Posted on 10/24/2014 5:08:00 AM PDT by LeoMcNeil
There seems to be on the right an insistence that low information voters are destroying the country. This is promulgated by conservative media figures, particularly Rush Limbaugh who appears to have coined the phrase. There is plenty of reason to believe a lot of Americans are completely checked out of day to day political events. The number of people who can’t name the Vice President, Speaker of the House or any member of the Supreme Court is appalling. Equally as appalling is the inability of many Americans to name their Congressman, one Senator from their state or their state’s Governor. Lots of Americans don’t know history, they have no idea who the President was during the Civil War or World War Two. This says a lot about government education, kids are graduating without any knowledge of history and no interest in civics.
No matter how appalling it is that Americans can’t name the Vice President, at the end of the day knowing the Vice President’s name is only a demonstration that someone knows a little bit of political trivia. The same can be said about knowing who the President was during the Civil War. Knowing Lincoln’s name is trivia, knowing what he did and why is far more important. When it comes to history, arguably the government schools are outright failing. Many people don’t have the slightest idea what happened during the Civil War or why. However, there’s more to modern politics than knowing the name of your Congressman. On some level knowing his name is nothing but trivia. Having an idea how he will vote on various issues is far more important. Even more important is knowing his Party going into the upcoming midterm.
People who don’t know trivia are not low information voters. In fact, many of these people are very sophisticated voters who know and understand exactly what they’re voting for. Poor people who don’t pay attention aren’t low information voters but rather highly intelligent people voting rationally. If a Republican says they’re going to cut welfare, cut food stamps and limit Social Security Disability people who are living off of those programs will rationally choose not to vote for such people. If a Democrat is going to make living on welfare almost as lucrative as working a minimum wage job, it makes perfect sense that many people will vote for the Democrat.
Given the choice of spending your day doing whatever you want and working, if the pay is the same voting for the Democrat is a rational choice. In fact, it’s a choice that many people will make. Our fallen nature is such that many won’t work if they don’t have to. The Democrats make it possible to live almost as well on welfare than working, sometimes it’s even better to live on welfare than work. If you would rather not work or if you think your prospect of moving up is limited, voting for Democrats isn’t evidence of someone who doesn’t have any information. Rather it’s evidence of someone who has quite a bit of information and is making a rational decision for themselves. This is what happens when people realize they can vote themselves the United States treasury, they make the rational decision to do just that.
Middle class Republican voters also behave rationally. A lot of these people don’t know the answers to trivia either but they still vote rationally. They earn enough that welfare isn’t an option for them. They recognize that Republicans will cut their taxes, which allows them to get ahead on some level. These are people that understand that their hard work can also move them ahead and the Republican candidate is more likely to support them in that quest. Even rich Democrats vote rationally, they recognize that by funding liberal Democrats they’ll be able to push through laws and regulations that make them more money at the expense of their competition. Even with a modest tax increase they’ll make more money if Democrats pass certain laws or regulations. The rich are getting richer under Obama for this very reason.
It’s a huge mistake to discount any of these people as being low information. They’re not low information at all, rather they’re self interested, rational voters. If Republicans are going to convince the poor to vote for them, they’ll have to convince them that welfare isn’t in their best interest. That will be difficult to do because the Democrats will forever offer more and more money. To call these people low information though is insulting, these are high information voters. No doubt their values are skewed, they don’t share the historic Christian morals this nation was founded upon. If they did they wouldn’t be voting for sloth over work. However given their moral state their votes are perfectly logical and intelligent. If we’re going to change these people, it has to be through faith in Jesus Christ because we will never be able to convince people wallowing in their own sin that they should vote against their economic interests. Especially if it means being forced to work for a living.
This article makes my brain hurt.
What he is saying is that a politician who robs Peter to pay Paul will never lose Paul’s vote. And Paul will never be ill informed about it.
The only impressive thing to come out of this mumbo-jumbo is Rush’s immortal epithet “low information voter.” Absolutely brilliant.
Truth can be painful. Look what it did to Him!
The author of this article is obviously a low information author.
Having a President who allows Ebola into this country, who allows disease infested illegals into this country UNSCREENED, who is doing everything he can to devolve and bankrupt us is not just trivia; it is a complete disaster.
The point is that those voters the government has made dependent on government programs, are bought and paid for voters, voting in their own self interest.
He’s suggesting this invalidates the “low information” tag.
I disagree due to the fact they fail to recognize they’ve been intentionally trapped into dependence on the government.
Instead, they believe the lie that conservatives and big business have trapped them in that environment.
Low Information means their gas tank of information is on low. It means they don't know details and they don't know basic data.
So, there is no way that a person who doesn't know the name of the current vice-president is not a low information voter. This is basic data that can easily be gleaned by simple observation.
And I suspect that their knowing that someone or other is going to cut food stamps is because they were told even that, that they didn't learn it on their own.
Sadly the author is mistaken. Today’s low information voter can be so by a lack of knowledge or a willingness to be led, either physically or by electronic means. Add to this the number of people voting for additional handouts, and we have a major problem in America. Today’s voter has forgotten or never known the cost of freedom and lives with a blind assumption that it will continue. Their willingness to trade it away for minor things (smoking pot) is like the Indians selling Manhattan for beads.
What? All of them are "highly intelligent"?
From what I remember, LIV started with a position statement from one of the many democrat consultants regarding how to message during the 2012s. Low info voters are all about their phones, their reality shows, their music and have an imaginary first name basis relationship with pop stars and athletes. They consider themselves in touch but in reality, they have no idea and live in a bubble created by the coastal media/cultural complexes. Their opinions come straight from the mouths of the stars they believe they have a personal relationship with not from study and contemplative thought.
The author does not know what he is talking about.
Wanting free stuff and government handouts does not make someone sophisticated. It destroys a society when an ever smaller number of producers is expected to support an ever larger percent of criminals and parasites.
Look at Detroit, the Democrats who were voted in forced out middle class families, the social structure collapsed and the City is now bankrupt.
In other words, cannot come to the truth that we do have “stupid voters”.
Only if you think these people are highly-competent people kept down by the welfare system. The reality is that most of these are probably low-competence folks who would be working at low-paid service jobs that paid less than welfare if the welfare system went away. Saying that they could do better outside of the welfare system is like saying that you could be a semi-pro football player if you only tried harder. Brainpower, like athleticism, is mostly hard-wired.
:: If a Republican says they’re going to cut welfare, cut food stamps and limit Social Security Disability people who are living off of those programs will rationally choose not to vote for such people. If a Democrat is going to make living on welfare almost as lucrative as working a minimum wage job, it makes perfect sense that many people will vote for the Democrat. ::
I think I see a concern with the argument, here. The author divides the USA into either Dhimmicrat or Pubbie. To him, there are no “Americans”, only voters.
Good conclusion. IMO the idea that "no education = votes liberal" is incorrect. The deciding factor isn't "low information", it's "low morals".
True, but people who don't know s**t are.
You admit that there are many low information voters, then conflate rationality with ignorant greed. Rational analysis about politics requires the ability to acquire and digest relevant information (”trivia”), to place that information in context, and judge the effects of alternative causes.
Do you honestly think those who don’t know the name of major officeholders, etc., understand political principles and issues, or consider the likely overall effects their votes portend? The ability to frame the thought “gimmedat” is indeed rational, in a debased, reptilian way. It is not equivalent to the evaluation of long-term cause and effect, or the prudent judgment that sustainable “democracy” requires.
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