Uninformed Voters

A PBS "Need To Know" article recently compared uninformed voters to drunk drivers. That's been said before with less poignancy, but the reply has always been something about how our system is set up to insure that this isn't a problem, i.e. that's why we need the electoral college.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/the-daily-need/are-bad-voters-like-drunk-drivers-new-book-says-they-are-and-that-they-should-stay-home-on-election-day/8609/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs

In our current political climate, post Citizens United, where the attack ads are funded by anonymous benefactors like the Koch brothers via shadow groups like Americans for Prosperity, and often girded by faux research groups like their very own Cato Institute, I would wager that there are more misinformed voters by far. Few people invest enough time to do the research of understanding the basis for their own political opinions, even less the motivations of their candidates or the track record of their party of choice.

This is why I have no party. I am slightly more informed than the average American. I've learned this by traveling overseas, and by interacting with folks on all sides of issues at home and abroad. It's clear to me that Europeans have a more informed view of our national politics and its impact than we do. There are many reasons for that, but they're not justifications.

In the Upper Midwest (at least MN and WI) we work harder. Seriously, having worked in a field where I traveled on the road 90% for several years, working in AZ, CO, GA, NV, IL, MI, OH, IN, and others, I saw the difference in drive and commitment to hard work which is inherent to a Wisconsinite. I was told to slow down and take it easy in several states in varied dialects. I say this because it is part of the problem. In Wisconsin there are a large majority of folks who work very hard at their jobs, for less pay, and don't have time to invest in politics.

They rely on old fashioned values and litmus tests. They vote based upon a couple of issues and often vote a straight ticket. I always that way for years, and that was the way most of my church brethren and coworkers did too. We were sure that we were right, and we didn't bother to look any further.

We trusted our party leaders and elected GOP officials to do what they said. This was a very satisfying position to take. It was a religion-backed, morally superior, self-justified stance which led to arrogance and overconfidence. I used to browbeat and argue my way toward belittling the "other" into realizing that they were wrong (at least that they couldn't change my mind).

But the first President Bush changed that for me. He was a liar who duped me. He was no "Reagan Republican", and that was what I wanted at the time. He was a waffling centrist who would do whatever he needed to do to get his own agenda (secret to us) accomplished. At that point I had little awareness of how prevalent this was throughout politics.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I changed my mind. I began doubting the integrity or the positions of my party. Traveling overseas, and moving ot an inner-city stripped the last bastions of allegiance away. I saw the impact of policies I took for granted.

So now I am a hater of politics, but a lover of transparency in it. I pursue fairness and centrism wherever I can find it. Instead of being driven to the polarized sides of our political climate by the disparate positions, I have continued to stake my claim near the center. Admittedly, I have been more left than right for quite some time. But I won't ever vote a straight-ticket on principle. Instead, I try to vote based on which candidate appears to be the most fair-minded and reasonable.

Unfortunately that is not always electable nowadays. Our PAC groups and Koch orgs are lighting fires all around, driving the ignorant masses toward fear-driven votes for the GOP, a party which no longer feigns compassion toward the poor or the needy. People are angry and that makes them as unstable as drunk drivers, yeah, I think I agree. They're easily incited toward political bad choices, at their own expense--and at the expense of those they crash into.

The fact that Russ Feingold lost to Ron Johnson is the best example of how fairness and centrism can't win any more. Feingold was a maverick who voted on his conscience (right or wrong) rather than along party lines, and he was willing to work across the aisle. But he was beaten by a guy who was uncivil and demeaning in his ads. He motivated the angry right to oust a man who worked very hard to represent the progressive WI agenda in favor of a rich dude with a message of hatred and arrogance.

The reality that most of us live in the center, but vote on the fringes (and that a large percentage of Americans don't vote at all) is troubling. We're forced to take sides. The two party system is often one where there is no choice which meets the majority of the values of the voters. I think this is why there are so many who don't vote. They don't have a party.

But I digress. The problem of uninformed voters is more a problem of misinformed ones, post Citizens United. PAC groups can run ads which amplify their corporate free speech rights. These ads are often 90% lies wrapped in 10% truths, and that makes them an insidious evil. Their messages are couched in incendiary and hateful language which is meant to divide folks and motivate them to vote angry.

Those sort of voters have the right to vote, but they should not vote. They're unwitting pawns in a corporate chess game which works very hard at undermining government measures meant to instill fairness and reason in society. When we eradicate these laws we create a more hostile society without protection for its citizens. That motivates our anger even more and inspires even more divisiveness and angry voting.

I'd not choose to take away the keys from the anger-drunk voter. Rather, I would like to create a prohibition of corporate funding for hate ads. I'd like to eliminate the drug at the source. I'd like slanderous ads to end, and for PAC groups and corporate free speech to end. Let people vote, not companies.