Recently conservative commentator Peggy Noonan was caught on MSNBC saying that she thought Republican VP pick Sarah Palin was underqualified, stating, "I think they went for this, excuse me, bull—-t about narratives." (Note to politicians and commentators: Check your mic before you utter disparaging profanities on TV.) In fact, it seems this entire election has been more about personal narratives than the issues. Who's better fit to lead, and even more American? The biracial son of a single mom who was raised by his middle-class Kansas grandparents, went to Columbia and Harvard Law on student loans, and passed up a lucrative legal career to become a community organizer and public servant? The heroic POW who comes from a distinguished military family with generations of service to their country, who's spent a lifetime giving back to the country he came to so passionately love while he was languishing in a Vietnamese cell? Or how about the moose-gutting hockey mom, who courageously chose to give birth to a child with Down Syndrome and went back to governing Alaska the very next day?
I won't go into my opinions about why these personal narratives matter, but it does make me wonder about our collective narrative(s). Is there a "storyline" we like to envision when we think about our nation and its history? I think we all carry some version of it, consciously or not. Behind every policy debate there's an implicit "national narrative" that's being promoted. Perhaps that's really how people vote, by choosing the candidate whose personal narrative seems to resonate most with their own vision of the national narrative.
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And why does Ms. Noonan think narratives are "B.S."? Is it because she thinks we shouldn't consider a candidate's narrative and we should, ideally, only consider the "issues?" Given the way many elections play out, it seems to me that the narrative of a candidate means everything when it comes to casting a vote (far from B.S.), but her comment brings up a key issue: what should we weigh most when we cast a vote? Issues? Narrative? Party affiliation? Whether or not the candidate seems to be someone I could have a root beer with?
Wasn't there a recent article from George Will on this issue?
One interesting aspect of this story is what happened just a few days after Peggy made this outrageous remark when she thought the mics were off. On the show "Morning Joe," Noonan was quoted saying that Palin is in fact a great choice for the Republicans! And in fact, the more the Democrats question her credentials and criticize her, the stronger the country's support for her will be. Hang on, Peggy, wasn't that you criticizing her when you thought no one could hear you? This just shows how convuluted our media coverage of these candidates is in this election. You can't tell if the reporter is reading from a script or expressing their true views.
I love the presidential narrative! Here is a link to a show called On the Media which analyzes the typical 3-part candidate narrative from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama.
"Politics is not about issues. Politics is about identity. It's about who candidates are and who we are as Americans." -- Paul Waldman
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