Read Rebuke Resist
Ronald Reagan once, in a foggy attempt to quote John Adams,
proclaimed, with his best actor’s voice, that “Facts are stupid things.”
Perhaps some collection of brain cells thought so. Who knows?
Perhaps they are not stupid things, but facts are strange
things. Wherein they, in their best use, lead us to the truth, in their worst use they can lead us into a quagmire of bewilderment.
How?
Anyone completing graduate school in America learned that consumption
of ice cream and the murder rate are correlated, i.e. they occur at the same
time of year.
In the MAGA world, this correlation could easily be used,
with undoubted success, to convince the base that eliminating the production of
ice cream would lower the incidences of murder in America.
A main difference between thinking folks and cult members is
the knowledge that correlation does not equal causation.
In a more provocative case, a group of high-ranking government
officials once determined that Americans who owned their own home were less
likely to fall victim to many socioeconomic ills such as crime, poverty, lack of
education, and reliance on welfare. This was a distinct and
documented correlation.
Aha. Moving more folks from renter-status to home ownership would
immediately help solve those problems.
As we know, the American economy almost collapsed when home
ownership was broadened to include many who couldn’t afford the cost.
Was there a causal relationship between the facts?
Who knows? Let’s just say that public administration is a
more complicated process than many Americans believe, infinitely more complicated
than Donald Trump can imagine. After all, he is a descendant and proponent of
the “Facts are stupid things” method of governance.
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