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This struck an interesting parallel to an earlier blog post that I had written titled "The Stories We Tell Ourselves". In this blog I merely touched on the small-scale ways Americans lay blame one others. However Milbank's article made me think of the repercussions the fundamental attribution error, or the tendency to blame others for problems, produced.
Milbank's article brought the fundamental attribution error's role in the presidential campaigns to my attention. Senator Cain has shifted the blame around from Rick Perry's campaign to Josh Krashaaur and Politico and finally to the Democratic party as a whole. All three of these claims were disproved, worsening Cain's already damaged image.
Many politicians in America's past have been confronted with similar scandals and those who chose to deny it and lay the blame on others in efforts to thwart attention have suffered severe damage to their image. Fortunately, politician s such as David Paterson, are not lost. Paterson was the governor of New York after Governor Spitzer descended from office after accusations of being involved in a prostitution scandal. However Paterson was also linked to prostitution and infidelity. But unlike so many politicians before him, "David Paterson [said] 'Stop bothering people. Here’s the story. And that’s it.'" said Assembly Democratic Speaker Sheldon Silver. Paterson confessed to his mistakes rather than dodging the accusations or putting the blame on others.
So to conclude Cain's dodging is costing him his reputation and Paterson's acceptance of his actions spared further damage to his image, it might have even improved it in someways. Covering up a crime only builds up lies until they snowball out of control, like in Cain's situation. Overcoming the fundamental attribution error and accepting responsibility for one's action though prevents all that and makes a more honest person and eventually a more honest society.
I know that this wasn't the point of your post, but I think it's really interesting that you said "Fortunately, politicians such as David Paterson are not lost". I agree with you that it is better to admit to your mistakes rather than cover it up, as we see politicians do. But I would rather have an honest politician that simply doesn't engage in scandalous, reputation-ruining things like prostitution so he has nothing to hide instead of someone who does something bad and does the "honest" thing by admitting to it later. These people are the people voting on our laws and deciding what is best for our country. Instead of wishing for the guy that knows how to fess up after the fact, wish for the guy that's honest from the get go.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with that. I probably should have included something about how politicians, who are ideally our representative and speak and act in the people's best interests, should not be involved in such scandals. Why do you think that so many politicians become involved in this controversial behavior?
ReplyDeleteI think that this is an interesting and accurate observation of the political race along with the way people naturally want to go about things after they've messed up. We have this inherent desire to justify ourselves by shoving the blame off and putting it on someone else so we don't have to accept the consequences.
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, the Penn State scandal, which has been the topic of much discussion and blogging, is similar to your post on Herman Cain. Much of the frustration and confusion on the scandal with Jerry Sandusky is why wasn't this stopped a long time ago? Although nobody has fessed up as to exactly why, I believe at least part of it was to protect the university and its football team's reputation from painstaking scrutiny. Why else would people like Joe Paterno and Mike McQueary witness or catch wind of Sandusky molesting someone and not see it through that he be properly stopped an punished?