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Politics

Are American Voters Fools?

Mar. 21, 2012 2:43pm
Dr. Marvin Folkertsma is a professor of political science and fellow for American studies with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. The  […]
Dr. Marvin Folkertsma is a professor of political science and fellow for American studies with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. The author of several books, his latest release is a high-energy novel titled 'The Thirteenth Commandment.'
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mjfolkertsma@gcc.edu
Author's Website

About a half century ago, noted political scientist V.O. Key published The Responsible Electorate, in which he huffed, “the perverse and unorthodox argument of this little book is that voters are not fools.” He was writing in response to the now-famous study by University of Michigan scholars, titled, The American Voter. Key believed the authors of that research unfairly disparaged what were then called “swing voters,” who in his view switched their votes according to rational considerations of their policy preferences. In short, switchers acted exactly the way aficionados of democracy prescribe: investigate, analyze, compare, decide, and vote!

Fair enough. For the moment, however, put aside these fabled political swingers—now referred to magnanimously as the independent voters that comprise perhaps a third of the electorate—and look at the rest of the electoral landscape. Reports from pollsters often reveal contradictory findings about masses of voters who spike our national political pulse every other November. What is a typical result? Call it electoral dyslexia, the sort that lurks beneath a person’s conscious thoughts and nudges them in directions that rational analysis rejects out of hand. Choose your metaphor, but there’s no satisfying way to explain the difference between a 10-percent approval rating for Congress as a whole and a 90-percent incumbency return rate.

Indeed, crunching a few numbers from our last election shows a kind of gaping political cognitive dissonance between our actions and professed beliefs, one that makes the Grand Canyon look like a prairie ditch. Let’s take just the House of Representatives, for example:

Republicans picked up 63 seats in the House in 2010, which gave them a majority, but which also comprised a little over 14 percent of the total number of seats up for grabs, which is 435. If today’s voters were as rational as Key’s switchers, they would consider the results of returning the same people to the House, election after election, and instead throw some 90 percent of the bums out. Of course, political scientists love to point out the importance of partisan stability over the course of decades, the effects of gerrymandering, the value of veteran legislators, and how even unpopular policies and congressmen garner 30 or 40 percent support. Perhaps voters should not be taken seriously on this question.

Still, it gets worse. Look at Scott Rasmussen’s March 2 essay, in which he reported that 77 percent of voters think the federal government should reduce the deficit. Now look at President Obama’s unprecedented multi-trillion dollar deficits in light of his approval ratings, which hover in the high 40s, sometimes pushing into the low 50s. Anyone see a discrepancy here? True, voters have other matters on their minds besides the public debt, but the discrepancy is significant—and lets our spendthrift president off the hook (for now, at least).

Okay, then, let’s consider something that really does affect voters personally, the price of a gallon of gas. Again, pollsters report that by huge majorities, Americans prefer lower gas prices and are in favor of additional drilling in Alaska and offshore. Moreover, a majority of Americans are in favor of the Keystone pipeline, which would provide much-needed oil from a reliable source and which President Obama rejected last year. In fact, Democrats in Congress have largely run our energy policy since Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech, either through majorities or veto-proof minorities.

But in case one thinks that those who vote Democratic are mostly to blame for our nation’s excursions into political myopia, let’s cast our lamps on the Republican primaries. Many Republican primary voters say they are “uncomfortable” with their current frontrunner, Mitt Romney, and prefer instead the flavor of the month. One might rationally ask primary voters who question Romney’s conservatism just exactly what they are waiting for. If the issue in question is experience and electability, such enthusiasts should consider the last time Republicans short-circuited their reasoning processes and didn’t consider that a vote for an unlikely winner in November is a vote for his or her opponent: Barry Goldwater, anyone? Or, more dramatically, Teddy Roosevelt, 1912? In case you don’t remember, both candidates lost. Hugely.

Do these considerations, and many other disconnects between voters’ choices and public policy—affirmative action, national health care, and abortion come to mind—point to the conclusion that voters are fools? You decide. Or, think seriously about how elected officials regard those who put them in office. Do they think we’re mostly fools?

Perhaps this November’s election will provide the answer … which is another way of saying that I love my particular egghead but can’t stand the omelet mixture when you throw him or her in with the rest, scramble vigorously, and pour the results out in legislation.

Comments (11)

  • betterthantv
    Posted on April 6, 2012 at 5:15pm

    The American voter has proved to be beyond “foolish”. We are for the most part completely ignorant! As much as I hope and pray, we will simply never learn. There’s simply no common sense anywhere I look. I love the stories on this site but hardly comment because even my so-called conservative friends aren’t much better than the brain-washed liberals over at HuffPo. I am not an elitist snob, I just simply use logic and common sense. The Republican Party is as dead as the Democrat Party and yet we continue to feed them by buying into the “game”. Once again the Republicans served up a bunch of luke-warm wimpy candidates and all of us fight over which one is better or worse. The game never ends. We need a hard core true Conservative to turn this country around. Not a Democrat lite like Romney, or a self obsessed fool like Gingrich, or a wacko like Paul. No matter what happens in November this country is screwed. (Although were doubly screwed if Obama is re-elected). I see no bright future for us anymore. I hate to sound so down and dramatic, but it’s simply the truth. The only glimmer of hope in the last few years was the rise of the Tea Party and folks like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and Rand Paul along with groups like FreedomWorks and American’s For Prosperity. But like the wimpy Republicans that we are we let the media marginalize us and walked away with our tails between our legs. Save maybe FreedomWorks. I still think they have a shot. Prove me wrong if you can

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    betterthantv  
  • sbenard
    Posted on April 4, 2012 at 4:08pm

    I’m a conservative, not a Republican. Big difference! And that’s why I’m an independent voter! Parties change! Principles DON’T!

    Report this comment

    sbenard  
  • tom cline
    Posted on April 4, 2012 at 3:42pm

    Of course there fools. At least fifty % of the people voted for these fools. Their too blind and dumb to see the truth. This guy and his co hurts are the enemy and they are so delusional they can’t see it! I don’t hold much hope for America, It’s become an entitlement society and can no longer function because of it’s immoral stand on everything. They have become dilusional and have believed the lie and are damned

    Report this comment

    tom cline  
  • sb36695
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 3:28pm

    We have put numerous communists in government when history shows the end game of communism. So the answer is “yes”.

    Report this comment

    sb36695  
  • momsense
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 3:07pm

    I sometimes can’t decide whether they’re fools or just the victims of a Progressive take over of our education system or if their stupidity is because of laziness acquired by cultural brainwashing or self imposed. I have started to believe that it’s all three starting from the time they start school until they finally get their diplomas.You also have to look at the construction of the laws –some baltantly diminish Patriotism or belittle people from expressing their love for this country and actully make people ashamed of their love for the values with which they were raised or that they believe that their best interests lie in their own competence to order their own lives, not the government intruding itself into their right to life, liberty or to pursue hainess in any way they, not the government chooses. The Amercan people are tired of sharing their paychecks with the government desgnated dependents who seem to never have enough and continue to demand more and more but never even try to help themselves. What is certain is that something has to be done to educate the real Americans to the greatness of their heritage which is gradually being eliminated by the bleeding hearts.

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    momsense  
  • Mr. Oshawott
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 1:36pm

    Whenever you find yourself voting for candidates based merely on party line and/or the media establishment’s flawed judgement on who’s “electable,” something is very wrong with you.

    Report this comment

    Mr. Oshawott  
  • KyleD
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 12:59pm

    The republican party has been an entity divided against its ideals and the desire for power for ages. This makes them weak and people can sense this weakness. The democrat party might be corrupt but at least they’re true to themselves (if not to others) and devoted to a single cause. This makes them strong and people are attracted to it.

    The biggest problem because of this situation is we’ve given the ability to define ourselves and our ideas to the democrats and if you can’t define yourself you’re dead in the water.

    Report this comment

    KyleD  
    • Mr. Oshawott
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 3:12pm

      @KyleD

      You’re spot-on with that notion. The Republican Party has really contradicted itself over the years. The politicians, particularly the ones with an R next to their name, claim to be for lower taxes, yet they raise taxes; they said they would attempt to defund and then abolish the U.S. Department of Education, yet they pass legislation that allows it to have greater power over our education system; they claim to be champions of freedom, yet they keep inserting the Constitution into the paper shredder with freedom-suppressing legislation such as the National Defense Authorization Act. I could spend all day listing more of these lies and double-standards, and even then I couldn’t list all of them, as they are too numerous to mention. This, from my viewpoint, is what makes the Republicans seem MORE dangerous than the Democrats because, as you mentioned already, at least the Democrats are honest towards themselves and geared toward a single agenda. We may very well say bye-bye to our country if we can’t stay true to our principles and values.

      Report this comment

      Mr. Oshawott  
  • ChristianPolitician
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 12:40pm

    If you were fooled into voting for our current President in 2008, shame on him.

    But, if you make the same mistake in 2012, shame on you!!!

    Report this comment

    ChristianPolitician  

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