Our representative government works at it’s best when voters make their choice based on what the believe rather than vote based on who they think others will like. This herd mentality is stupid and ill advised.

Agreed. It is part and parcel of the politics of assumption: the notion that you don’t have to, you know, actually think but can use signifiers from others to, in essence, do your thinking for you.

Yes. It is stupid. And extremely ill advised. But, as Bill Clinton once said (can’t find the cite, but I remember it well) ‘When we get people to think. We win. And so do they. But the other side is real good at getting people not to think.’ Clinton didn’t include the media in his statements, but they are the first to turn of the intellect in pursuit of some notion of ‘game theory’ they don’t truly understand.