THE INCREASING IGNORANCE OF THE AMERICAN ELECTORATE IS THREATENING THE VERY LIFE OF OUR REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY
Thomas Jefferson was one of the most intelligent of all the founders of this nation. He warned us in incontrovertible terms that the key for the continued existence of our representative democracy was a well-read, well-informed, and well-intentioned electorate.
To insure that these vital elements remained a part of the civil consciousness of future generations this very bright assemblage of founders wrote into our Constitution an electoral college designed to correct any wrong headed moves on the part of a less than informed group of voters.
We can see after eight years of George W. Bush’s disastrous administration that was voted into office by a simple-minded group of people who voted for the man they “liked” rather than the man they knew to be competent; the man with whom they felt more comfortable and with whom they would enjoy a beer rather than the man who could best lead the nation; not realizing that placing our country in the hands of the stupid can destroy the very land we love.
There was evidence of this same group during the most recent election. These are the people who loved Sarah Palin’s down home personality, her moose hunting, her fly fishing, her position on abortion rather than her knowledge of international relations, her “cute” way of saying things that so reminded them of their own overly simplistic comprehension of the issues facing a trouble country at a troubled times. In spite of her lack of knowledge of the job for which she was running, they voted for her because they liked her.
How absolutely worrisome and terribly frightening that these people totally unprepared to cast an intelligent vote were able to vote and cast their ignorant opinions upon the ballots of this magnificent country.
The people who voted for Sarah Palin pose a serious threat to the future of a representative democratic America whose very life depends on informed voters.
We saw them at her rallies shouting after her mention of Obama, “kill him,” “nigger,” “Communist,” “Fascist,” “Socialist,” and “palling around with domestic terrorists.” Palin stoked the fires of bigotry and shamelessness and her loud-mouthed followers responded to her lies, her exaggerations, and her stupidity by referring to the first black American to run for the office of the presidency with slurs and lies. These are the very people that George Washington referred to as “dolts,” when referring to the uneducated frontiersmen of his day.
We saw the vicious signs they carried at parades, rallies, and campaign stops particularly in the ultra-conservative or economically deprived parts of the country.
In May, 2007, Garrison Keillor, the host of Prairie Home Companion wrote an article that included these words, “The French Have a new president, the British will soon have a new P. M. and we envy them as we endure the endless wait for this small dim man to go back to Texas and resume his life. His Party is coming to see that it must figure out how to tell the truth about him if it is to compete in 2008, but so far nobody stepped forward and wound up to throw the pie. Their clock is stuck in the fall of 2001. They are sleepwalking toward the precipice.” ...and they did in November, 2008.
Lisa Anderson, a correspondence for the Chicago Tribune wrote in her article, dated July 6, 2008, entitled “So How Dumb Are We?” reported that 88% of Americans age 18-24 could not find Afghanistan on a map even though our soldiers are fighting an uphill battle in Afghanistan against al Qaeda the very group responsible for crashing high-jacked commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11.
75% of Americans age 18-24 cannot find Iran or Israel on a map. And 63% can not find Iraq or Saudi Arabia although we are fighting a six year war and spending $10 billion dollars a month while over 4.5 thousands of our soldiers have died in the line of duty in Iraq.
Anderson also found that 50% of this same age group, thought it was “important, but not absolutely necessary” to know where countries in the news are located.
This, my friends, is a tragedy and a terrible indictment of our educational system both at the secondary and college levels.
Kathleen Parker, a conservative syndicated columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group on November 26, 2008 wrote a column entitled “Bailing Out the Ignorance of America’s Voters,”
“Out of 2,500 American quiztakers, including college students, elected officials and other randomly selected citizens nearly 1,800 flunked a 33-question test on basic civics. In fact, public officials scored slightly lower than the general public with an average of 44 percent compared with 49 percent. Only 0.8 percent of all test-takers scored an ‘A’…”
“Think fast: In what document do the words, “government of the people, by the people, for the people” appear? More than twice as many people (56 percent) knew that Paula Abdul was a judge on “American Idol” than knew that those words come from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (21 percent).
Parker goes on to report that only 27 percent of elected officials “could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the 1st Amendment. Forty three percent (of elected office holders) didn’t know what the Electoral College does. And 46 percent didn’t know that the Constitution gives Congress power to declare war.”
Bush was elected by these very people who do not know up from down when it comes to matters political. I have some friends who are somewhat educated who voted for the Republican Party candidate for the presidency even after the eight years of catastrophic failure.
What does a Republican Party president have to do to lose the vote and the confidence of these died-in-the-wool Republicans? Starting unwarranted wars does not do it. A vast amount of corruption in his party and in his administration does not do it. Giving all of the tax benefits to the rich does not do it. Allowing his administration to abdicate its constitutional duty of oversight does not do it. Giving massive tax benefits to energy and pharmaceutical companies already teeming with profits does not do it. Giving multi-billion dollar government contracts to “friends of the administration” without the competitive bids required by law does not do it. Allowing his Vice-President to create the nation’s energy policy that will govern the industry by allowing key corporate officers of the energy companies to participate in writing the policy that will govern them does not do it. Violating constitutional law by permitting eavesdropping and wiretapping of American citizens without the benefit of a FISA court subpoena does not do it. Torturing prisoners of war contrary to both the long standing policy of this government and the Geneva Convention signed by the U. S. and all nations of the civilized world relative to the treatment of prisoners does not do it. Forcing the scientific community from employing stem cells that have the potential to cure some of the most vicious diseases and crippling injuries as part of their research projects do not do it. Appointing judges to Federal Courts including the Supreme Court who oppose the right to choose for women does not do it. Making a serious attempt to destroy the Social Security Agency by replacing it with individual investment accounts subject to the erratic vacillation of the stock market does not do it. Cutting the budget of Medicare and Medicaid serving the ever increasing medical needs of the elderly and the poor does not do it. Vetoing a bill passed impressively by both Houses of Congress that would insure children who reside in homes of marginal incomes does not do it. Forcing the Medicare system to pay market prices rather than enjoying the benefits of a volume discounts earned by the Veterans’ Administration for drugs purchased for the elderly Invading a sovereign foreign country preemptively by persuading the U. S. Congress with lies and misstatements relative to our own intelligence operations does not do it. Alienating the vast majority of nations in the world including our long standing allies because of Bush’s go-it-alone foreign policy does not do it. The abject collapse of Bush’s Homeland Security Agency as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that blotched the entire Hurricane Katrina’s devastating blow to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf coast does not do it.
What does it take to get voters to do their homework when considering for whom to vote in a presidential election? How can we cause people to keep open minds, to listen, to read and to study the candidates and the issues rather than crawling into the rut that they have inhabited for twenty or thirty or forty years.
Many years ago, my mother and father were vacationing in Northern Canada when they spotted a sign on the side of the road which read in very bold letters, “CHOOSE YOUR RUT CAREFULLY FOR YOU WILL IN IT FOR THE NEXT TWENTY MILES.”
Some voters are like those to whom the message of the sign is addressed. They are in a political rut because they parents belonged to a certain party; they, out of habit, continue to vote for the candidates of that party.
I have held for years that we really have a very limited choice, if you will, very limited freedom, in choosing a political party and the candidates whom we vote. Both our religion and our politics are extensions of our personality construct. Some people are born constricted, anal retentive, rigid, and therefore Conservative Republicans. Their mind set is tied to their bodily functions; therefore they tend to have regular bouts of constipation, an inability to openly communicate about important emotional matters, and a hesitancy to reach out to meet people with whom they have had little or no previous contact. They also have little or no sympathy for those who are less fortunate, poorer, less educated, who suffer from emotional or physical handicaps.
On the other end of the political matrix, the liberals tend to be more open, more honest, and more regular in the bowel movements, more willing to reach out and express and share concern for those who are suffering.
These political perspectives can be modified through therapy, education and experiences that open them up to new and different life situations.
I did not fully appreciate the devastation that poverty has on the hearts and minds of people until I visited in the homes with and sat down beside people whose families earned $200 a year in India. Until I saw babies starving from lack of food; and experienced for the first time children dying for lack of fifteen cents worth of penicillin.
I watched as a woman bathed her son at the village well and looked on as the dirty bath water flowed back into the open well. Moments later, I saw another lady come to the same well, and drop a bucket into the well pulling up a full pail of water to be used by her family as drinking water.
In the Soviet Union I saw first hand for the first time the real meaning of a “police state” in action and gave thanks for the freedom we enjoy in this nation pledging to myself to fight to maintain that right with whatever tools I had at my command.
With all of the world’s suffering right before my sees, I realized that 2/3 of all peoples on this earth go to bed starving every night. Those that are not plagued by the misery of poverty are often prisoners of authoritarian rule.
We must keep this precious democracy alive by remembering how important the vote of the informed, educated, and those who are devoted to protecting the rights of the minority even when the majority rules.
For eight years we have been ruled by those who saw their infinitesimal victories, one by a vote of the Supreme Court although the opposition candidate won the popular vote and in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court, under the constitution, usurped the power of the state of Florida to control elections and another by such a slim majority that they acted as if was a mandate to do with and to the rest of America what they damn well pleased. Ignoring the constitution, the president made his will the will of us all and proceeded to take our country in a direction that majority of people did not favor and have subsequently expressed its dislike for the man and his party.
That must never be allowed to happen again. The Liberals have always fought for the good of the people, the rights of all people, and the safety of those the majority does not support nor with whom they do not agree and they have done it with compassion and generosity. May it be so now that they are in charge and may it continue as long as this great nation exists?
7:30:07 PM 
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