Thoughts on the infamous ‘flip-flop’

Posted on | October 23, 2008 | Comments Off

You know, people are odd sometimes.

Have you ever met the kind of person who never takes responsibility for anything? One of those folks who, no matter, are never wrong and nothing that happens to them is ever their fault?

Which means that, as soon as anything happens, they immediately look around to figure out which way to start pointing their fingers?

And, since they are never wrong and never prepared to admit when they make a mistake, they end up sounding like lunatics or idiots because they never learn from their mistakes.

Aren’t those people annoying?

In most of our relationships — assuming we’re talking about healthy relationship here — when people learn the lessons life teaches them, admit when they’re wrong, admit when new information changes their thinking about something, we consider that admirable.

Unless, of course, the person in question is a politician.

One of the most peculiar things I’ve watched recently is the way stupid pig-headedness in the face of everything has been turned into a virtue. Anything else is considered the infamous “flip-flop”.

Now, of course, it isn’t a good thing to pander — like Senator Obama being a Phillies fan until he visits Florida. And pandering is as dumb as it is dishonest.

But there is a difference between sucking up to the crowds and changing your mind. Increasingly, people seem to be having trouble with making that distinction and, increasingly, politicians find themselves paying a price when they honestly admit that they thought one thing back then but, having come into the possession of new information, they now think something else.

Speaking personally, I would be afraid of any politician running for national office to represent me who gave me to understand that he or she is insane enough to refuse to change his or her thinking, no matter what happens.

In 2004, John Kerry got into trouble when he tried to explain that, based on the information he had at the time, he supported giving President Bush the authority to go into Iraq with military force but, based on information he had received since then, he no longer believed that to be the correct decision.

That seems perfectly reasonable to me. How many adults do you know who still believe in Santa Claus? Isn’t it the same thing?

The fact is that people think what they think — until they think something different. That is part of being people. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to punish politicians for acting like people and then complain about how they are out of touch.

Changing your mind is an essential part of having good judgment — an essential trait in, say, a U.S. president. A lot of people seem to have forgotten that.


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