"...ÒI think the vast majority of Americans know that weÕre trying hard, that I want whatÕs best for the country.Ó

Limbaugh shot back on Friday, ÒI and most Americans do not believe President Obama is trying to do whatÕs best for the country.Ó

And there it was. ObamaÕs language focused on what people Òknow,Ó or should know. He seems to find comfort in the empirical nature of knowledge. ItÕs logical. LimbaughÕs language focused on what he thinks people Òbelieve.Ó Beliefs are a more complicated blend of facts, or lies, and faith. And, they can exist beyond the realm of the rational.

This focus on faith has allowed people like Limbaugh to mislead and manipulate large swaths of the right.

According to another Quinnipiac poll released last week, Republicans were far more likely than Democrats to say that they follow public affairs most of the time. But how? They listen to people like Limbaugh, and theyÕre more likely than others to watch Fox News.

But invectives are not information. For example, a poll released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center found that most Republicans say that they still donÕt understand how the new health care reform will affect them and their family.

They donÕt know what it means, but they believe itÕs bad. Rush & Co. said so. In the vacuum of confusion and misinformation, they strum their fears and feed their anxiety. And, by worrying, their faith is made perfect."

(NYT Columnist Charles Blow)

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Charles Blow raises an interesting point. In the middle of this virulent clash of beliefs, viewpoints based on media distorted mythology, and politics based on perverse faith, how do you abstract any kind of real sense of the calculus between politics and reality? How do you estimate the consequences of positions or the merits of policies in a storm of denial and misleading assertions? Especially in those rarer cases where the misleading is cloaked in plausible rhetoric?

Like most people I respect viewpoints from those I trust, and I trust people whose understandings I share; but this is tricky because it can lead you into a blind end of hidden tacit suppositions and overlooked but important data.

For me the solution has been to keep my own counsel foremost and not make agreements too lightly. Not always an easy resolution to keep, though.

A