Understanding how things work (or not)
Earlier today, on the Sean Hannity Super Crazy Fun Time Wingnut Call-In Show, Hannity asked a guest whether Hillary Clinton could win the Presidency. In response the guest said yes, she could, and the reason why is that the public schools were filling the citizenry with people who had no understanding of Civics, or how our government works, or Freedom*.
On the one hand, I have to agree with the latter part of this statement. It is true that far too many of my fellow citizens are, for the most part, amazingly uninformed on the ins and outs of Civics and our political/governmental system. Add to that media outlets that boil everything down into five-second sound bites, and sometimes outright misrepresent key points of the news *cough* Fox “News” *cough* and yes, it is conceivable that a large percentage of the populace could go and pull a lever (or press a button, or punch a chad, etc.) for someone they knew nothing about other than he seems like he would be fun to share a beer with (even though he’s a recovering alcoholic and drug user, which is something a more informed populace might consider before saying something stupid, like how much they’d like to have a beer with the guy). So yeah, collectively, We The People could stand to take a Civics primer. But how does that translate into President Hillary? Are we to assume that this guy believes the Civically-ignorant are going to vote Democratic down the line? Really? Even when numerous polls have shown that viewers of The Daily Show (who tend to skew Left) are more- and better-informed than viewers of Fox “News” (who tend to skew Right)? You’re saying the uninformed and ignorant vote Dem?
How is it, then, that we’ve ended up with Bush? The guy proudly admits he doesn’t read, does things to the English language that would be illegal if you did them to another human being, and is less intellectually curious than a three year old. At nap time. Given the above premise, we have to believe the people that DO understand the system voted for the guy that DOESN’T.
Sorry. No dice. If you stop and think about it, you realize that most people don’t.
/rant
* This is capital-F Freedom, which is a wholly owned trademark of the Republican Party, as opposed to little-f freedom, which guarantees your phone won’t be tapped without reason.
