I've been mystified over the last decade by how much the perceptions of "opinion-makers and followers" in Washington, D.C. differ from those of similar background outside the beltway.
I've come to believe that a lot can be explained by the effect of the Washington social network in shaping and legitimating opinions. A shared consensus is seen as critical to maintaining a degree of social comity. Cartoonist Tom Toles seems to agree.
Toles is one newcomer to Washington who hasn't lost his critical edge since leaving Buffalo for a job with the Washington Post. In a recent interview, Toles identifies what's different about living in Washington, D.C.:
"[T]he social network here does tend to add another level of distortion. So many people here know so many of the other people involved so well that sometimes, I think, objectivity suffers. There comes to be a language with which issues are spoken of. It's a circumscribed language, in that certain points of view just aren't represented. They become sort of off-limits, as if they're in bad form."
Toles