Thanks, Fareed Zakaria, for Using Your Brain

Last week on CNN, Fareed Zakaria made yet another astute observation about our fragile democracy. That’s not too surprising, of course. This author/journalist/thinker-at-large gives intelligent commentary all the time in both print and broadcast media.

Besides being a columnist for Newsweek, editor of Newsweek International, and editor-at-large for Time, he’s written three international bestsellers. He now writes a weekly column for The Washington Post and hosts his own TV show Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN every Sunday morning.

Wow. In other words, he’s got a brain and he’s not afraid to use
it.

What’s absolutely startling, though, is how so few other seasoned members of the professional intelligentsia can communicate the way Mr. Zakaria can. Is he the only one who can figure out what’s going on and then succinctly tell us about it?

Is he really the only guy who gets it?

Maybe. Could be…

Last week on CNN, a discussion took place on how American politics have changed. So Fareed Zakaria — as guest commentator — provided this insight. I’m going to paraphrase it, but the geist of his thoughts remain intact and still ring true here. He not only identified a problem but was able to actually articulate it in terms that most viewers could understand (and that, in itself, is a gift).

He said American politics always used to center on the issues, and most of these issues were economic ones. So it was fairly easy to compromise when the economy was involved. But now our political landscape has become more and more about tribal/cultural identity. Now it’s much harder to compromise with something that personal, with something that’s so enmeshed in belief systems — and emotions.

Aha!

For years Karl Rove and the boys in the backroom have been operating GOP elections with this reality in mind. They realized that Americans vote with their emotions — and not with their intellect or common sense. So they’ve done everything to keep political campaigns dumbed-down to simplistic emotional levels that any third-grader could readily comprehend. They also turned voting itself into some kind of demographic litmus test.

Are voters really too stupid to know how they’re being played?

Or are they just waiting for someone else to point out what’s going on because they don’t want to believe that such deception could take place in our country?

Either way, not too many pundits and party strategists want to discuss what’s happening, let alone admit this subterfuge is actually taking place.

I can easily see how the GOP loyalists keep protecting their own from public scrutiny. I read their columns. I watch their TV appearances. I listen to their commentary. Every action is specifically designed to protect and defend the Republican party, not encourage thoughtful discussion.

Pay attention sometime, and you’ll see what I mean. They all keep following the same script. They all stay “on message.” They all keep repeating the same catchphrases and key words, over and over.

Welcome to All-American Political Propaganda 101, boys and girls. It’s gotten so pervasive that readers and viewers and listeners don’t often understand that it IS propaganda. Not quite the kind the Nazis and other fascist regimes have perpetrated but propaganda, nonetheless.

That’s why, in this kind of political climate, America needs journalists like Fareed Zakaria. We need intelligent thinkers to provide accurate information, then put it into historical and cultural context to stimulate our thinking. We need someone to ignite discussions so we can make our own decisions about what kind of country we want for the 21st Century.

Thanks, Fareed, for always trying to use your mind and for always trying to get us thinking, too.