Who knew if you read the blogs? Eric Krol let’s everyone know what the average person actually cares about.
Yeah, one of my pet issues is the utter misunderstanding of many activists when it comes to the average person’s interest in their pet causes. Generally, they don’t give a damn. What do they care about? The weather.
TV isn?t getting off any easier ? I stopped counting the would-be jurors who ?watch TV news only to get the weather.?
The lack of knowledge about recent political events astounded me, not because I labor under any delusion that most of the public awaits every political story with bated breath, but because among a large pool of average people, the ignorance was almost universal. Jury selection also probably just reaffirms Chapter 1 in the political consultants? standard play book: you can win simply by running a flurry of negative TV ads, taking few solid positions and making even fewer promises. Few are paying attention, apparently.
Another day, I’ll defend rational ignorance–at least to a degree, but when political advocates, supporters and junkies get into a discussion of the minutia of a policy or of strategy describing how some specific item will turn an election, they miss that for the most part, most voters know nothing of the event. They have lives, most of us don’t.
Krol’s column is excellent and makes several great observations including the willingness of most people to serve on a jury out of civic responsibility–something most cynical observers of the political world view as little more than a nuisance to our pontificating.