Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Top political scientist: U.S. voters are 'pretty damn stupid'
washingtonexaminer.com ^ | Nov 21 2010 | Byron York

Posted on 11/21/2010 7:31:12 AM PST by Sub-Driver

Top political scientist: U.S. voters are 'pretty damn stupid'

Political reporters often rely on University of Wisconsin political scientist Charles Franklin for expertise. In just the past few months, his insights have appeared in articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Associated Press, Politico, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications. He's also a co-founder of the influential website Pollster.com, as well as co-director of the Big Ten Battleground Poll.

So Franklin answered with considerable authority when he was asked, at a recent forum on the November 2 election results, why Republicans emerged victorious in so many races. "I'm not endorsing the American voter," Franklin said. "They're pretty damn stupid."

Franklin was responding to a question from Bill Lueders, news editor of Isthmus, a weekly alternative newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. In an account published Thursday (H/T Ann Althouse), Lueders says he asked Franklin why "the public seemed to vote against its own interests and stated desires, for instance by electing candidates who'll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich."

"Franklin, perhaps a bit too candidly, conceded the point," Lueders writes. "'I'm not endorsing the American voter,' he answered. 'They're pretty damn stupid.'"

Lueders writes that he responded, "Thank you, professor. That's the answer I was looking for." The rest of Lueders' account explains that smart voters support things like high-speed rail and higher taxes for the rich, while dumb voters support "an obvious phony like [Republican senator-elect] Ron Johnson over Russ Feingold."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: byronyork; charlesfranklin; wi; wisconsin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-83 next last
To: peteyd

California is actually a pretty decent state, or it would be if everything within 30 miles of the west coast fell in the ocean.


61 posted on 11/21/2010 9:17:22 AM PST by RLM
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver
The rest of Lueders' account explains that smart voters support things like high-speed rail and higher taxes for the rich,...

Doing that seems so unAmerican to me. Back when American was the greatest country on the planet, EVERY AMERICAN pitched it to make it a great country. These clowns seem to be saying that "the voters" need to force "the rich" into subsidizing this country and footing the bill for all of the free government handouts. America will not survive with that kind of a system. The freeloaders outnumber the producers in this country by too great of a number. "The rich" do not have the money to support them all. The freeloaders are going to have to get out of the wagon and help push if this country is going to survive.

62 posted on 11/21/2010 9:17:38 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Don't touch my junk!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver

Just another progressive giving justification to their hoped for dictatorship of the proletariat to come. Cultural revolution time anyone??


63 posted on 11/21/2010 9:19:47 AM PST by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver
by electing candidates who'll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich."

Raising taxes on the rich is stealing their wealth and is not a giveaway.

64 posted on 11/21/2010 9:24:14 AM PST by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver

Diana West: Obama’s paltry paper trail raises serious questions (Washington Examiner)

Read more at the Washington Examiner:
http://dev.www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/109278074.html#ixzz15wLWHLDy


65 posted on 11/21/2010 9:59:29 AM PST by Edgewood Pilot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver
he asked Franklin why "the public seemed to vote against its own interests and stated desires, for instance by electing candidates who'll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich."

He's right, we were stupid for electing Obama.

66 posted on 11/21/2010 10:03:47 AM PST by TheThinker (Communists: taking over the world one kooky doomsday scenario at a time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver

“...drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich.”

Silly me. I always thought the Deficit was a combination of K St lobbyists preying on gullible/complicit Congresscritters voting for more spending!!

I’m so uneducated. I need to get me PhD and park my peon butt at the nearest college to larn me how to vote correctly!!


67 posted on 11/21/2010 10:07:56 AM PST by mo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mainevet
? ? ? ? ? You know the NCAA (Not Constant About Anything) and the BS league is worse. Style points? OH, give me a break!
68 posted on 11/21/2010 10:31:29 AM PST by 70th Division (I love my country but fear my government!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver

But maybe, just maybe, not quite as stupid as he and his buddies in the ruling class would like for us to be.


69 posted on 11/21/2010 11:31:08 AM PST by DPMD (~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: piytar

Boise State is the best college team in the country this year. Period.


70 posted on 11/21/2010 11:35:55 AM PST by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver

Okay, well how exactly are we going to get the high speed rail working. The only practical way I might see this work is having a rail system running through New Jersey, or perhaps up a coastline segment, but otherwise, it’s really not as practical to run from East to West. The U.S. is pretty sparse, relatively speaking in crossing that way. If you want to run a good public transportation service you need loads of customers to whom that travel route suits, as well as having a decent revenue (commuter fares plus taxes to pay for it)

As far as taxing on the rich, we have been doing it for years, and made the rich pay the higher portion of the total bill. It’s fairly obvious from our rising unemployment and poverty rate in the U.S. that it takes more than redistributing wealth to alleviate poverty and unemployment.


71 posted on 11/21/2010 11:36:01 AM PST by Morpheus2009
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: piytar

Boise State is the best college team in the country this year. Period.


72 posted on 11/21/2010 11:36:05 AM PST by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: mjp

by electing candidates who’ll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich.”

The Bailouts and Stimulus Bill were a deliberate way of giving money to a set of rich people (Financiers and Labor Union Management). In essence, by electing both Obama and the accompanying Congress, the people did exactly that. This professor is either trying to be a good actor (hypocrite) and denying what happened by the recent Congress, or is stoned beyond rational thought.


73 posted on 11/21/2010 11:40:49 AM PST by Morpheus2009
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: dsc

Whether or not that’s true, they still aren’t eligible to win the Big 10 (what we were discussing). LOL.


74 posted on 11/21/2010 12:27:32 PM PST by piytar (There is evil. There is no such thing as moderate evil. Never forget.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Sub-Driver
the headline mirrors exactly my sentiments in November 2008.
75 posted on 11/21/2010 12:39:16 PM PST by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda" and its allies.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: seton89

Don’t know. Bears a resemblance to Roman Polanski.


76 posted on 11/21/2010 5:54:10 PM PST by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: piytar; mainevet
Actually, the first tie breaker is who beat whom.

Thanks, I thought that was the case but on the Ohio State-Iowa broadcast yesterday they said the highest BCS rating, I should have double-checked before just posting what I heard. So yeah, I assume that it will be Wisconsin going to the Rose Bowl. Not sure where the Buckeyes will be heading.

77 posted on 11/21/2010 5:57:24 PM PST by zzeeman (Existence exists.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: zzeeman

Didn’t mean to nitpick. The two (almost?) always align, so it’s a difference without a distinction.

Yeah, I’m wondering where my Buckeyes will land, too. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get B(oise) S(tate) in a bowl game!


78 posted on 11/21/2010 6:14:23 PM PST by piytar (Obama's power: "the capacity to inflict unlimited pain and suffering on another human being." 1984)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: Halgr

Heh. No bias here. A perverted liberal pundit and a fraudulent college professor playing pitch and catch, and the whole smarmy game being reported without a giggle. My my.


79 posted on 11/21/2010 6:20:49 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: tcrlaf
That is the implicit message in the mutual jerkoff reported here--that if the voter has any brains he will naturally be bought by the biggest promises of swag. This is what the liberal thinks of the average American.

The idea that the American voter may have a higher concept of his "interests" than the size of the lump in his wallet, is an alien concept to the liberal. Liberals think it is stupid to vote for principles, for example, because they don't have any.

80 posted on 11/21/2010 6:26:17 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-83 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson