A friend passed me the above video with the commentary, “This is our informed electorate.”
But is it? Really? When I see these kinds of things, I wonder about the selection process. I wonder how many intelligent answers had to be ditched to produce this concentration of utter stupidity. For that matter, I wonder about the initial filter. If a person looks like he or she might have a clue, does the maker of the video simply move on?
If the guy with the microphone saw ME coming, would he bother with me? And if so, would anything I said make the video? Would he keep asking questions until he got me to slip up, hit a vacant spot in my memory, and use only that?
I know that if you ask a harder question out on the street — such as, who is your state legislator — the overwhelming majority of people will not know. I’ve tried sending out a reporter to do that, just to prove a point (namely, that executive power should NOT be vested in the Legislature). I’ve never tried it with easier questions, because I’ve never been interesting in trying to determine whether the man on the street is a COMPLETE idiot.
Finally, if this IS a true picture of the electorate — which I’m still doubting — does it delegitimize the whole republican experiment?
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Dunno–you and I both know there are members of an esteemed organization we both belong to who should not be allowed to vote based on things they’ve said to us.
The Jay-Walking videos where they ask dimwits outside the studio political and geographic and historic questions–well, I’ve been suggested as a Jeopardy contestant by several people, and I don’t always know all the answers to those questions…but no one who is looking for stupid answers is going to ask you or me any questions, are they?
How much *should* someone know before we allow that person to vote?
This doesn’t surprise me at all.
When I ran for school board, I lost count of the number of people who came out of the polls and said they voted for me just because I happened to be standing outside. They had no idea who I was or what I stood for.
That’s why I’d like to see ballots without any party listed. Way too many people vote for an R or D instead of a person. (Hey, that could have been my slogan: “Vote for D.R. – he’s the best part of D and the best part of R.”
Anyway, if Sarah Palin could have been a heartbeat away from the Presidency, this country is pretty much toast.
I was trying to determine which SC house district I’m in. Could not find an online map. Anyone have a link? It does take some digging to get properly informed.
Bud, recently I posted here on the blog the same instructions we used to run in the paper to help readers find out who their lawmaker is. It’s really pretty easy. Check out the directions at this link.
Thanks Brad. I thought Mr. Pitts, district 69, was my guy. Ironic isn’t it. Every single person who represents me at the national, state and local level (except for POTUS) is a Republican.
That IS weird. And were you right? Is Ted your rep? He’s mine.
Let me ask you this: Which primary are you going to vote in? I’m sort of torn. I’d sort of like to have a voice in the Democratic primary for governor, but living where I live, that would be the ONLY real choice I’d get. And there’s a pretty hot race for the GOP nomination to replace Ted, plus county council and all those other competitive GOP races for constitutional officers, etc. If I choose a Democratic ballot, I’m pretty much disenfranchised on all those other contests.
What are you going to do?
@ Doug–Back in the 80s, when I lived in Chicago, a pair of Lyndon LaRouche acolytes won the Republican primaries, it was surmised, because their names were Faircloth or Fairchild and something similarly WASPy while their opponents had Eastern European names with a lot of consonants like, say, Vrdolyak or Hruschka.
It is sad that people are so misinformed. We get the government we deserve, perhaps.
Voting in the dem primary is probably a waste of time but I’ll probably do that anyway. I just don’t see the point in voting for one of the GOP gubernatorial candidates and frankly I don’t know enough about the local races to make an intelligent decison.