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The Year Of The Reticent Voter
Wall Street Journal (Full Original Article)
by Peggy Noonan
9/24/16
Excerpt via: The News Commenter
9/23/2016
Added 09-23-16 09:51:02am EST - “Declarations columnist Peggy Noonan writes that people seem to feel that if they express a preference, they're inviting others to inspect their souls.” - Wsj.com
Posted By TheNewsCommenter: From Wsj.com: “The Year of the Reticent Voter”. Below is an excerpt from the article. Let us know what you think in the comments.
View an EXCERPT from the complete Wall Street Journal article at:
http://www.thenewscommenter.com/news...t-voter/630152
View the complete WSJ article, including image, at: (Subscription Required)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-year...ter-1474586866
Wall Street Journal (Full Original Article)
by Peggy Noonan
9/24/16
Excerpt via: The News Commenter
9/23/2016
Added 09-23-16 09:51:02am EST - “Declarations columnist Peggy Noonan writes that people seem to feel that if they express a preference, they're inviting others to inspect their souls.” - Wsj.com
Posted By TheNewsCommenter: From Wsj.com: “The Year of the Reticent Voter”. Below is an excerpt from the article. Let us know what you think in the comments.
The signature sentence of this election begins with the words “In a country of 320 million . . .” I hear it everywhere. It ends with “how’d it come down to these two?” or “why’d we get them?”
Another sentence is a now a common greeting among Republicans who haven’t seen each other in a while: “What are we gonna do?”
The most arresting sentence of the week came from a sophisticated Manhattan man friendly with all sides. I asked if he knows what he’ll do in November. “I know exactly,” he said with some spirit. “I will be one of the 40 million who will deny, the day after the election, that they voted for him. But I will.”
A high elected official, a Republican, got a faraway look when I asked what he thought was going to happen. “This is the unpollable election,” he said. People don’t want to tell you who they’re for. A lot aren’t sure. A lot don’t want to be pressed.
That’s exactly what I’ve seen the past few weeks in North Carolina, New Jersey, Tennessee and Minnesota.
Every four years I ask people if they’ll vote, and if they have a sense of how. Every four years they tell me—assertively or shyly, confidently or tentatively. This year is different. I’ve never seen people so nervous to answer. It’s so unlike America, this reticence, even defensiveness. It’s as if there’s a feeling that to declare who you’re for is to invite others to inspect your soul.
“I feel like this is the most controversial election ever,” said a food-court worker at La Guardia Airport. She works a full shift, 4 a.m. to noon, five days a week, then goes full-time to a nearby college. We’d been chatting a while, and when I asked the question she told me, carefully, that she hasn’t decided how she’ll vote, and neither have her family members. I said a lot of people seem nervous to say. She said: “Especially Trump people. They’re afraid you’ll think they’re stupid.”
Which is how I knew she was going to vote for Donald Trump.
It’s true: Trump voters especially don’t want to be categorized, judged, thought stupid—racist, sexist, Islamophobic, you name it. When most of them know, actually, that they’re not.
Another sentence is a now a common greeting among Republicans who haven’t seen each other in a while: “What are we gonna do?”
The most arresting sentence of the week came from a sophisticated Manhattan man friendly with all sides. I asked if he knows what he’ll do in November. “I know exactly,” he said with some spirit. “I will be one of the 40 million who will deny, the day after the election, that they voted for him. But I will.”
A high elected official, a Republican, got a faraway look when I asked what he thought was going to happen. “This is the unpollable election,” he said. People don’t want to tell you who they’re for. A lot aren’t sure. A lot don’t want to be pressed.
That’s exactly what I’ve seen the past few weeks in North Carolina, New Jersey, Tennessee and Minnesota.
Every four years I ask people if they’ll vote, and if they have a sense of how. Every four years they tell me—assertively or shyly, confidently or tentatively. This year is different. I’ve never seen people so nervous to answer. It’s so unlike America, this reticence, even defensiveness. It’s as if there’s a feeling that to declare who you’re for is to invite others to inspect your soul.
“I feel like this is the most controversial election ever,” said a food-court worker at La Guardia Airport. She works a full shift, 4 a.m. to noon, five days a week, then goes full-time to a nearby college. We’d been chatting a while, and when I asked the question she told me, carefully, that she hasn’t decided how she’ll vote, and neither have her family members. I said a lot of people seem nervous to say. She said: “Especially Trump people. They’re afraid you’ll think they’re stupid.”
Which is how I knew she was going to vote for Donald Trump.
It’s true: Trump voters especially don’t want to be categorized, judged, thought stupid—racist, sexist, Islamophobic, you name it. When most of them know, actually, that they’re not.
View an EXCERPT from the complete Wall Street Journal article at:
http://www.thenewscommenter.com/news...t-voter/630152
View the complete WSJ article, including image, at: (Subscription Required)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-year...ter-1474586866