1 - Political Stories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2016
Summary
Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative, mental map, or intuitive theory.
Steven Pinker, “College Makeover” (2005)On the way to exploring who tells or does not tell political stories, and to considering why that happens, we may start with the last presidential election. Barack Obama's win in 2012 was modest compared to those of most recent, re-elected incumbents. Furthermore, his margin of victory, which was smaller than in 2008, probably came more from the President's get-out-the-vote organization than from his liberal platform, which wandered from issue to issue and did not project a powerful narrative of where America was, whether that was good or bad for its people, and how the country should proceed.
Friendly journalists complained all along that the President needed an attractive narrative – or “story,” in popular terms. Thus Thomas Friedman wrote in 2009:
I don't think that President Obama has a communications problem, per se. He has given many speeches and interviews broadly explaining his policies and justifying their necessity. Rather, he has a ‘narrative’ problem. He has not tied all his programs into a single narrative that shows the links between his health care, banking, economic, climate, energy, education and foreign policies. Such a narrative would enable each issue and each constituency to reinforce the other and evoke the kind of popular excitement that got him elected.
Or, as Paul Krugman wrote in 2011: “What have they done with President Obama? … Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn't seem to stand for anything in particular? … Arguably, all he has left is the bully pulpit. But he isn't even using that – or, rather, he's using it to reinforce his enemies’ narrative.”
At the same time, Mitt Romney's candidacy in 2012 was weak. The former Governor went very far right during the Spring primaries. Moreover, in a leaked parlor talk to potential Republican donors, he offended many independent voters in the Fall by characterizing 47 percent of Americans as “takers” from government and therefore automatic supporters of Obama.
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- Politics without StoriesThe Liberal Predicament, pp. 11 - 29Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016