narratives

Today, Barack Obama became the 44th President on the back of an incredibly powerful story. Some of these storylines are true and unassailable: the historicity of the first African American President. Others are the work of an incredibly skilled campaign team and a candidate who mastered the literary realm (and indeed, used it as the basis of his political career) as Reagan mastered stagecraft. Watching TV today reminds me of an immutable truth of our politics: above all else, we as Americans love a good story.

Oddly, this dynamic does not wind up devaluing issues and policies as you expect it might. When radical policies like the biggest expansion of government since FDR can be cloaked in a tableau of hope, change, and history, they are much easier to get through. Good storytelling is the natural ally of those who would like to see bold public policies -- on both sides.

Again and again in American politics, certain themes recur. And certain storylines are more successful than others. I went back and looked at Presidential elections since 1960 -- generally considered to be the birth of modern Presidential politics -- to see which storylines worked and which didn't, and it's not hard to see why Obama's trifecta of youth, change, and hope -- represented here by optimism, is so powerful: they've won every time they've been tried.

Here are the overall themes. I tried to boil down each candidate to a maximum of two main narratives: 

Here are the overall standings:

The Leftosphere has long (and correctly) been frustrated over the media tendency to adhere to narratives and ignore contradictory evidence.  See the Daily Howler's incomparable archives or the late, sorely missed Spinsanity for examples from the 2000 and 2004 campaigns.  However, this media problem is not unique to the Left.  They have just been more aggressive at exposing and fighting back against it online and in ways that are likely to impact media coverage. 

Unfortunately, while the Right has a long, and sometimes effective, tradition of media criticism, it has never really evolved that media monitoring apparatus for the new media and social media age.  I'll have more to say about that in time. 

In the meantime, with Obama largely getting the glowing, Messiah treatment from the media, the Right has some current Narrative VS Evidence problems.  

• Obama is a silver-tongued orator...but he's challenging President Bush for supremacy in the rhetorical gaffes department. 
• Obama is a different kind of politician, rejecting the corruption and depravity of modern politics...but he certainly does have quite a lot of rather questionable associations.
• Obama is opposed to the corrupting influence of money...but he seems awfully willing to distribute earmarks to his pastor, and even his own wife.

These narratives have taken hold, and despite evidence to the contrary, it's very difficult to break them without organized emphasis on a counter-story that is consistent and sustained.  The Right does not have the online infrastructure to do that well yet.