12 October 2012

The Irrational,Tribal Voter

I live in California. Pollsters are 100% confident that Obama will win all of our electoral votes.

My daughter lives in Texas. Pollsters are 100% confident that Romney will win all of their electoral votes.

So while it is irrational, I closely follow the presidential election and know that many of my friends in these states do as well.

It's a tribal thing, apparently. My rooting for the Giants to win won't change their odds in the playoffs. Yet I pay attention. I root for them to win. I want the Giants to win.

So partly we vote and cheer for "our team" politically because we think our vote will make a difference. Probably more importantly, we do it because it makes us feel - for whatever misguided reasons - like we're not alone in our worldview. We're together in the stadium and we can hear others chanting the same slogans.


1 comment:

Thomas said...

I read one time that most of the real hippies, once they realized the world wasn't going to change, just sort of walled the world out and went their own way.

I think there are an awful lot of us that don't feel like we have a team to cheer for anymore.