Saving Private Ryan and the Politics of Deception

In the stampede to explain how it was that some fifty-eight million voters decided to return the present American administration to pow­er, it was repeatedly noted how often polled voters mentioned safety as a crucial issue in their decision: in perilous times, they confided, they’d go with the candidate who seemed more likely to allow them to feel safe. And a startling number of Americans, even intelligent ones, seem to have decided that, whatever else separated the two candidates, George W. Bush was in some important way stronger. This was an interesting perception, given that the other guy was a certified war hero, and it was no secret that Bush had avoided serving in the very same war; given that Bush had pretty clearly let Osama Bin Laden, the embodiment of our terrors, escape when American forces had him cornered in Af­ghanistan; and finally, given that part of the Republicans’ campaign strategy had been to argue that we were now in more danger than ever. (It was an impressive sleight of hand, that last strategy: Things are now scarier than they’ve ever been. Thank God we were in power when that happened.)

One of the ways the Republicans, with the col­lusion of the national media, managed this stunt was by supporting a candidate who made clear that he was so firmly set in his ways that even more or less indisputable evidence of his having made a catastrophic mistake caused him no second thoughts. In other words, right or wrong or horribly wrong, he was no waffler—a quality a large number of us, apparently, found re­assuring. (As in: even if it sure feels to those of us in the backseat like we’re doing some un­planned off-roading, Daddy says his hand is firmly on the wheel. So we can go back to sleep.)

But what other reasons caused so many of us to fly so blithely in the face of empirical evidence? Where did we get this capacity to imagine that horribly complicated messes have been ironed out just because someone has looked us in the eye and told us so? I don’t know about you, but I keep getting it from the movies.

Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan was one of those war movies that pleased conservatives and li­berals, and it’s not hard to figure out why: there was more than enough war is hell stuff to satisfy the left, and there was an even greater helping of Well, it may be hell, but it sure brings out the best in...