During his speech, Bowling quoted Donald Trump: "Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table." Wow! The crowd cheered. This was, after all, rural Kentucky - Trump Country Central. He then revealed that the quotation actually came from former President Barack Obama. He delivered the line in his 2012 commencement speech at Bernard College. The crowd fell silent; some audience members booed.Let's parse out the audience's response.
1. The audience was obviously partisan. When the audience thought that their man, Donald Trump, made the statement, they thought it was great. They didn't like hearing that Obama had said it. The statement was the same either way, and equally true either way.
2. We have known ever since the 1948 Elmira, N.Y. studies that party affiliation is the single best predictor of how people will vote. People will change their attitudes and beliefs to conform to their party far more often than they will change their party to affirm their beliefs.
3. Linguist George Lakoff says that conservatives work with a strict father metaphor. They want leaders who will be strong and powerful. Liberals prefer leaders who are supportive and nurturing. But Obama's quotation conveyed strength: "Fight for your seat at the table." I presume that the crowd liked hearing that their man, Donald Trump, said something to show strength. But Obama? Many conservatives do not believe that any Democrat could ever be a strong leader. Many conservatives feel that Obama was weak. Interestingly, one reader's comment about Bowling's speech on USA Today said that: "That doesn't sound like something a socialist/regressive/neosocial liberal would say...more like cry about how you're a victim to get your seat at the table." In other words, some people don't accept truth if it conflicts with their preconceived opinions. If it is an article of faith that Obama is weak, it becomes unthinkable that he could have said something strong.
4. So, politically speaking, what seemed to have happened was this: the crowd liked Trump, and liked that he projected strength. They didn't like Obama. For Obama to express strength left them confused. How, they must have thought, could Obama be strong? That must have made no sense. How could Obama even have said such a thing?
5. Many people view politics as a zero-sum game: some groups win; some lose, and to win you must crush the opposition. For Trump to express strength, and, by implication, to promise the poverty-stricken Pineville community a seat at the table, probably sounded good. But for Obama to bring his supporters to the table? That probably sounded bad. When we think in a partisan way, we stop ourselves from seeking win-win solutions. A Leo Cullum New Yorker cartoon shows two dogs sharing a drink at a bar; one of them says, "It is not enough that we succeed. Cats must also fail." Such is partisanship.
Young Ben Bowling made a good point. Maybe he got his audience to think more about partisanship. Maybe he got them to think that the other side is worth hearing. Maybe he just irked some of them. But it was a great moment in public speaking. In any case, #BenBowling is all over Twitter. Bell City HS Principal Richard Gambrel commented that the incident "proves that people don't read or pay attention." Indeed!
All in all, I think we have too much ideology - and too much partisanship. Both of those evils keep us from seeing what is true. They stop us from seeing our common goals. They stop us from loving one another. They stop us from working together.
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Image: Barack Obama preparing to speak at Barnard College commencement exercises; White House photo.
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