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 ...
We have to be real stupid. We keep funding Communists for “Higher Education”. We need Constitutional Testing and Public Oaths to support the Constitution from every licensed educator in America. Just think we might have students who believed in America and solved problems rather than create them.
The Communist indoctrination system that we call Public Education needs a serious return to local control. Only the truly stupid would have put a Communist Kenyon Dictator in the White House.
Just a question, why are ALL the rocket scientists so smart, and ALL the political scientists so dumb?
Free stuff, from Obama's stash! This worthless POS has no concept that this stuff is NOT FREE and if the average person has to PAY for it then it is NOT FREE; if the average person is forced to buy it against their will then it is NOT FREE. Then again he is a f'n marxist so why would anyone expect anything else from him. I'll be in favor of the "free" health care as long as the law states that only registered democrats are forced to take part in it and pay for it.
I’m always struck by these commentators calling the US voters ‘stupid’ or accusing voters of having petulant childish fits when they vote overwhelmingly Republican, but how brilliant those same voters are when they elect an Obama (or Feingold, as they did in WI for 18 years).
I will give Feingold more kudos than the professor and commentators. He has not been a sore loser, and from what I’ve seen at least, been pretty gracious in the loss.
You got that right. See this short essay by Thomas Sowell on the matter.
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If you’ve ever worked in retail... you already KNOW this to be true..
Well that kind of stinks for MSU if MSU and UW win out. Beat UW but lose out on the Rose Bowl.
I believe if they all win out they all share the Big Ten Title though.
Can’t wait for next year’s extra game.
How does this professor reconcile the results of the 2008 election with his conclusions about the intelligence level of voters? One can speculate he approves of their decisions in that election cycle.
Assuming that each elected official came from among the ranks of "voters" who are "stupid," then by what mechanism do they become "intelligent" enough to make decisions for the rest of the citizenry?
Do imperfect individuals who gain coercive power by election to posts in government somehow become more virtuous and wise than likewise imperfect individuals in the society?
Are there examples in American history where the general welfare of the society benefitted by applying the principles of so-called "government" control of the means of production and distribution and/or "redistribution" of the earnings of hard-working citizens?
A reading of Governor Bradford's diary of the experience of the Jamestown Colony might be instructive here.
America's Founders preferred liberty for individuals, and their principles made America a desired destination for millions for over 200 years.
"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39
"Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread." --Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:122
At least the latter can be treated with medication for their condition...little hope for the professor.
He was obviously looking at the results from Caliph-phony-a, Mass-of-two-$h!+$ and New Yuk!
If higher taxes for the rich include plunging home values after the so-called smarty pants elites jacked the financial system to give away houses and well over $3T in wealth evaproated over night with more disappearing every day as a result, then I think I’ll go for those “stupid” limited government, personal liberty loving individuls any day of the week.
The only question I have for the professor, is....
“what party does the vast majority of high school drop outs favor?”
Don't forget - Arizona re-elected Amnesty McCain, and Alaskans re-elected that imbecile Murkowski.
Tenure.
Now now, Spiro, it just means we still have too many nanny state worshippers. Liberalism is a disease which when it festers turns into malignant Progressivism and will kill the Republic if we to do not soon eradicate it with education and jobs.
“The team that has the highest BCS rating.”
Actually, the first tie breaker is who beat whom. That puts Ohio State out. The next is BCS ranking. So barring a miracle, Wisconsin should “win.” But that’s all just for who gets the Rose Bowl bid.
Technically, all three would be co-champs of the Big 10.
Ive been saying half of all people are stupid for a long time now.
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