Writing in the Chapel Hill News, Carol Henderson laments that Americans are too lazy or simply too unconcerned with the truth to actually research political candidates. Instead, she writes, we just swallow the spin.
We learned in school that democracy depends on an informed electorate. Nowadays, those seeking power through the election process seem to have decided otherwise. Facts are buried, myths and falsehoods rule. Why? Because it works, say the political operatives. Why does it work? Apparently because too many Americans seem too lazy to check campaign messages against facts.
True. And it’s only going to get worse. Lots of Americans have decided government should make the tough decisions for them. And once the tough decisions are made, say about health care or education, then government should pay for it. “Government,” of course, is code for “somebody else.”
There’s no need to seek out facts and data when you’ve ceded responsibility to someone else.
