If you’re reading this, you probably don’t know a lot of people who hold Romney signs.
Think about your Facebook news feed. Is it full of stuff you like? Stuff you agree with? Facebook and other websites select content for you based on algorithms that create what Eli Pariser calls a “filter bubble,” a very personalized lens through which you see and are exposed to the world. From one standpoint, it’s a win: You don’t have to spend a lot of time combing through stuff you’re not interested in, like you’d have to do with a pesky old-fashioned newspaper.
But from another standpoint, it’s a problem. You’re not exposed to diverse opinions. You don’t see things that may be important, even if they’re not interesting to you. You don’t know the other side is gaining traction.
And it’s not just a problem for individuals. Right now, it’s a problem for the Democrats.
The Democrats are having trouble generating the enthusiasm and support for Barack Obama that helped him sweep the swing states in 2008. They’re not raising money as fast as the Romney campaign, and there’s less overall Obama fever. He’s lost some of that oft-mentioned celebrity status. There’s a lot of speculation about the reasons the president’s support is lackluster: It’s jobs, it’s gas prices, he wasn’t hard enough on the banks, there hasn’t been enough change …
What no one’s talking about is this: Maybe there’s less obvious support for the president because progressives take his re-election for granted. After all, Obama killed Bin Laden and Mitt Romney’s a terrible candidate. And yet pretty much half of eligible Americans who vote will likely still vote for Mitt. If that’s hard to believe, blame your filter bubble.
And tune in to The War Room tonight at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on Current TV. We’ll be talking with Bill Burton, head of Priorities USA, about why the base and the billionaires on the left are so blase, what has to happen to get them engaged — and the consequences for the election if they’re not. Join us for this discussion and much more, only on “The War Room.”
