Ask yourself this question: Have you ever been wrong about something - but at the time you didn't even consider the possibility that you could be? It could be absolutely anything, even something trivial. Have you ever tried a food that you thought would be disgusting, but turned out to be delicious - or ever seen a movie that you initallially had no interest in only to find out that it was excellent? Do you still hold every single belief that your parents did when you were growing up with no added insight or nuiance? Are you the same person that you were when you were 17 or 18? Every once in a while, we are semi-forced into situations that challenge us to consider things that we might not otherwise consider. For something trivial like a movie it's comparatively easy, but for more serious matters like who should run the country - it's really not.
So why is this relevant to reconsidering your vote? Here's why: A study published just a week or so ago by the non-partisan Annenberg School for Public Policy confirms that an incredible number of people are uninformed or worse yet, mis-informed about even the most basic objective facts. Note that these are _FACTS_, no spin involved.
More than a third of Americans were unable to identify the Supreme Court as the final judge of whether a law was constitutional or not. More than 30% didn't know how someone came to sit on the bench of Supreme Court. In this election, that is a critical fact to understand. What's more, almost 58% did not know McCain's stance of overturning Roe vs Wade and more than 15% attached that position to Obama.
People were also wrong on the candidates stated stands on NAFTA, their support of a "cap and trade" system and positions on Guantanano. Even on the best of the items there were significant numbers of people who were grossly misinformed - almost 9% of people identified McCain as having opposed the war in Iraq. In fact, more than 33% also incorrectly attributed Senator John McCain's healthcare proposal to Barack Obama, and 20% identified John McCain's healthcare plan as the one that mandates coverage for all children. 15% incorrectly said that it belonged to "both" or "neither" of them. Less than 20% correctly attributed it. What's more is that just over 27% actually admitted that they didn't know. This means that the majority of people actually _thought_ that they knew the answers to those questions and planned on using them in their evaluation of how to vote. Given that many of our elections are ultimately swayed by a small number of votes this seems a bit akin to trusting the choice what medical attention that you should receive to your mechanic rather than a triage team or qualified doctors.
If this seems "elitist" to you, then consider that our founding fathers didn't totally embrace democracy, that is why they formed a republic with representative democracy and even an electoral college. In their perspective, pure democracywas nothing more than organized "mob rule". Thomas Jefferson put the general thrust of the conerns very simply:
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization,
it expects what never was and never will be.
He also argued that:
...he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
The point is - in short: For good or for bad, once every 4 years the citizens of this country are given the supreme responsibility of having to make an informed decision of who will represent them. This is the person who will lead the most powerful country in the world - make no mistake - actual human lives across the planet hang in the balance. Vote for McCain, Obama, Nader, Barr, McKinney or Baldwin - I don't really care. But for all of our sake - please put at least as much thought and research and time into it than you do picking your cell phone plan.
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2 comments:
Eloquently stated; a far cry from my initial post-debate reaction to the various news outlets' "panels" of undecided voters, which was a sudden and crushing realization that STUPIDITY IS REAL. That anyone could actually be "undecided" at this late stage is shocking to me, especially after this debate. Your article suggests, perhaps, a reason why undecideds exist: self-delusion. People who can't obviate a cynical (or is it habitual?) state of self-deception which has them convinced that neither candidate has uttered the magic phrase of persuasion yet; it is as if the undecideds are waiting for the candidates to call them up personally and give them the answer. This shifts the focus from the candidates and the greater good of the country to the undecideds themselves, as if they are somehow more important. Your article points to a dire reality in this country. Stupidity is innate to the election system, which elevates the mob as the most important aspect. Stupid voters are the bowie knife of speech writers and spin artists; they've been gutting this country for eight years. I hope it doesn't get any worse. A voter's responsibility is to self-educate. The candidates aren't going to do for them.
I concur. Another problem is that even when voters have some awareness of the issues they don't have the scientific understanding to bring to bear upon the issue.
Add to that the inability to reason logically.
For instance, listen to people talk about the issue of energy. The republicans mantra of "drill baby, drill" demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the energy problems facing our country. We need to find alternatives to oil because we won't be able to find enough new oil to make up for the quantities we are currently using.
There's a book called Alcohol Can Be A Gas which contains a map showing how many oil regions had been discovered by 1919. Most of the big regions in the world were already known then. We discovered the North Sea field in what, the '60's? That one was not on the map. But, most of the other regions were already known.
The idea that we're going to find many more super-giant fields is naive. The republican strategists may even be aware of this. But, they are tayloring their message to people who, for the most part, can't discern fact from fantasy because they don't know enough to do so.
Overall, we have a vast majority of voters choosing our leaders on the basis of irrelevant beliefs.
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