Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Threats Up 400% and 300% Respectively on the White House and Congress

A 400% increase in threats against the White House following President Obama’s election and the 300% increase in threats against all members of Congress in the first few months of 2010 bring the Arizona shooting into sharper focus.fivethirtyeight_main

The good news is that actual follow through is rare in this country even though it is the most open society on this planet.  Disturbing, however, is  the coincidence between dramatically more hate-filled, anti-government rhetoric in political discourse and disproportionate news coverage and the increased number of threats on elected officials.

My source including links to the original sources for this information is FiveThirtyEight which became one of my favorite blogs from the day I learned about it many months ago from Mike Woodard, a good friend and Durham City Councilman.

This blog also provides an excellent ongoing primer on how to interpret information and distinguish good, solid research which is the most universally valuable element of decision-making, including good community/destination marketing.

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