A PSYCHOLOGIST'S ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN POLITICS

Imagine a presidential election between two candidates:

CANDIDATE A: An individual whose positions on the issues (taxes, gun control, abortion, energy/environmental issues, foreign policy, etc.) align with ALL of your positions, but only because the interest groups supporting those positions donated to this person’s campaign.

CANDIDATE B: An individual whose positions on the issues align with only HALF of your positions, but this candidate’s positions were chosen after careful consideration of what would be best for all segments of the country.

Which candidate would you vote for? More importantly, to which candidate’s campaign would you donate money?

If you are like most people, while you might appreciate CANDIDATE B’s thoughtfulness, you’d probably still vote for CANDIDATE A, and you’d be much more likely to donate your hard-earned money to CANDIDATE A than CANDIDATE B… and this is why I believe our politics are as fractured and polarized as they are.

As a psychologist, my job gives me the privilege of talking intimately with people from all walks of life about their deepest beliefs. As you might imagine, there isn’t a single person I’ve spoken to who believes her opinions are wrong. Can everyone be right? I believe the answer is both “yes” and “no.” While no single person’s perspective is universally correct, I believe that within the context of each person’s life, each individual’s worldview can be correct. It is like the famous parable about three blind men grasping different parts of an elephant, with one (holding the trunk) comparing it to a snake, another (holding the leg) comparing it to a tree trunk, and the third (holding the tail) comparing it to a rope.

Since all of us believe that our opinions are correct, and at the same time we believe that the world needs fixing, this usually leads to the conviction that to fix our problems some other person needs to change and make a sacrifice. We don’t need to change ourselves, of course, because we have the “right” beliefs; we just need to convince other people to change their selfish ways or vote for someone who will force them to do so. This myopia, which exists within us all, is the reason why I may be the only person who has sympathy for our politicians.

In addition to being a psychologist I am also a former political junkie (now in recovery). I used to read several newspapers each day from across the political spectrum, and I still speak regularly with friends who have served in various government positions (some at the highest levels of government). What I have learned from my experiences is that our politicians are not the problem: WE are the problem. We the people are a self-centered lot; and with the expansion of media (e.g., cable TV and the internet) allowing us to avoid all news sources except those that confirm our previously-held beliefs, we have become more polarized and self-righteous with each passing year.

Our politicians are not the ones leading the charge on most issues: they are simply responding to the extreme positions that so many Americans espouse (read some news blogs on virtually any subject if you don’t believe me). At the same time they desperately need to get attention by any means necessary – usually by saying outlandish things to break into the 24-hour news cycle – to raise money for their campaigns. The media, of course, love to play along because reporting on politicians’ outlandish utterances generates buzz, sells newspapers, boosts ratings and increases website traffic. And just who is buying these newspapers, watching these salacious news shows and clicking on those internet articles? IT’S US!

It is all a game of mutual self-interest between the media and politicians and we keep getting duped into taking it all so seriously. Perhaps the person who understands this best is Donald Trump. Donald Trump’s run for president is one of the greatest spectacles of performance art I have ever seen (right up there with Stephen Colbert’s run for president in 2012). The rise of his over-the-top candidacy has exposed our political system for what it really is: a bad reality show, centered on style over substance, that we just CAN’T STOP WATCHING! Yes, Donald Trump is leading the Republican field for the same reason that "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" has been a hit show for 10 seasons: Americans are thoroughly entertained by the spectacle!

While Trump doesn’t need our money for his campaign, what he craves is attention and he has duped both conservatives and liberals into giving him an endless supply. He has fooled conservatives into believing that he is actually one of them, using extremist rhetoric on immigration and President Obama’s birth certificate to do so; however, he has espoused positions on several issues over the years (like support for single-payer healthcare, higher taxes on capital gains, and abortion rights… until recently) that are as liberal as Bernie Sanders. And with the same rhetoric (plus an added pinch of sexism) he has fooled liberals into fearing him, which only serves to bolster his street cred among conservatives so he can say to them: “I’m the guy that those elitist, East Coast, latte-drinking liberals fear most, so support me if you want to make them miserable.” It is a stroke of marketing genius reminiscent of salesman Sylvester McMonkey McBean from Dr. Seuss’s classic "The Sneetches." The Donald has also forged a co-dependent relationship with the media, who need him to foment controversy to sell copy and boost ratings, while providing him (and his ego) with what he really needs: ubiquitous coverage of everything he does. Somewhere, George Steinbrenner is looking down and smiling.

So in 2016, while only one candidate can win, if you don’t want to lose, heed this advice: Don’t let the staged drama of the reality show that is our political system raise your blood pressure. It is all a spectacle of performance art – produced by the media, acted out by the politicians, and funded by interest groups – designed to get your blood boiling, and it’s not nearly as entertaining as "House of Cards."