Commentary “I live in a rather special world. I know only one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know.” So said liberal film critic Pauline Kael after Richard Nixon won the 1972 American presidential election. To her surprise, it wasn’t a close result. Nixon won 49 out of 50 states and took more than 60 percent of the popular vote. Needless to say, the results would have been quite different if the election was up to Kael and her liberal friends. What Kael implicitly acknowledged in her comment about the 1972 election was that she had surrounded herself by likeminded people. This naturally leads to groupthink, a psychological phenomenon whereby a group of people begins to think the same way on every issue. The desire for conformity becomes so great that it becomes distinctly uncomfortable to challenge each other’s opinions. Groupthink is particularly prevalent among working …