To the Editor:

Americans are contemplating what voters will decide in the midterm election with respect to the election of a new Congress and the election of a new governor in Connecticut as well as local representatives. As we listen and watch the news and the television political ads, we may mistakenly assume that it’s much like past elections. The the reality is that for many reasons, there is a lot going on behind the “mass media curtain” that we fail to recognize as significant attempts to influence our thinking and our eventual vote.

Consider for example the disgraceful behavior of political (paid) activists and the repeated attempts by members of the senate judiciary to destroy the reputation and qualifications of the candidate for the Supreme Court. These individuals were willing to destroy Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation and confirmation (according to Senator Schumer) by whatever means necessary in order to gain the political power lost in the presidential election of Donald Trump. Many Americans were forced to listen to ridiculous observations and accusations made by some Democratic senators that were intended to make him guilty before the judiciary hearing began. But what is more disturbing is that liberal establishment and the Democrats were unwilling to participate in civil discourse over the issues because they have specific programs or creative ideas to benefit all Americans.

Their plan is to continue to shut down debate and to use whatever means necessary to destroy the good reputations of Republican candidates in congressional races, but also in Connecticut in the weeks remaining. This kind of political behavior shows various errors in their thinking and that of the mass media. These errors include the following:

Partialism — overlooking some of the important factors involved.

Egocentricity — failure to account for other people’s point of view.

Arrogance — self satisfaction with current thinking being good.

“Snap” judgments — failure to explore a situation before forming an opinion.

Adversarial Thinking — tendency to polarize situations to see others as opponents or see them as being wrong when they have opposing points of view.

Ego involvement — tendency to rationalize or defend a position rather than explore other possibilities because one is trapped in his own “intelligence trap.”

Crisis thinking — tendency to overlook what is important and overlook what is urgent by setting priorities and issues before looking at all alternative ways of thinking and investigating.

Dr Rudy Magnan

60 Watkins Drive, Sandy Hook         October 10, 2018