“There is life and then there is life in newspapers.” Alfred Wainwright (1907-1991), British author
THE MORNING AFTER THE ELECTION I woke up to the news and immediately and for the next few hours felt what was for me an unusual sense of well-being. After all, I write about politics, and my normal state of mind, regardless of the news, ranges from anxiety to worry.
No, I didn’t think the new president would fix everything, or even much. Our society is too divided and disrupted to depend on a single leader. So my sense of well-being was unsettling, if you can understand the mind of an elderly journalist.
Later in the week, attending my weekly card game, a collection of grizzled pessimists, killjoys and cheaters, I was even more surprised to find that the players around the table had the same warm feelings about to the fate of the nation. It was a real mystery.
But political science came to the rescue. The term “preference cascade” has been suggested to explain our feelings of promise.
Before we get to the heart of the matter, it can be argued that never before in the history of democratic elections have fewer kind words been spoken towards the winning candidate and so much vitriol scattered and lies sown. It was a grand experiment to determine whether human nature, particularly the American spirit, could be crushed by a ruling elite.
Fortunately, the law of preference cascade says that the will of the public, the zeitgeist, may be temporarily cursed but eventually overflows and continues to flow. I rely on Chatgpt for the full clinical explanation:
The term refers to a sudden change in public opinion, often triggered by a tipping point where individuals previously thought to have a minority or unpopular opinion are given the opportunity (an election, for example) to openly express their views. real preferences. “As more people begin to express the same view, others who might have been hesitant to speak out or take action also join in, leading to a cascading effect where the new preference spreads quickly. »
The left works constantly and powerfully to convince us that we are on the “wrong side of history.” But once in power, their policies defy human nature. Ultimately, to succeed in history, they must try to change it, and us – by force, sooner or later.
This feeling, dear friends, that we were in the minority and that the “change” had begun, had weighed on our hearts for a long time. What a relief to see him up, even for the moment. The election numbers made it clear that many others shared our concern about a powerful woke regime.
This is no small feat after decades of institutional propaganda, cancellation and censorship, militarization of the Justice Department and the FBI, ideological capture of universities, racial taunts, envy-driven hatred and concerted attempts to destroy our society in general. .
So hooray for now, let the preferences cascade!