The "low-information" voter

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Saturday, October 20. 2012

The "low-information" voter

Current affairs afficionados like me - and like many of our readers - are probably on the thin end of the bell curve of voter information. Since we usually talk to roughly equally informed and interested people, we need to remember that many people are minimally-informed or not very interested in public affairs or policy.

Fox news interviewed some "WalMart Moms" this morning, and the Moms agreed with this statement: "We don't really know enough about the candidates yet."

I suppose this is why image, identity, and emotion are so important, especially in national elections. I suspect that this was true even before TV. I wonder what percentage of voters occupy the "low information" category.

The Pirate found these great examples of low-information voters, not at WalMart but at university:

Obama is 1/2 black (half-cool), of seemingly ambiguous sexual orientation (cool), wants to be friends with Jihadists (double-cool), and wants to make the grown-ups give us youths free stuff (triple-cool). It is literally a "no brainer."

I was that unwise in my callow youth, but I knew more than these morons who probably could not locate Libya on a map. How did these bozos get into college?

Posted by The News Junkie in Our Essays, Politics at 13:28 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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Fox ran a clip where they were asking people what they thought of the debate between Michelle Obama and Ann Romney. Some thought Ann won, others thought Michelle won though they couldn't seem to remember any specific comments by either one.

#1 Santay on 2012-10-20 13:44 (Reply)

It's been a few years since I took statistics. Is it still called a bell curve when the distribution is skewed to the extent that the video would suggest? The distribution curve seems to more closely resemble an inclined plane that slopes down to the right.

#2 Mike M on 2012-10-20 15:30 (Reply)

William Buckley was right, far too many people vote. Democracy destroys itself. Unfortunately, we have to live through the collapse of democracy into tyranny. Hopefully, some sort of aristocractic or at least limited franchise system will emerge on the other side of the tyranny.

#3 bob sykes on 2012-10-20 16:54 (Reply)

This has been a problem ever since the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified.

#4 Jim on 2012-10-20 19:14 (Reply)

I was beginning to consider the possibility of requiring every voter to have graduated from high school. But this clearly demonstrates that not even this low standard would improve the situation.

DH came home from campus the other day almost in tears because there are so FEW students--most are just there to get stoned, go to parties, etc. It's gotten even worse in the past 3 or 4 years. I believe it is possible that the daily conversations around the economy and job market have built into these kids an utter contempt for acquiring an education "because there are no jobs." Or, then again because most in our area are all white--maybe they just know that affirmative action will pass them by--might as well get stoned.

#5 faculty wife on 2012-10-20 19:51 (Reply)

How? Low, Low, LOW Standards all thru school. But you knew that.

#6 Sam L. on 2012-10-20 20:03 (Reply)

To be fair, when I was in college and grad school, I remember watching very little TV. I didn't have time for it, plus it was not easy to do...you had to share a TV with a whole floor of people (this was in the late 80s/early 90s). I pretty much barely remember any news for those 6 years of time.

I remember having conversations with my mom, and she was asking me if I was watching the Clarence Thomas stuff...it was like a blip on my radar. To her, it was nightly viewing!

So, don't think that the college kids on this video are just stupid idiots. There is so much going on socially in college, plus the studying, that you just don't spend a lot of time catching up on the news.

Now, I suppose it could be different in this day and age with the internet...but I'm guessing college kids are spending more time on the internet being social, then reading news blogs.

The adults, on the other hand, have NO excuse!

#7 KJB on 2012-10-20 20:26 (Reply)

"How did these bozos get into college?

Easy, they got student loans - as long as you can get a loan the school will let you in. That doesn't mean you should be there - it's kind of like, as long as you could get a loan you could get a house you couldn't afford.

Now, I'll admit that I wish I knew half the stuff today that I thought I knew when I was their age; But, I don't remember ever being as ignorant as the folks in this video!

#8 Charles on 2012-10-20 22:12 (Reply)

for some maybe, for the majority not so. Most of them are so disinformed because the information doesn't interest them, they think the latest soap opera is reality, that news about the new outfit of lady gaga is more important than the state of the economy, etc. etc.

Remember that most college "students" are in what we used to euphemistally call "soft sciences", politicology, social studies, things like that, where everything worth knowing is what's prescribed reading as determined by their far left instructors.

#9 J.T. Wenting on 2012-10-20 23:05 (Reply)

So, Hansel & Gretle has a point, after all.

#10 buddy larsen on 2012-10-22 01:26 (Reply)

College is not something that's hard to get in to anymore, nor is it hard to get the money to do so - although paying it back is a problem. Since everyone's going, it's nothing special (except for a few elite schools), and a lot of kids treat it as 4 more years of high school with the added advantages of more sex and booze.

Add to that curricula that do little to actually educate their students or increase their reasoning and analytical skills and you get this.

#11 RonF on 2012-10-22 10:01 (Reply)

Time to put the voting age back up to 21.

#12 RonF on 2012-10-22 10:10 (Reply)

That's the ONE way to solve the decline. The only pain is the newly-open temporary disenfranchisment, and that would be acute only for a few years.

#12.1 buddy larsen on 2012-10-22 14:00 (Reply)

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Saturday, October 20. 2012

The "low-information" voter