It is hard to understand politics if you are hung up on reality. Politicians leave reality to others. What matters in politics is what you can get the voters to believe, whether it bears any resemblance to reality or not.His immediate point is about the current debate over whether or not to raise taxes, but it fits lots of other issues as well: the climate change controversy, the creationist controversy, economic policy, etc. etc.
Not only among politicians, but also among much of the media, and even among some of the public, the quest is not for truth about reality but for talking points that fit a vision or advance an agenda. Some seem to see it as a personal contest about who is best at fencing with words.
I have observed that there are really two kinds of people in the world, whom I will label "the believers" and "the seekers". Believers (the vast majority) are sure they already know the truth (whatever they conceive to be the truth), and cherry-pick the evidence to support their views, ignoring contrary evidence. The seekers (a small minority of the population) actually pay attention to evidence, because it matters more to them to get closer to the truth (in this complex world, we probably never understand the full truth in all its detail) than to prove their current views are right.
In the current debt/tax debate, this is clearly in operation. Lots of positions are being asserted, with lots of emotional appeals, but precious little evidence about how this or that policy has actually worked in the past is ever discussed, even though almost all the policies being discussed have been tried at one time or another in the past, either here or in other countries.
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