Who doesn't think American voters are stupid?

Some political hack is getting press for having the guts to say the truth that American voters are stupid. Is there anyone here, or anywhere else, who doesn't believe this to be true?

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Some political hack is getting press for having the guts to say the truth that American voters are stupid. Is there anyone here, or anywhere else, who doesn't believe this to be true?

That political hack is Obama.

You don't really want major government consultants who had a big hand in crafting a monumental new program which everyone is compelled to participate in laughing about how stupid the people are.

Our political system is based on the idea that ordinary people are fit to govern themselves.

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You don't really want major government consultants who had a big hand in crafting a monumental new program which everyone is compelled to participate in laughing about how stupid the people are.

Why not? There is a difference between a politician and a consultant. A politician has to pretend that everyone is smart. A politician can't say the truth or he would never get a elected.

A consultant's job is to get things done. They should be focused on reality. The mistake here is that people whose job is based on telling the truth should be kept from the public.

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Our political system is based on the idea that ordinary people are fit to govern themselves.

I don't believe that this is true. If it were, we would have a big problem.

one also doesn't want their primary employees who designed systems all people are compelled to use, laughing about it.

The United States was created at a time when most large countries were ruled by monarchs. For the people to be allowed to choose temporary administrators, based on what they believed those people would do, was an innovation.

Frank,

American voters, as a whole, are quite stupid. I have no problem saying this with confidence. There may be exceptions, but as a whole, we are clearly idiots.

The elections each year are decided by slick 30 second commercials. Every election there are hundreds of millions of dollars spent on these spots with the most simplistic, logically tortured, rational for why we should vote for one of two parties. Why do both sides spend so much money on these spots?

Because they work. Americans choose leaders and policies based on bumper sticker slogans.

Brandon9000 wrote:

The United States was created at a time when most large countries were ruled by monarchs. For the people to be allowed to choose temporary administrators, based on what they believed those people would do, was an innovation.

You don't know your history very well. Have you heard of the "electoral college"? Guess why the electoral college was thought up by our founding fathers.

Explain this to me Frank...

If the American voters were intelligent, then the successful politicians would be the ones who presented in depths, substantive arguments with nuance. An intelligent politician would be able to discuss both sides of an issue and to present the pros and cons to take a well-reasoned position.

Why don't we see this happening, Frank?

What we have is character attacks, bumper sticker slogans, ridiculously expensive 30 second campaign ads and half-truths.

Our politics are run like this because this is what the American voter responds to. American voters aren't given nuanced reasoned arguments because they don't want reasoned nuanced arguments. Intelligent arguments lose elections. The American voter punishes nuance in the harshest way.

This coming election (like the ones before it) will be fought with slogans, "War on Women", "Don't take our guns", "Tax and Spend", "America is a country of immigrants".

This is what people will vote on... slogans. Most Americans will never understand the policies behind them in any real way. They will never hear the reasons from more than one side. They will never have a nuanced discussion or listen to any explanation of either side that takes more than a minute.

Americans could be intelligent and informed, but they choose choose not to be.

You completely sidestepped the key point I am making. This has nothing to do with compromise (and I agree with you about the divided electorate). The issue is ignorance. The fact is that the average American gets swayed by slogans and TV ads to have strong opinions about things they know nothing about.

You have conveniently sidestepped the main point.

Why isn't any successful politician on either side making an intelligent, nuanced argument on any issue? Why do they spend more far more money (hundreds of millions of dollars) on 30 second TV ads than they do on policy papers and forums.

Maybe you have particularly smart friends, Frank. The average American is perfectly happy to express the strongest opinion on important policy issues without making to slightest effort to be informed.

Some political hack is getting press for having the guts to say the truth that American voters are stupid. Is there anyone here, or anywhere else, who doesn't believe this to be true?