FEELINGS

Posted at 7:15 a.m. ET

It is no insult to the president-elect to say that many who voted for him did so out of emotion, rather than reason.  It's usually that way.  Emotion plays an enormous role in politics, something, I'm afraid, that our side didn't quite master in this campaign.  Well, maybe Sarah Palin mastered it, but not many others did.

Ronald Reagan mastered it.  "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" is an emotional chant, not an intellectual pursuit of policy.

Franklin Roosevelt mastered it. "With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God," was a rallying cry, not a statistical projection.

Barack Obama mastered it.  "Yes we can!" meant nothing, but it had impact.

Here at Urgent Agenda we often print stock-market bulletins.  We don't do it because we're economists who can interpret the market.  We do it because the market has an emotional impact on the American people, and therefore on politics. 

Mitchell Parrish, pictured left, was a distinguished lyricist who wrote the words to "Stardust,"Moonlight Serenade" and other standards.  Some years ago his work was featured at a series in New York that honored lyricists.  Just before the program began, Parrish addressed the audience.  He said, "When you hear my lyrics, don't analyze them, feel them."  We know what he meant.

We are facing tough times.  A new president soon takes office.  But don't look only at policy pronouncements, numbers, and quotes by Ivy League professors.  Look, and feel, the way the emotions of the nation are flowing.  They will determine, as much as policy, how the new president is perceived by the public.  Some of those emotions may seem completely divorced from facts, and floating on their own.  But not everything can be dissected or analyzed.  Please recall what Oscar Hammerstein II wrote in "South Pacific," trying to explain why people fall in love:  "Fools give you reasons, wise men never try."

Many fools will try to explain everything that will happen in America in the coming era.  Wiser men will be more careful.

November 13, 2008.      Permalink