The Closed Circle

I've heard tell it's called a Closed Circle -- a handful of people surround themselves with only themselves, preaching their brand of the gospel to the converted, until they believe their philosophies are so perfect that no reasonable person could ever think differently.

Without objective input allowed to seep in from the outside world to challenge their core beliefs, at a critical moment, the circle acts on their beliefs, terribly and momentously. And the results ain't pretty.

We see closed circles among psychopaths, the radical right and the radical left, cultists, the Karl Rove White House, and Hollywood stars. (Why else would M. Night Shylaman cast himself as a prophetic author destined to change the world in the otherwise underrated "Lady in the Water"?)

But these days, unfortunately, we mostly see closed circles among mainstream Democrats, who refuse to believe that Populism counts: http://www.flaregun.org/?p=102

John Kerry and Hilary Clinton have formed a closed circle of sorts, both thinking that they are well-regarded throughout the country, have something wonderful and popular to contribute to national discourse, and their time in the Oval Office is nigh.

Not so deep down, I like these people. (I even had a picture of Hilary Clinton on my wall in high school.) I would probably vote for them. Their politics more or less mirror my own.

But wrapped in their northeast thinking and northeast network, they are oblivious to how despised they are on the streets of Middle America. Among bankers and mailmen and hair dressers and garbage workers and bakery shop owners, they just don't come across entirely human.

Instead, they come across like prim New England elites -- snooty, academic and disloyal, and oblivious to the middle class. "Tea time, anyone?"

They've got an image problem bar none.

But there's a larger problem here, and its partywide. While Democrats talk a good policy game, they continuously lose the Battle for Hearts and Minds on the road to the White House. Since Jimmy Carter fell to Ronald Reagan some two decades ago, only one Dem has broken the Curse of the Bambino and snuck into the president's chair. And like it or not, that's Bill Clinton.

How did he do it, when all others failed? The simple answer is by being from the south, and loving it. The more elaborate answer is by looking and acting like he was outside the Dem's Closed Circle.

Clinton, a policy wonk behind closed doors, was in front of the camera something far different: a gregarious, imposing, womanizing, empathetic, tear-spattering Good Old Boy from a Place Called Hope, just when the nation -- and the economy -- could use some southern gospel. He was all heart and body.

And some mind. But he saved most of his mind for when it mattered, and spoke from something that sounded like his great southern heart when it didn't. Not exactly Hillary Clinton's forte. Or John Kerry's.

But don't tell that to the Closed Circle.

Though it wouldn't much matter, anyway, because they wouldn't much listen.