'Low Information Voters' and Partisan Hacks

Conservative columnist Cal Thomas laments the well-documented ignorance of many American voters and offers a solution.

This lament is at least as old as our Republic, and has been a major impetus for the mistaken solution of getting the state involved in education from the get-go.

For the same reason the government runs other industries only into the ground, government schools (aka public education) have failed to deliver the facts and, more crucially, the ability to analyze those facts, to generations of children who should have benefited from a free marketplace in education.

That said, it is interesting to consider Thomas's diagnosis of the phenomenon of large numbers of voters being less-than-enthusiastic about the Trump train. The below paragraphs are (1) his example, a la Jay Leno's Jaywalking segments, of "low information voters" and (2) his tidy explanation for their electoral choices:

Fox News did some street interviews last week in heavily Democratic New York City. A woman said she had to work more than one job to afford groceries. A man said he has friends who are doubling up with roommates because they can't afford to pay rent on their own. Another man said high mortgage rates prevented him from buying a house. When asked how they will vote in the November election, all three said they would vote for Democrats.

This makes no sense. If people are suffering under the current administration's policies, but were doing much better in virtually all categories under the previous administration, why would they vote to perpetuate the current policies in a Harris-Walz administration? Trump hatred (or possibly habit) are the only logical explanations. [bold added]

Translation: Only an ignoramus would vote for Harris.

I do agree with part of this: I share Thomas's exasperation about people who vote for Democrats in perpetuity and yet seem oblivious to the idea that Democrat policies might be to blame for some of their problems.

And in his defense, Thomas claims an inaccurate inlfation figure tossed around by the media as part of the problem. Let's grant him this: "inflation was [wrongly reported as] 9 percent when Joe Biden took office, when it was under 2 percent."

But now, let's return to Thomas's explanation.

While, yes, voters should make decisions with accurate information, why stop with an inflation figure? Why not consider that, to the extent that printing money causes inflation, government figures show that both of our past presidents massively contributed. Whatever the inflation rate was when Biden took office, it is well known that it takes time for the inflationary effects of more fiat currency to become apparent.

And while we're considering similarities between Trump and past Democrats, don't forget how gleefully his fellow Republicans praised him for beating them at their own game, as if emulating Saul Alinsky could possibly be a good thing. Adopting those tactics and central planning -- tariffs and "industrial policy," anyone? -- will not lead to freedom or prosperity, and they will not look like a real choice to a reasonably intelligent, informed voter.

As if it weren't bad enough that Republicans no longer look that different from Democrats on economic policy, Thomas and other conservatives ought to consider the idea that some of their differences from the Democrats might be hurting them.

Abortion is a biggie. About two thirds of Americans want it legalized, and yet Trump is known for having caused Roe vs. Wade to be overturned (and bragging about it) -- and has chosen as his running mate someone who wants to make abortion illegal, including for rape victims.

Call me crazy or even "uninformed," but seeing little difference between Trump and the Democrats on the economy, and facing the prospect of oneself or a loved one being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term seem like pretty solid reasons to look for an alternative to Trump.

(I wish Harris weren't that alternative.)

So long as Republicans smugly congratulate themselves for being "better informed" and pretend that only ignorance or hatred can explain a desire to vote for someone other than Donald Trump, they will keep losing elections, and deservedly so.

-- CAV