The people who want you terrified of losing your democracy should probably explain why they keep losing your money.
They can locate a threat to the republic in a school board meeting. Finding out who cashed a government check apparently requires a presidential administration, a federal investigation, and several years of patience. And during the investigation, the taxpayer is expected to keep sending money. Your government may not know where the last payment went, but it knows precisely when the next one is due.
That’s where I want to start our discussion of the midterms. What actually determines how people vote? Is it the economy? Crime? Immigration? Their children? And how much does the answer depend on which consequence has finally reached their house?
Because people have political opinions, and then they have experiences. Those two things can coexist comfortably for years—until the experience starts making the opinion look ridiculous.
A man can support every criminal justice theory his party produces. Then somebody steals his car while he’s putting groceries in it. Suddenly, he has a few practical questions about the program. Where is the criminal? Where is the car? And why is the person explaining the criminal’s difficult circumstances acting as though the victim has interrupted something?
That voter didn’t necessarily become a conservative. He became involved.
And involvement changes your attention. Before the carjacking, crime was something he evaluated through a television screen. Now he evaluates it through an insurance deductible. The distance between those two positions can be measured in dollars, inconvenience, and the realization that the person who wrote the policy gets to go home without dealing with any of it.
Groceries make the same argument every week. Politicians can tell you what an economic indicator means. Your grocery cart tells you what your paycheck means. You remember what you bought before. You know what you put back today. Nobody needs to explain purchasing power to a woman who has been buying food for the same family for twenty years.
Kevin Jackson has been called, the "white-collar" Joe Rogan. Given their similar backgrounds in TV, comedy, and martial arts, it's easy to see why people enjoy Kevin's show so much.
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