her party’s benches in preparation for the 2024 nomination for president.
In the long term, the party’s echo chamber will make it abundantly clear to a large number of rational Democrats that their party has abandoned family, liberty, and values.
This echo chamber will also make it clear that it is Republicans who are functioning in reasonable ways to deliver on America’s promises of equality of opportunity, parental responsibility, and unbounded opportunity.
Most people are uninterested in sharing a room with Warren in an echo chamber as detached from reality as the one she has created.
