Americans demand answers to important questions.
(I guess that may be a bit of an overstatement. Let me rephrase and qualify it a bit.)
Some Americans demand answers to important questions — about one in four, according to all my years of devoted observation. The other three either don’t know questions exist, don’t understand the questions, or think the questions are about whether to supersize their fries at McDonald’s.
One in four Americans, however, do demand answers to important questions.
(Well, I guess that statement still needs a bit of qualifying to avoid a “fact check disclaimer.”) I should have said 25 out of 100 people demand answers to questions — some of which are important.
Ten of those people demand simple answers — up to six words — suitable for a bumper sticker. Five demand answers that agree with their heart-felt political, religious and cultural views; two demand answers approved by Tucker Carlson; two demand answers approved by Rachel Maddow; one demands answers about alien abductions.
OK, OK. Five Americans out of 100 demand answers to important, credible, objective, knowledge-seeking, well-informed questions about our nation’s future.
These 5 percent of Americans have several characteristics in common:
1. They read at least one traditional, professionally edited daily newspaper (on real newsprint or online) at least five days a week.
2. They limit themselves to a maximum of 30 minutes of news a day from 24-hour cable news channels.
3. They watch no cable TV alleged “news” station between 7 p.m. and midnight.
4. They do not listen to pooled ignorance on “talk radio.”
5. They limit time spent on social media to no more than one 30-minute visit each day and “unfriend” anyone who posts alleged news or political commentary.
The questions for which they demand answers are about real issues that affect their lives and their communities. They know enough about these issues not to be sucked down emotional rabbit holes by politicians trying to change the subject.
These Americans understand the world is complex and not every question has a simple, absolute answer. They are willing to wrestle with ambiguity in search of reason and truth.
Their questions are created by reading and viewing objective information from sources with long-term records of credibility. They know when they are reading or viewing facts versus when they are reading or viewing someone else’s interpretation of facts (sometimes called opinion).
These Americans want to know the specific source of information offered by friends, relatives, the woman at the end of bar or the guy in the grocery store line. Sources such as “they say” and “I heard” and “according to experts” are not accepted.
When these five in 100 Americans vote in primary and general elections, they recognize the names on the ballot and know at least some basic facts about each candidate.
These five in 100 Americans are the greatest hope for the preservation of representative democracy and the greatest safeguard against tyranny and authoritarianism in government.
I wish our nation had more of these Americans, but apart from you and me, they are hard to find.
Still, 5 percent is a start. I hope they reproduce.
Bud Herron is a retired editor and newspaper publisher who lives in Columbus. He served as publisher of The Republic from 1998 to 2007.
