Thinking about the Mike Huckabee/Chuck Norris ad, Akaison writes:
The problem with progressives is that we like to view the right like Darth Vadar when in fact they are more like the villains from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Remember that show? The villians were often as hip as the heros. They could banter just well as the good guys. That is until they snapped the neck of an unsuspecting coed. I think Chenney and Bush spoiled us for the realities of how good the GOP can be when they are smart about their game.
I don't know if thats a problem specific to progressives, so much as it's a generalized flaw with how most of us evaluate politics. We expect evil to look evil. We expect a fat cat to look like Dick Cheney, a belligerent imperialist to swagger with the simple arrogance of George W. Bush. We expect that when someone speaks like a caring individual, their policies will reflect that. Often, these heuristics work. In a world where we don't all have time to dig into policy platforms and talk to think tank experts, we allow personalities to stand in as informational short cuts. If a politician seems like a good person, their policy platform will probably be decent. If they seem like a bad person, their agenda will reflect that. This is not exactly an infallible analytical strategy.
